A Woman Endeavors to Drown Herself 1869

SALOT

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 2/15/2016 at 23:17:27

The Herald, Sunday, June 27, 1869

ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE
~
A Woman Endeavors to Drown
Herself
~
Yesterday afternoon, as Mr. George Salot was on his way towards the river, where he was going to fish, his attention was called to the strange conduct of a woman, who was in a skiff on the slough, near the foot of Ninth Street. From her movements it was suspected that she was insane. Mr. Salot started for the marshal, but had gone a few yards when he saw the woman deliberately walk out of the boat and into the water. He ran, plunged in after her, succeeded in reaching her as she was sinking, or in fact, after she had sunk below the surface, in a place where the water was much over her head. Mr. Salot dragged the woman ashore, and she was taken to jail. On being taken from the water, she appeared to be in a fit of some sort –stiffening her limbs and gnashing her teeth, clenching her hands convulsively. When Mr. Salot questioned as to her name, residence etc. she appeared to have no consciousness of what was addressed to her. On being incarcerated in the jail, she knelt down, and began praying earnestly and loudly, in a manner which seemed to indicate considerable experience in that department of religious worship.

The woman is tall, well dressed, and the little finger of one hand is crooked. Inquiries were extensively made during the afternoon, but nobody could be found that could recognize her. She is evidently a stranger in our city.