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Show SEDUCTION AND SUICIDE. The Deseret News, of the 23d, gives the following particulars of a shocking suicide that was committed in Salt Lake City, on Washington's birthday. Wednesday afternoon, Mary Ellen Hurst, a young girl not quite eighteen years old, put an end to her earthly life by strychnine. Before she committed the rash act she ate dinner as usual, swept up the kitchen, and did other work. After taking the poison she was in the act of dressing her hair when seized by the deadly spasms. A couple of notes, written with a pencil, were found beside her. One was addressed to Mrs. Wisner. Being in the nature of a request for her to call and dress her body after her death, and the other to her mother, giving some directions about her burial. A number of neighbors gathered on the alarm being given, and Dr. Benedict was summoned, but the young woman had breathed her last half-an-hour before his arrival, she having died at 3:30 p.m. A cup found near the deceased, containing some grains of a drug, was shown to the Doctor, and he at once recognized the stuff as strychnine. An inquest was held at the City Hall, Thursday morning, by Coroner Taylor. It appears from the evidence given, that the deceased, who was single, was seven months advanced in pregnancy, and that fact, combined with the circumstance that the supposed father of the child, Major ???, had left the Territory, was believed to be the cause of her committing suicide. The testimony of Mrs. Wisner pointed specially in that direction. This witness not only stated that deceased had informed her that the person before named was the cause of her trouble, but that she had also stated to her that she was fouly outraged. Her story was to the effect that some young men threw handkerchiefs in her face, causing her to feel strangely, and that subsequently her person had been violated, while under the influence of the peculiar feeling super??? by the placing of handkerchiefs on her face. This occurred at a surprise party. This witness also made the startling statement that the deceased told her that eight other girls were violated on the same occasion, two of whom had gone to Montana to hide their disgrace. The case is one of the most sickening and distressing that has occurred in his part of the country, and should be a warning to young women to be careful regarding the kind of company they keep. John Haigh, John Evans, and Isaac Hardman composed the Coroner's Jury, their verdict being that the deceased came to her death from the effects of strychnine poison, self-administered. |