A MOTHER'S CRIME. She Deliberately Kills Her Children.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 266, 23 May 1888, Page 3

A MOTHER'S CRIME. She Deliberately Kills Her Children.

ANiw Vouk tclegiam of March 24 says: — A!i>, Minnie Lcbkucnchancr is locked up at the Tomb* for poisoning her thrc children. Two arc dead and the other i s dying. The mother i=> alco sutiering from the ellocts of poison taken afc the same time. She tells a pitiful stoi > . Her husband died two >e.ns ago She had struggled to keep her ehildien together, hut failed. They wore taken fiom lie) and sent to the tliuenilc Asylum. Only lecently she gob I them back with inhnite trouble. She was oppo-cd by jimeity on one side and the persecution oi liet husband's relatives on the other. Woik wa.s failing- and food getting scarce. She foio.-nv that &he m».4 lose them boon, and decided to kill them. On Wedne-d.^ .-he «ont Anthony, tho eldest of the boys, to a ding store with a quaiter to buy Mime tat poison. Tho child hou^ht 10 cent?,' worth of ar.-cnieal rat poison. Mrs Lcbkuenchancr -ah icd it into a pot of tea, and dniding the diaughtmlo thiee equal parts gave it to tho bviy.s to diink. Very soon afterwards all tin ce wcie taken ill. 'Watching their MiHei-ings the mother stayed with them all day, j;oing about the house without exciting the attention of the tenants. On Wednesday ni-_dit and all day Tliursday the little suHerers lay in their d> inji a»omcs ith the mother ho\ciin«; about seeing their Uttlc li\cs e'lbinu out slowly and surely. They begged for water, ami with (he merciless cruelty of a tiend the mother gave them whisky to drink. The two oldest drank and ciied that they vcrc on fire. They begged to bo taken out in the back yard amfliinc the hydrant turned on them, but their feeble eric* found a deaf ear. On TluiKsday afternoon Charles died. Three hour.slater his eldest brother breathed his last. Still the youngest, a baby of threo > ca\ s, v ar- U ft. With two victims of her awful ciime lying dead, the mother held steadily to her fiendish pmpo;-e. She sat by hoi "dyinu child until Saturday morning, when the little one's grip on life still refusing to yield, sshc weaiied of waiting and went out to tell the police. This morning the mother was committed to the Tombb. Before being taken to prison she drew photographs" cf her childien from her poekefc and aCked it s-hc Mould be permitted to keep them When told that she could ; sho shouted oscitedly " They wanted to take my children from me, but they can't do it now.'

Hero is a throw -in for f-owe of the British Association players in these colonies: "Chut Awfu' Fitba' Club' aiul 'It His no.' Cam' Af,' aro two new football soups published for Scorch comic singers. The publisher stales they arc intended for Scotch football player-, as no other nation could do justice to {horn.