YOUNG WOMAN LOST IN BIR MINGHAM.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1199, 1 June 1872, Page 2

YOUNG WOMAN LOST IN BIR MINGHAM.

The] BvrniiiighanC'-Post' narrates s an extraordinary story of-a-young-woman-named Emily Hayes,, f eighteen, age, having been lost for thirteen days, during which she .wandereg the.;Streetp of the towns and suburbs, and ttien' was found starved, helpless, frozen, and apparently 1 dying: < The'giri waV respectably brought up, and against her character there is not a word to be' said. ;i 'She left home to go to service, bub found the place too heavy for her strength, and returned home i until she'cb\M|rnd"ari6^hOT'placeT In a short time she <»me?td'Birmingham, to. which she was an entire stranger, to stay with an aunt, who resides; in Great Hampton Row, and hearing ;that:a.laily in Francis road,was in want l of,*.a.,servant, she left her aunt's house on the morning of the 7th February to apply for the situation. She then had; 14s in her pocket; Furnished with a from the Servants' Home, in Broad s'tj-eeti ikU&qH^^ extraordinary and unexplained misadventure she failed to flridit, though she inquired her way to it the whole of the day.; At night she . gavel '.up trying ito find Francis ''ioffi, and asked her,, way; back to Great Hampton Row ; but it happens that there is a road in Edgbaston called Amptoh road, and as it was much more :probabls,- on the face of the matter, that any one p,t Edgbaston would inquire for Ampton rßad r 'than ! f6r Great Hampton Row, -she was constantly to the former.; ; * Thus she' had lost the day in vain inquiries for one ■looaHty r -and- at- night -was -engaged "-in making equally vain? inquiries for another. Unable to get liome'tb her' aunt's, she remained out all night.. The next, morn- , ing she again went mq^est of Francis road, unsuccessfully. , At, night, still un? able to find her way home, she inquired rof a passer-by where she couldt>getVa lodgingj and was recommended to the house of a person named Meaden, the address of which she doesnotknow,' and there she passed the night.'- In-the morn* 4ng-slie -had breakfost, -and-remained-in the house while -jMrs'Meaden went to fetch, some medicine from a doctor in Broad street, fora sick neighbour. ;; From the time she left J\lrs Meaden's on the morning of Friday/' 9th February; to the morning of tfuestlayj, 1 ?Qfch ; February, nothing more is known tha^ that /ghe wandered about byday in 'Edgbaston or ita neighborhood, and slepVat : nigh't in

the even air. On Tuesday morning last, between 8 and 9 o'clock, a man was passing along Beech Lane, Smethwick, when he heard a rustling in a holly bush, and thinking it was a hare he turned aside to see. He then observed the clothing of a woman, and going closer he found, as he thought, a woman's dead body. It was Emily Hayes, her clothing saturated with rain, her limbs frost-bitten and powerless, her body emaciated to the last degree of exhaustion. The man ran to the nearest police station, telling some personß as be ran that there was a dead body under the holly bush. When he returned with the police the body had been taken to a cottage, and the girl had become conscious. Stimulants were administered ; and as soon as she could be removed she was taken, to her aunt's, whose address she had given. There Dr Barratt was called in, and she remains tinder his care. He found her on the point of death from starvation and exposure. Her legs and feet were severely frost-bitten and swollen, and gangrene was imminent. Her face, arms, and hands, were also frost- j bitten, and there were marks of laceration by thorns. Feverish excitement and coma alternated, and until Wednesday night there seemed no chance that she would survive ; a favorable change then took place, but her condition is very precarious and, at the best, it will be necessary to amputate her feet. It is remarkable that the young woman, during the whole of her thirteen days' anxiety and suffering, only spent Is 7|d, and had still 12s 4£d •n her possession when she was found. mtm mm^^^^^^^v^-"_ •• ■ (For continuation of JSews see 4th Page.)

When a'lced why she did not buy food, she tajd she wished to keep her ironey, and besides, after a time, she ceased to want food, and wisbed for nothing but water. Strange as it may seem, it wps the girl's exaggerated sense of independence tbat prevented her from spending money. Sbe Jefther parents' home because soe insisted on maintaining herself, and left her aunt irom the same motive ; and wandering about, hopeless and despairing, she dreaded to lose the feeling of independence which the possession of a few shillings gave to her. The thought of taking a cab to return to her aunt's hotm never occurred to her. Three years ago the unfortunate young woman had au illnrss which affected her mind, rendering her subject to periodical attacks of dejection. It is stated that when she left her aunt's house she was suffering from one of these attacks, but that her aunt was not aware of their intensity and danger. Tho disappointment and vexation of the hrst day would no doubt increase her prostration of mind, and so she would be rapidly reduced to absolute inability to extricate herself from the difficulties by which she was surrounded. It is not a little remarkable that in the several days during which she wandered about within a circumscribed area, no one seems to have been struck with her strange, emaciated, woe-begone appearance, and to hare taken an interest in her proceedings.