Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1908 — Attempted Suicide At Monon. [ARTICLE]

Attempted Suicide At Monon.

Mrs. George Sparrow, of Monon, whose husband was formerly a brakeman on the Monon locual, drank concentrated lye Thursday afternoon in an attempt to suicide. She is the mother of three children and had previously been insane, altho-for the past year she had seemed perfectly rational. Her husband lost his job as brakeman, following a wreck that occured at Lowell, last summer, he having failed to flag a train that ran into the rear end of the local. He is said to be dissipated, and his family was in destitute circumstances. Mrs. Sparrow was found shortly after she drank the lye w and a doctor was called. She was conscious and apparently rational and talked freely of her attempt to suicide, saying that her husband had failed to provide for herself and children and that they did not have enough to eat. She was horribly burned by the lye and Dr. Clayton is credited with saying that she could not live.