A NEW THING IN SUICIDES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 359, 5 March 1881, Page 3

A NEW THING IN SUICIDES.

"A man named John Pottger." says the Ballarat Courier "eommittei suicide in a very simple yet horribly effective manner on Sunday morning, in a room in vthieh he had slept, at the rear of Mr

Pottger arrived in Ballarat late on Saturday night, and was met by tht runner from Mr Jonas's establishmeno at the railway station. The runner was an old acquaintance of his, and Pottgor asked him if he could give him a bed, as h« bad no money. The runner took him to the restaurant and provided him with a bid, when he said he had money, and asked the other to drink with him. He subsequently retired, and slept in a room at the back of the establishment, a man named Thomas Anderson occupying a bed in the same room. In' the morning early, Pottger, who is said to have been suffering from the effects of a lonpr spree, woke his room mate and said that he would give up the ' drink,' and shortly after saying this he went out of the room and got some spirits. Anderson left the room at about .eight o'clock a.m., and returning again at ten he found Pottger hanging by the neck suspended with a piece of string to a nail in the wall, apparently dead. Anderson informed, the people of the house of what he had seen, and Constable Richardson passing they called him in. The officer at once cut down the body; and searching it for indications of life, found none, for it was almost cold. Prom the position deceased was found in, it would seem that he mounted Anderson's bed, and fastening one end of a running noose of twine doubled, to a nail used for hanging clothes on, he must have put his head through the noose und 'dragged down' until he become insensible. Had he stood upright on the bed, which was against the wall, the string could never have tightened, Pottger was a finely built man of about 37 years of age.