ng to
commit suicide. On Wednesday defendant went to Bow Police Station and
stated that he had swallowed a quantity of phosphor paste, as he was
hard up and unable to obtain work. King was taken inside and an
emetic administered, when he vomited up a quantity of the poison.
Defendant now said he was very sorry. Although he had sixteen years'
good character, he was unable to obtain work of any kind. Mr.
Dickinson had defendant put back for the court missionary to see him.

Timothy Warner, thirty-two, was remanded for a similar offence. He
jumped off Limehouse Pier, and when rescued, said, "I intended to do
it."

A decent-looking young woman, named Ellen Gray, was remanded on a
charge of attempting to commit suicide. About half-past eight on
Sunday morning Constable 834 K found defendant lying in a doorway in
Benworth Street, and she was in a very drowsy condition. She was
holding an empty bottle in one hand, and stated that some two or three
hours previously she had swallowed a quantity of laudanum. As she was
evidently very ill, the divisional surgeon was sent for, and having
administered some coffee, ordered that she was to be kept awake. When
defendant was charged, she stated that the reason why she attempted to
take her life was she had neither home nor friends.

I do not say that all people who commit suicide are sane, no more than I
say that all people who do not commit suicide are sane. Insecurity of
food and shelter, by the way, is a great cause of insanity among the
living. Costermongers, hawkers, and pedlars, a class of workers who live
from hand to mouth more than those of any other class, form the highest
percentage of those in the lunatic asylums. Among the males each year,
26.9 per 10,000 go insane, and among the women, 36.9. On the other hand,
of soldiers, who are at least sure of food and shelter, 13 per 10,000 go
insane; and of farmers and graziers, only 5.1. So a coster is twice as
likely to lose his reason as a soldier, and five times as likely as a
farmer.

Misfortune and misery are very potent in turning people's heads, and
drive one person to the lunatic asylum, and another to the morgue or the
gallows. When the thing happens, and the father and husband, for all of
his love for wife and children and his willingness to work, can get no
work to do, it is a simple matter for his reason to totter and the light
within his brai