People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1895 — DESPONDENT MOTHER'S ACT. [ARTICLE]

DESPONDENT MOTHER'S ACT.

nitoela Woman Bmmgu Her Little Dwfk' ter end Kills Her*elf. Cairo, 111., Oct 24.—1 n the townohip of Williard, this, Alexander county, Tuesday evening, a most horrible tragedy was enacted at the residence of a farmer, William McClarney, to whose home had come to dwell some months since the Roush family, consisting of husband, wife and a little girl of perhaps four summers. Roush left the locality some weeks since to seek employment, which he found on the Mississippi river in the government service. His wife remained on the farm and was engaged in domestic duties. She soon became despondent and melancholy. Tuesday evening McClarney, having been absent, returned home, and noticing that his barnyard fowls had not been housed, proceeded to open the door of the chicken-house. Looking around, he was horrified to see the bodies of Mrs. Roush and her little daughter hanging from the rafters, dead. Death by strangulation seemed to have been an afterthought, as a large butcher knife and loaded shotgun were found near the bodies.