The New York Times/1925/12/14/Mother of 14 Tries to End Life by Gas
Saved by a Policeman, She Says She Will Make Another Attempt to Die
TWO COMMIT SUICIDE
One Uses Gas, the Other Poison, While Two Others are Killed by Gas Accidentally
A forty-four-year-old Staten Island woman, who has borne fourteen children, nine of whom are living, attempted suicide by gas last night because of the inability of her husband to supply enough money to make the struggle for existence bearable. The quick work of a patrolman probably saved her life, but after she had been revived she said she would make another attempt to take her life.
The woman was Mrs. Ida Baldwin of 45 Canal Street, Stapleton. Her husband, Robert, is a longshoreman, but has worked infrequently in the past few years. Mrs. Baldwin quarreled with her husband during the afternoon and he left. Then, according to the woman, overcome with despondency, she turned on the gas jet in her bedroom after having closed the windows and the door.
Her nine children, the youngest of whom is 2 years old and the oldest is 14, were playing in an apartment below. When the eldest child, Ida, came into her own apartment and smelled the gas, she became frightened and ran to a police booth around the corner and told Patrolman Abraham Johnson.
The patrolman ran back to the house, burst into the room and throwing open the windows, used first aid methods on the unconscious woman. When Dr. A. R. Solidini of 342 Van Duzer Street arrived the woman was out of danger. The doctor said that the patrolman's swift work had saved the woman's life.
Mrs. Baldwin told her troubles to the doctor and the patrolman, who suggested that she go to a hospital. She insisted on remaining at home, and as the pair left she made the remark about another attempt at death.
Ill health caused David Greenfield, 50 years old, an engraver, to end his life in the morning by inhaling gas through a tube attached to a chandelier in the kitchen of his home at 9,418 121st Street, Richmond Hill, Queens.
Gas escaping from a heater accidentally killed Edward Johnson, 55 years old, in a furnished room at 163 East 104th Street. Thomas Hollinger, 45 years old, was also accidentally killed by gas in his room at 2,943 Richmond Terrace, Mariners Harbor, S. I.
A disagreement with his wife, according to his twelve-year-old son, Max, caused Abraham Cohen, 40 years old, to swallow poison at his home at 25 Suffolk Street. Cohen died several hours later in Gouverneur Hospital. The son said his father had been separated form his mother for several weeks.