THE HOLLOWAY TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8861, 21 August 1890, Page 3

THE HOLLOWAY TRAGEDY.

A sad story was told at the inquest at Holloway, London, on the body of Arthur Oakes, aged eight years, whose parents gave him strychnine and then attempted self-destruction by the same means, and by cutting their throats. It appeared that the father, Richard Oakes, a manufacturing chemist, had been out of work. The landlady, wife of a harmonium maker, deposed that on Saturday she found Mrs. Oakes with her throat cut, and evidently suffering great pain. She said, " You have been kind to us ; wo could not pay the money we owed your mother, and ho we thought we would take our lives." Witness asked " Wbero is Artie ?" and Mrs Oakes replied, "In heaven." Witness then saw Mr Oakes lying on the bed with a towel roond his neck saturated with blood. A police inspector deposed that when he arrived at the nouse, Sirs Oakes said, "We have been out of our minds for nights, and did not know what we were doing. We agreed to die, and took strychnine. Finding the poison was not effectual, I took a razor and cut my throat, and gave it to my husband, and he cut his." A letter written by Oakes was found, in which he said :—: — w Twelve months have I now put in of a most miserable and struggling existence. I really cannot stand any more. lam completely worn out, and my relations who have assisted me can do so no more ; for ouch was my uncle's intimation. Never mind; he may be in the same boat himBelf some day. I cannot face poverty and degradation any longer, and would sooner die than go to the workhouse, whatever the awful consequence may be of the stop we have taken. We have— God forgive no ! — taken our darling lamb Artie with us out of pure love and affection, so that he may not be scoffed at and taunted with his heartbroken parents' crime. My poor ■wife has done her best at needlework, washing, &c.;, in fact, at everything and Bnything which would bring us in a shijling. But it would only keep us in semistarvation. I have now done six weeks' travelling [Oakes had been canvassing for an insurance company] front 'morning until night. Have just received af ai thing for it. If that is not enough to drive ono mad, wickedly mad, I don't know what is. No bright prospects anywhere; no ray of hope. Nothing can avail us. Wo must ■ abide by our lot. Dear sister, try and forgive us. If £2 is got for our bod, that will pay tue rent, and the sale of the furniture wiirbo enough to bury «c cheaply, -Your heartbroken brother, JUcuajw tout,"