THE SUICIDE OF MISS SWAIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1639, 27 September 1887, Page 2

THE SUICIDE OF MISS SWAIN.

Melbourne, Sept. 14, Public interest in the Victoria Bridge case of suicide has continued unabated. The Australasian hat published portraits of Miss Swain and Captain Moore, aa example that h&s been followed by the illustrated monthlies and by the Evening Herald. The peculiar circumstances render the affair far removed from the ordinary run of suicides. The inquest on Miss Swain’s body began yesterday, and may last three or four days. It is attended by crowds of men and women. T be evidence completely disproves Captain Moore’s statement. He said Miss Swain and himself were passing over the bridge, when, as he stopped to light his cigar, she sud. denly sprang over the railing into the Tarra, which is nearly 70ft below ; that he followed down the bank, and fell about 40ft, where he lay bruised for a minute or two; that he offered a man who came up any money to save the girl, and that he was too much hurt to go into the water him-elf though a splendid swimmer, but it is proved that the two were quite two minutes standing on the bridge, that they were quarrelling, and that the Captain was heard to say, “I don’t care what you do.” Warder Flynn of Kew Lunatic Asylum, who is the man who came on the scene, found Captain Moore on the bank of the river, and asserts he seemed quite uninjured ; that he said nothing about a fall; that he offered him nothing to save the lady, and that they watched her floating down stream within a few yards of the bank till she disappeared. As both the captain and the warder could swim their conduct is inexplicable, though the latter excuses himself by saying he was recovering from an attack of typhoid fever. Mr Clark, a tanner, who lives close to the bridge, declares that when he heard the woman’s screams first they came from the land, but afterwards he heard her screams from the river. When he went out to see what was wrong he j says that by going into the river up to the knees a man could have grasped • Miss Swain at the spot where the body sank. The doctor’s evidence showed that the girl had a black eye,

which the people with whom she lived declare she did not have when she left their house that evening. Other evidence shows that she drank. The evdieuce as to how she actually got into the water is so far wrapped in mystery, which seems unlikely to he dispelled. The general impression is that the girl committed suicide through pique at Capt. Moore’s refusing to marry her, hut it is plain that this story is untrue, which, with the other peculiar surroundings of the case, lend it a deep interest in the public mind. [A cablegram to hand some day* ago stated that the inquest resulted in an open verdict]