Occasionally, when indexing the 'Cambrian' newspaper for www.swansea.gov.uk/cambrian I come across items which will not go into the index because for historical reasons we only index items relevant to West Glamorgan, the areas of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot councils, or of general South Wales interest. This one, from page 5 of the edition of 18th June 1880, from a time when no license was required to own a firearm, and when divorce was out of the reach of ordinary men and women, and carried an enormous stigma, was particularly sad and poignant. It is the text of a letter in Welsh found in the pocket of David JAMES (bardic title Dewi Iago), collier, of 31 Bell Street, Trecynon, who shot himself in the head in a railway carriage in Aberdare, where it had been parked for the night, and was found in the morning. 'A word to my wife before I die. I am sorry, my wife, to admit that I cannot live with you any longer. You know why. You have had one letter before on the subject. I hope you have preserved it. There is no good for me at home, as you know, neither day nor night, so it is better that I put an end to my life with my own hands, rather than you should do so, as you have threatened many times to do. If you should happen ever again to marry, take my sorrowful end as a warning to you to behave better and more lovingly to your second husband that you have ever done to me. Every success to you - David James.' The other thing in his pocket was the programme for an eisteddfod at Pontardawe a few weeks later, where he had been invited to adjudicate. What a tragedy that a man so highly thought of should have come to such a decision. Witnesses at the inquest referred to his having been seen drinking a good deal in the days leading up to it. Jeff

OOOOF, hard times indeed. Thanks for sharing and remembering. Eliz On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 4:32 PM, Jeff Coleman <Jeff.Coleman@ntlworld.com> wrote: > Occasionally, when indexing the 'Cambrian' newspaper for > www.swansea.gov.uk/cambrian I come across items which will not go into the > index because for historical reasons we only index items relevant to West > Glamorgan, the areas of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot councils, or of > general South Wales interest. > > This one, from page 5 of the edition of 18th June 1880, from a time when no > license was required to own a firearm, and when divorce was out of the reach > of ordinary men and women, and carried an enormous stigma, was particularly > sad and poignant. > > It is the text of a letter in Welsh found in the pocket of David JAMES > (bardic title Dewi Iago), collier, of 31 Bell Street, Trecynon, who shot > himself in the head in a railway carriage in Aberdare, where it had been > parked for the night, and was found in the morning. > > 'A word to my wife before I die. I am sorry, my wife, to admit that I cannot > live with you any longer. You know why. You have had one letter before on > the subject. I hope you have preserved it. There is no good for me at home, > as you know, neither day nor night, so it is better that I put an end to my > life with my own hands, rather than you should do so, as you have threatened > many times to do. If you should happen ever again to marry, take my > sorrowful end as a warning to you to behave better and more lovingly to > your second husband that you have ever done to me. Every success to you - > David James.' > > The other thing in his pocket was the programme for an eisteddfod at > Pontardawe a few weeks later, where he had been invited to adjudicate. > > What a tragedy that a man so highly thought of should have come to such a > decision. Witnesses at the inquest referred to his having been seen drinking > a good deal in the days leading up to it. > > Jeff > > > -- > > To send to the list send to glamorgan@rootsweb.com > GLAMORGAN Family History Mailing List archives etc. are at > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/WLS/GLAMORGAN.html > - > A large amount of information, and a wide variety of useful links, may be found at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/ > > - > The South/West Wales Lookup Exchange and Gareth's Help Pages > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~walesle/wal/AW.html and > http://home.clara.net/tirbach/hicks.html > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GLAMORGAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >