Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
John Salter said--I am a labourer; yesterday morning about twenty
minutes to six o’clock, I was going to my work to the building, I saw
a man hanging, and that made me go in. The house is unfinished, and is
at the corner of Park Crescent Road and Upper Lewes Road. I found the
deceased hanging from one of the joists in the back room on the ground
floor. I did not know the deceased. I at once cut him down. His feet
were about 18 inches from the ground. There was a ladder close to his
left hand. When I cut him down he was quite dead; he appeared to have
been dead for hours. There was a man passing at the time, and, as I
was going into the house, I called to him to assist me. He helped me
with the deceased, and I afterwards went for a policeman.
John Baunister said--About ten minutes past nine o’clock on Monday
evening I saw the deceased come out of Park Crescent and go into the
unfinished house at the corner of Park Crescent. There was nothing
particular about the deceased to attract my attention. I did not see
the deceased come out of the house again that evening. The next time
I saw the deceased was about ten minutes to six o’clock on Tuesday
morning. I saw him lying on the ground in the unfinished house into
which I had seen him go the previous night. That was after he was cut
down. He was quite dead.
Mrs Ann Colwell said--The deceased lodged at my house. He had lodged
with me about five years. He was about seventy years of age. I last saw
him alive on Monday afternoon about half-past four o’clock. I spoke
to him, and he seemed about as usual. During the last three weeks or
a month he had complained to me of his circumstances, and told me he
must get cheaper lodgings. Generally, he was of a cheerful disposition.
I did not notice any particular change in his manner except that he
occasionally sighed. In consequence of what he said I let him have his
lodgings a shilling a week cheaper. He was an artist, and used to go
out to sell his water-colour drawings. Last week he went out for that
purpose, and when he came he said it was of no use, but that he would
have one more trial to sell his pictures, and when he returned he said
he had done no good. One lady had promised to come and look at his
pictures. He suffered from chronic affection, which caused him acute
pain. His last attack was about a week ago. He had been an invalid for
a long time. The affection under which he laboured disturbed his rest.
He was desponding about his future--his general conversation led me
to think that he very much feared poverty, but on the whole he was a
taciturn man. I did not think he was more desponding during the last
week than he had been previously. He did not tell me much about his
affairs, but I understood some small source of income had recently
ceased. Last Saturday he brought in two eggs for his dinner, and he
provided nothing for Sunday. That was unusual. I asked him on Sunday
morning what he was going to have for dinner, and he said he only
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