Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1876 — Hanging in Fun. [ARTICLE]

Hanging in Fun.

Some little stir was created last evening in the southern end of the city by a foolish but nearly iatal freak played by a woman named Christina Carney. She is the wife of Torrence Carney, a cartman or teamster, who, with his wife, who is a Swede, removed to this city from Leavenworth about three weeks ago. The domestic life of this pair appears to have been anything but happy. Torrence loves whisky better than he loves his wife, and since they took up their abode in an old shell-like house on O. K. creek he has neglected to furnish the means of living. His wife has made a living by washing and house-cleaning and other labor. In the old house where Carney and his wife reside there is a family of Germans, with whom Mrs. Carney was quite intimate. Yesterday evening this family heard Mr. and Mrs. Carney quarreling more violently than ever, and as Torrence left the house his wife told him she would kill herself if he did not return. He turned and bade her “Kill and be hanged,” and went on his way to his evening’s spree. His wife, with a view to frightening him into better conduct, prepared a rope, and, throwing it over a door, tied the end to a door knob, and prepared the other end for her own neck. It was her intention to have hung herself “just a little” when her unkind husband was entering the house. She waited until she heard him coming up stairs, when she climbed upon a chair and putting the rope on her neck kicked it from beneath her. Unluckily for her, Torrence changed his mind about going into the room and started down stairs again, leaving his foolish wife in the agony of strangulation. Fortunately her hands were free and her muscles strong, or she would have consummated her own death. Her kicking and struggling attracted the attention of one of the children down stairs, who ran in and seeing the situation j)f affairs called for help. When cut down, Mrs. Carney was insensible and in the last stages of strangulation. Her brutal husband, when informed a few minutes afterward that his wife had hung herself, said: “ Well, let her hang; she’s played that game on me before in worth.” At nine o’clock last night the woman was in a fair way of recovery. §he is no doubt cured of a very dangerous habit; but then it is difficult to say who is most to blame, the foolish wife or the brutal husband. —Kansas City (Mo.) Times.