DEATH NOTICE IN HER “SHEIK”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 165, 3 October 1927, Page 12

DEATH NOTICE IN HER “SHEIK”

YOUNG MAN’S PECULIAR PREDICAMENT A girl of 19 who wrote an announcement of her intention to commit suicide on the flyleaf of the popular novel. “The Sheik.” was the subject of an inquest at Hackney, London. She was Caroline James, a domestic servant, and it was said that after she had been told that her work was unsatisfactory she left the house in Church Street. Stoke Newington, where she was employed, and did not return. Next morning, said the coroner, a young man named Abrahams informed a constable that he had met a girl on a towing-path of the River Lea, and had accompanied her in a boat. He added that while they were together the girl had fallen out or got overboard into the water, and had been drowned. He was questioned and detained until the body of the girl had been recovered, and a doctor had stated there were no signs of injury. “If the sstory of Abrahams was true,” said the coroner, “he must have been the victim of a strange coincidence, one by which he unexpectedly found

himself the witness of a tragredy of suicide. * “He took the girl out, apparently ignorant of the fact that his companion had a suicidal impulse, and had announced her intention of drowning herself. “Abrahams made his statement voluntarily, but obviously it needs corcorroboration, and fortunately for him, there is remarkable corroboration, because in the girl’s room was found a book called ‘The Sheik,’ on the flvleaf of which she had written something which was really an announcement of her intention to comm * suicide.” The message was: “Forgive me for doing this lerrible thing, but I cannot put up with the terrible ordeal of always looking for a job and of trying to satisfy these people. I cannot stamd it any longer. This is the end. I cannot stand any more misery.” A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was returned.