A TRAGEDY IN SCOTLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3908, 29 January 1884, Page 4

A TRAGEDY IN SCOTLAND.

Writing in tho Sheffield Daily Telograph, "H.W.L." gives tho following list of drugs used and necessary in the manufacture of temperance drinks, which he says he has cuilod from *a work on temperance drinks:—" Carbonates of lime, soda, potash, and magnesia, ambergris, oils of juniper and sassafras, soap wort, gelatine, albumen, glycerine, alumina, silica, taraxacum, capsicum, fluid magnesia, lime, bay salts, spirits of wino, chlorideß of calcium and magnesium, sulphates of soda, potash, and quinine, citrate of lithia, phosphate of soda, butyric and salicylic ether, bntyratcs of ethyl and methyl, acetate of rosanilline, acetato and nitrate of amyl, cocinate and valeriate of ethyl, acetate of sulphuric, hydrochloric, citric, tartaric, acetic, nitric, phosphoric, sulphurous, and carbolic acids." After this, as ihe correspondent remarks, few persons will wOnder at the cadaverous and dyspeptic appearance of the teetotaller.

At the village-of Kiikfiold Bank, near Lanark, not long ago, a young man named William Brown murdered two young women, and then committed suicide. The names of the murdered women are Charlotte Spiers, aged 35, and Cathorine Hamilton, 16. The crime was committed between 10 and 11 o'clock, when the villagers had for tho most part retired to bed. The first intimation of the tragedy was from a postillion named George Kay, of the Station Hotel, Lanark, who had been at Kirkfield Bank with a party, and he observed something like a person lying on tho roadside. On returning he stopped, and found that it. was the lifeless body of a woman with her throat cut. He raised an alarm, and the neighbors turned out, when it was found that the dead body was that of Miss Speir... At the same time it was found that the servant girl, Catherine Hamilton, was lying in a dying state at the door of the house of George Elder, where she had been knocking for about half an hour. Tho inmates heard a faint tapping, but as no one spoke they did not open tho door. The postillion hastened to Lanark, and gave the police intimation of the affair. Catherine Hamilton was found to be still alive, and was removed into Mr Elder's bouse. Sho was unable to speak, and she wrote with a pencil tho words, "Willie killed us both." The unfortunate girl died early on Saturday morning. On examining Brownvillo House,. tho body of the murderer was found on the lower fiat of the house, and a sharp - pointed now knife near it. Ho was a medical student, and it is thought tho knife was used in a surgery. A pool of bloocl was found inside the outer door of tho houso. The girl's hand was much cut, as if in warding off the fatal thrusts. No motive whatever can be assigned for the deed. Tho dead body of Brown was found in the store-room. Ho. was in a sitting posture with his knees drawn up towards his face, and from the wound in his neck it was at once .apparent that he had cut his throat, and that he bad died almost immediately. Brown had attended the classes at Glasgow University for the past six years, but had not succeeded in obtaining his degree. For some years he has not been in good health, but ho was never looked upon as being of unsound mind. Now, however, when his conduct at times during the past few weeks is re-called, there seems reason to believe that thee have been occasions on which ho was not epiite safe. The knife used was a surgeon's operating instrument, and with tho handle it measured almost a foot in length. At the time when tho tragedy took place Brown and his vbtiins were the only occupants of tho house. Miss Speirs was 35 years of age, ancl was well known in the neighborhood, having been a prominent official in the Sunday school, and a member of the church choir. The girl Hamilton, who was only 16 years of ago, was the daughter of a farm labourer in tho district. The lobby of the house where the murders were committed presentsa horrible spectacle, the walls being almost covered with bloocl, and there is evidence of a frightful struggle having taken place.