Burlington, August 12—Ethel Brown, an 18-year-old former Asheville girl, her spirit borne down by the weight of unhappy circumstances, made a suicide attempt here last night in the room she occupied in what is known as “the wienie joint” on Main Street.
Before she emptied into her stomach two vials of Bateman’s drops, a concoction of opium and alcohol, she wrote a brief note that the world might know the reason for her act. “I am tired of living in sin. I am going to end it all. Notify Bill Evans in Greensboro,” she wrote.
Currie Murrie and Boyd Trollinger, night patrolmen, were walking toward the passenger station when they were attracted by the sound of a person groaning as if in agony. The room in which the girl was, is directly above the street. They went up to investigate.
The officers found the girl writhing in pain and on the dresser the empty bottle and note. They called in two physicians who worked with her several hours until she was considered out of danger.
Editor’s Notes: According to Wikipedia, Dr Bateman's Pectoral Drops (also known as ‘Batemans Original Pectoral Drops’, and 'Bateman's and Stoughton's drops’) was a popular patent medicine for disorders of the chest or lungs during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries in Britain and North America. It was later marketed as a remedy for ‘all Rheumatic and Chronic complaints, in pains of the limbs, bones, and joints, for influenza, and in violent colds'.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Aug. 13, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-08-13/ed-1/seq-1/
