A SAD SUICIDE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2657, 10 May 1894, Page 3

A SAD SUICIDE.

General sympathy has been created by the suicide of Alexander McDougall, engineer, who hanged himself on Saturday evening at his residence. Coronet street, -Newmarket, Sydney. The story of his death is a sad one. McDougall was between forty-five and fifty years of age, and a married man with a wife and three children, the eldest of whom is seven years old. He worked formerly for Messrs P. Forman and Company, engineers and ironworkers, of Yarra Bank, but left their employ thirteen weeks ago. During these thirteen weeks he unceasingly looked for work at his trade, but could find none. He went outside his trade and offered to accept any work which would provide a bare living for his family and himself. He was unfortunate, and could secure nothing. His small means were soon exhausted, and during the last few weeks the family had well-nigh starved. McDougall’s troubles were further increased by the illness of his wife, who had to go to a hospital to undergo an operation of a critical nature. When his wife recovered and returned home a fortnight ago, his inability to get her sufficient to eat weighed heavily upon him, and he became first despondent, then utterly hopeless and despairing. On Saturday there was a little bread for breakfast, but after that the cupboard of the house was bare of anything to oat a small quantity of sago. MoDouoall looked at it, and said to hiswife U Sven that will scarcely go round ; one mouth too many,” Mrs ’McDougall cheered him up a little, and the two decided that dinner s^lr 'ulfi be missed altogether and that the sago should be prepared for tea, Shortly before five o’clock McDougall lit a fire for Jus wife and she put on the sago. In a few minutes the meal wa ready,and McDougall told one of the children, who was sent to call him to suppor, to say he would be there iu a minute. A little later, when Mrs McDougall wont to fetch him in, she found him hanging by the neck in an outhouse. The report in the Argus has evoked a wave of practical assistance, and within a couple of days about £SO has been sent in for the window.