MYSTERIOUS SUICIDE AT MELBOURNE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 188, 1 August 1876, Page 4

MYSTERIOUS SUICIDE AT MELBOURNE.

On the 6th instant, says the Daily Telegraph, a young woman named Dorcas Haufill, servant in the employ of Mr Joseph Thompson, Don Juan House, Albert-street, East Melbourne, committed suicide under circumstances which at present render the occurrence quite inexplicable. The girl, who was twenty-four years of age, had been in Mra Thompson's service for the last fifteen months, and although she had occasionally been found slightly under the influence of liquor, she had not been discharged, ac it was known she had no friends or relatives in the colony. About twelve o'clock yesterday Mrs Thompson was engaged in one of the upstairs rooms, when, seeiDg the girl pass, and noticing that she was again intoxicated, she told her to go and lie down, and the housemaid would fulfil her duties for the time being. The girl made no reply, and her mistress thought she had taken no notice, as Bbc walked quietly away. A few minutes afterwards Mrs Thompson went into her bedroom, when she saw deceased standing in front of a private drawer that was always kept securely locked, but which she at once saw was open, while the girl had to her lips a bottle which contained a liniment composed of several narcotic poisons, which bad been prescribed by Dr Gilbee for external application for the relief of local pain. Mrs Thompson at once seized her and asked her what she had done, when she replied, in a half-stupid manner, " Ob, I have only taken poison." Medical assistance was at once sent for, but as the doctor did not arrive immediately a cab was procured and the foolish girl was taken to the Melbourne Hospifal. O& reaching that institution she was in a profound coma. The stomach pump was at once used, and galvanic shocks were had recourse to without any effect. As a last expedient the ammonia injection was called into requisition, but although it Bomewhat rallied the action of the heart, and rendered respiration a little easier, the poison had been too much absorbed by the BVBtem for it to have any ultimate beneficial effect, and the young woman never regained consciousness, and died about five o'clock in the afternoon. The mixture which the unfortunate girl swallowed was | known to be of a most deadly character, and Mrs Thompson therefore kept it in a drawer to which she aloDe had access, and the key of which was hidden in another drawer, in a spot that Mrs Thompson thought was known only to herself. The girl must have known exactly where it was kept, and the supposition is that she at some time or other stealthily followed Mrs 'Ihompson, and discovered where she put it. I