SENSATIONAL SUICIDE. WOMAN DROWNS HERSELF AT MELBOURNE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 312, 31 October 1888, Page 5

SENSATIONAL SUICIDE. WOMAN DROWNS HERSELF AT MELBOURNE.

Soon after dusk on the evening of llfch October, a young woman leaped from the parapet of the Johnston-street-bridge, Melbourne, at a spot 50 feeb above the river level, a,nd was instantaneously killed The suicide was witnessed by a young man named Walter Martin, who was fishing on the Kew side of the bridge, and no time was lost in communicating with the Collingwood police, but so far the body has not been identified, amd beyond the actual fact ot the suicide nothing whatever has transpired to thiow any light upon the past history of the unfortunate woman, nor upon the circumstances leading up to her shameful death at her own hands. It appears that Martin had gone to look up some companions for a fishing excursion. At about 7.15 he was on the Kew side of the river, with two other young men, when he noticed a woman come rapidly along the bridge from the Johnstonstreet end. The dusk was setting in, but the bridge lamps were lighted and he could see the woman almost as plainly as though it had been daylight. She walked on quickly until she was immediately over the river's ed^e ; then stopped, and taking off her hat and ulster, folded them neatly, and laid them on the footpath. A moment later Martin saw her shadow blot out the light ot the bridge lamp, and realising at once that she had jumped from the parapet, he and his companions ran across the bridge and down to the bank of the river, where they found the woman lyingquitedead, her spinehaving apparently been fractured by the fall. It was evident by the position of the head, which was resting in the water, that the unfortunate creature must have miscalculated her distance, and, striking the bank instead of the river, met her death in a manner even more terrible than she had intended. The sad nature of the tragedy is intensified by the youth and appearance of the victim. Her age, at most, could not have been more than 22 or 23 years, and even the rigidity of death could not conceal the i graceful symmetry of her figure, or the delicate outlines of her features. Poorly clad in a spotted print dress, her cheap boots worn into holes, her ulster shabby almost to the verge of raggedness, she yet preserved the appearance ot a womnn of gentle birth. The hands especially, bearing no other ornament than a thin wedding ring, were the white, slender hands of a lady. Nothing whatever that could furnish any trace of identity was 'found on the clothing. The only circumstance that may possibly aftord a clue to the mystery is the statement of a constable named Campbell, who on viewing the body in the morgue was struck by the resemblance of the hat, which is of very peculiar shape, to that worn by a young woman who spoke to him on the previous night. Constable Campbells stoiy is> that he met the woman in Elizabeth-street between 12and 1 o'clock, and as she did not appear to be one of the unfortunate clas-s, was led to inquire why .she uas in the street at so late an hour. The girl, in reply, told him a sad story of misfortune. She had been duped to leave a happy home, had fled in shame and \\ retchedness to Melbourne, and there after a time had married a man who either did not know her past history or was willing to forget it. After a brief interval of happiness trouble once more fell upon her. Her husband died suddenly, and since then she had been existing on a small income, barely enough to keep body andsoultogether, allowed her by her father-in-law. The constable could not recollect the woman's name, but he states that in addition to the peculiar fashion of the hat, theremainder of the clothing and the general appearance of the body convince him that he is right in his surmise.