The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

SPRINGFIELD, February 25.

FATAL EFFECTS OF INTOXICATION!

We hear from Coventry, in Connecticut, that in the afternoon of the 13th ult. Mr. Elihu Babcock, with his wife, went from that place to Dover, on a visit. On their way home they called at Mr. Paine's, inn-keeper, in Lebanon, which place they left about 11 o'clock at night, with a design to go immediately home; but in attempting to cross the ice over a small river, about 60 rods from their own home, their horse broke through where the water was about 3 feet deep—Mrs. Babcock then fell from the pillion, upon the unbroken ice by the side of the horse—Mr. Babcock unharnessed the horse with as much expedition as his intoxicated circumstances would permit of, laying the pillion at the distance of about 10 feet from the horse—after which, as he himself relates, he drew his wife to the pillion, and fixed her upon it, requesting her to sit there until he could extricate the horse from the ice—unhappy woman! such a request was then entirely unnecessary, she being overcome with strong drink, as not to be able so much as to move from the spot where he had placed her. After near five hours unsuccessful labour, in attempting to rescue his horse from the ice, his senses began to return, and he cried for help which arrived in a little time from a neighbouring house—but unfortunately too late to afford them that assistance which had been necessary some hours before. The situation of Mrs. Babcock did not immediately attract their notice. They took the horse from the ice—but the poor animal had ceased to be. The water which issued from the hole which the horse had made, had overflowed the ice for a considerable distance round the spot, and had reached and partly covered the unfortunate woman who was not discovered until after the horse was taken out; she had fallen from the pillion, and lay extended on the ice—assistance was immediately given, but her last groan escaped her before any relief could be administered.