TO THE BITTER END.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1027, 6 December 1872, Page 3

TO THE BITTER END.

Considerable interest of a painful character has been created in London by the suicide, under distressing circumstances, of a young woman by leaping from Waterloo bridge. Her name, it appears, was Alice Blanche Oswald, and she was within a few days of completing her twentieth year. At the inquest, before Mr Langham, the following letter was put in and read : —" 178 High street, ShadwelJ, London, September 3, 1&72. The crime that I am about to commit and what I must suffer after is nothing compared to my present misery. Alone in London, not a penny or a friend to advise or lend 'a helping hand, tired and weary with looking for something to do, failing in every way, footsore and heart-weary, I prefer death to the dawning of another wretched morning. I have only been in Britain nine weeks. 1 camo as nursery governess with a lady from America to Wick, Scotland, where she discharged me, refusing to pay my passage back, giving me my wages, £3 10s. After my expenses to London I found myself in this great city with only ss. What was Itodo ? I sold my watch. The paltry sum I obtained for that soon went in paying for my board and looking for a situation. Now lam destitute, every day is misery to me. No friend, no hope, no money ; what is left ? Oh, God of Heaven, have mercy on a poor helpless sinner; Thou knowest how I have striven against this, but fate is against me. I cannot tread the path of sin, for my dead mother will be watching me. Fatherless, motherless, home I have none. Oh for the rarity of Christian hearts. lam not mad ; for days I have foreseen that this would be the end. May all who hear of my death forgive me, and may Ood Almighty do so, before whose bar I must soon appear. Farewell to all, to this beautiful and yet wretched world.— Alice Blanche Oswald. I am twenty years of age the 14th of this month." The jury returned a verdict of " Suicide while in a state of temporary insanity."