A LUNATIC’S FREAK.
ATTEMPTING TO SACRIFICE HERSELF SHE NEARLY BURNS AN ALMSHOUSE.
PORTSMOUTH, N. H., Aug. 1.—The city almshouse came near being burned about 3 o’clock this morning. It appears that a partially insane inmate named Isette Spiuney, aged about 68, took her feather bed, with all her clothing but one dress, together with a quantity of kindilings [sic], piled them on a chair in the corner of her room, and then set fire to them. The smoke awoke a sleeper in the apartment above, and when Overseer Shannon and his assistants burst into the room the flames had gained considerable headway. The woman was in a nude state, being badly burned about the stomach, chest, head and arms, and nearly suffocated. A delay of a few seconds more would have killed her. A detail of men was employed with buckets of water to quench the flames. which was accomplished only after the apartment had been badly scorched. On questioning the woman as to the cause for the act, she stated that as Christ was crucified, the spirits had prompted her to self-cremation, that being, she insisted, her intention when she set the fire. It was a narrow escape for the inmates of the almshouse, of whom there are many.
From the Collection of The Comtesse DeSpair
The 1879 Morbid Scrapbook
