Wife Kills Herself Because Her Husband Chews Tobacco

A great headline from the New York Times, 19 July 1860, p. 8. The article reads:

Mrs. Rebecca Neshing, a native of Germany, thirty-nine years of age, residing in Tenth-street, near Avenue D, was walking with her husband and some acquaintances, on Sunday evening, on Harlem bridge, when reaching the centre of that structure, she suddenly stopped, and, without giving any intimation of her intention, jumped into the water.

First off, let me say that this is a terrific sentence. Saves the dark punchline for the very end. And such a long sentence! Can you imagine a newspaper containing a sentence that long today? It sounds like the beginning of a Kafka story. Anyway, the article continues:

Her friends, as soon as they recovered from their astonishment, raised an alarm, which was promptly responded to by Capt. Porter, of the Twelfth Precinct Police. When this body, however, was taken from the water, life was extinct. Yesterday Coroner Schirmer held an inquest upon the remains, at the Station-house, whither they had been removed, and it transpired that the deceased was married nine years since, but that during the greater part of the time her relation with her husband had been unpleasant, that she has refused to live with him, and had visited Europe and California in the capacity of nurse to invalid tourists. Returning from the latter place some three months since, a reconciliation between herself and husband was effected, which was not disturbed until a few minutes previous to her death, when a dispute arose during the progress of their walk, on the subject of tobacco chewing, to which practice Mr. Neshing was addicted, and which was a source of great offence to his wife. Neither he, nor the others who heard the argument, believed for a moment, that a difference, upon what some look upon as a trivial matter, would have sufficed as a motive for suicide.

Nor would I. What an odd note to end the article on. Stuff was so weird in 1860.

P.S. The bridge below is probably where Mrs. Neshing resolved her argument with Mr. Neshing. The High Bridge crosses the Harlem River, connecting Manhattan and the Bronx. Built in 1848, it is the oldest surviving bridge in New York City and is still used by pedestrians.

Source: Library of Congress, via Wikipedia.