A WRETCHED LIFE STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3017, 14 November 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

A WRETCHED LIFE STORY.

Ax appeil ia lining made to the public l>y tho Rev. K. M. Murhead Kvans, virar of Ilkeston. Mi- )•;. M. Mundy, C.C., llL'h ShrrilY of lk-rhv. and Mr YV. Taiham. j . P Mayor of on Mmlf of I'V iiicAllci. Al.lred, who was tried at, I In- recent Derbyshire As-izes for the murder of her child,a baby thirteen month*old, nt Ilkeston, on Juno 18. In making this appeal tile ueotlemen named above s iy : —

Ihe facts of the ease wbieli earn" "u! at the trial laid bare Iho history of i life of wretchedness ~iir:h as it, is, ha| pi;\, seldom the lot of human heinirs to e.,i,.

template. The poor prisoner at. llie lor, described by all to be a hone-t, huMwoik ing, clean, industrious woman w married -ix years a L 'o, in her twenty-first year, to one Edward Aldred, then a twist, hand, but subsequently a eollier, in whom she had borne three childrenArthur aged five ; Gertrude three ; and tho baby, tho subject of the- trial. Dur« ioir the greater part of her married life she Beeins to havo been the victim of cruelty so hideous as to make one pause in relating it, lest one might bo suspected of overstraining the case.

It irf sufficient for this purpose to lake one instance of the brutality to which this poor creature was subjected, in yive some idea of the life she had led. It, was stated, and proved at the trial, that one evening her husband was beating her so badly that the neighbourinu' housewives assembled outside the house, and cried shame on him, interfered, and tried to get hor out of tho window ; but he prevent-d that by threatening to kill utiy intruder with a spado. While the neighbours were thero he quieted down a little, and waited till they had all irone. Then he took his revenge on his unoffending wife, told her to go up stairs and undress, gave hor her choieo to take a beating quietly without'screamim;, or to bo killed To mako her believe this was no idle threat, ho drew a knife and laid it, open before her. She meekly accepted tho position, and said sho would take the beating. Then when she was stripped, he set about his bloody business, and beat her till she coald not stand, from toD to t(0. Such was only an instance of this poor creature's misery. It is hard to be-, jiove it ; but it was asserted before the trial, thoroughly enquired into by the Treasury solicitor and police, and proved at the trial.

Up to June last she had been an honest woman ;no one had doubted her. But a lodger in hor house had lost a watch Ellen Aldred was accused of taking it. She knew how hor husband had treated her before for nothing—how would ho deal with her if he believed this accusation ? She dare not faco him. Tho project was too terrible for even her poor long-suffering nature, and as the Judge put it she felt she would sooner faco her God than face her husband. She left her home, her liaby in her arms, full of trouble and full of tears, ami what happened next none can tell. She wa« taken some time later by some works men from water and »ome few yards distant was found the dead body of her child. On the bank was found a pathetic letter to hor "dour husband telling him she and her baby were gone out of tho road. Tho inferenco was she had tried to drown herself with her baby in her arms, and so must bo taken to have murdered it, as she survived. A merciful jury, however, found this not proved, and sho was acquitted. Counsel was found fur her by tho generous poor of the puor district, and her husband raised not a finger to help her in her distress.

A.fter the trial those whohad helped her insisted on proceedings boingjtukeu against him, and he was summoned before tho local Magistrates, aud sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour, tho maximum, but inadequate, punish ment for his wrong-doings, but oven this he has not to endure, fur ho absconded.