SOCIAL OSTRACISM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 32, 1 October 1912, Page 2

SOCIAL OSTRACISM.

MRS JACK JOHNSON’S SUICIDE

Sydney, September 12

The real reason of the suicide of the white wife of Johnson, the coloured pugilist, has been given by Mr Hugh D. Mclntosh, the promoter of several of Johnson’s fights. , “The reason of poor Mrs Johnson’s depression was obvious,” lie said, “and it has been obvious for a long time. She was a white woman, of highly

strung temperament, and of decent education; and on account of her marriage with Johnson she found herself absolutely cut off from social intercourse with white people in America. Even her own family cast her off. She had absolutely nothing in common with Johnson’s friends, and used to be left at home with her two coloured maids. Her social octracism was a constant reason of worry and depression to her. But there were never any signs of depression about her husband. On the contrary, he was always in most boisterous spirits, and there was never in him the slightest indication of any physical injury or any nervous breakdown. Mrs Johnson was always anxious to live in London or in Paris, where she could get some white companionship; but Johnson’s behaviour over his contracts made it necessary for him to go back to America, where his wife was again thrown back on the companionship of her coloured maids, and of them only. Although she lacked nothing in material comfort, and, indeed, had every luxury in dress and jewellery that money could buy, her nervous temperament could not stand the position of a social outcast, in which she was placed. The contempt with which all white folks in America treated her, as a coloured man’s wife, preyed incessantly on her mind. She became miserable and hopeless because she found herself absolutely alone, and cast off from her own people.”