LEE ROAD-SWEEPER HANGS HIMSELF

At Lewisham, on Tuesday, on the body of William Upton, aged 76, of 42, Brightfield-road, Lee. -The widow said that her husband, who had been a road sweeper in the employ of the Lewisham Borough Council, had had very bad health, and no one knew his sufferings except himself. He was ruptured and had shocking pains in the head. She had never heard him threaten suicide, but she thought that the thunderstorm on Sunday affected him. He went into the garden between three and four o'clock, and he was afterwards brought from the lavatory and placed on the bed, where he was found to be dead. He was known by the nickname of "Cuckoo". -John Mawer, a painter, also of 42, Brightfield-road, said he had never known the old man to be depressed or seen him the worse for liquor. On Sunday witness went to the lavatory at 4.15 and found Upton in a kneeling position, his feet being o? the ground. A rope which was round his neck was attached to an iron bar. -Police-constable King, 279R, coroner's officer for Lee, said he found a letter on deceased's shirt, and this the Coroner read as follows: "I now write a few lines down telling all of your doings to me and how I have suffered night and day till I am sick of my life. Mr. doctor's medicine stuff done me no good and the sufferings be too much. So good-bye all of you. God bless you all. I hope He will forgive me." -Dr. Jon Burroughs, of Lee High-road, deposed that the old man suffered from a double rupture and chronic bronchitis which he said had driven him mad. Death was consistent with suffocation, produced by hanging. -The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity"