Early this morning a man named Gibson, a discharged soldier, went to the bakehouse of Mr. Pemberton in Warrington, and asked the baker in charge, named Peter Knowles, if he might be allowed to warm himself. His request was complied with; but Knowles, having to call up some of the other workmen, left Gibson warming himself in front of the oven, the gas being lighted at the time. Knowles returned in about ten minutes, but Gibson was nowhere to be seen. His coat and waistcoat were lying on the kneading table, and Knowles, becoming alarmed at the man's mysterious disappearance, ran to the police-station and obtained the assistance of a constable. Upon carefully searching the bakehouse they found that Gibson had fallen into the trough in which the sponge was set, and that he was completely covered with the soft and yielding dough. The body was pulled out, but life was quite extinct, the deceased having no doubt been immediately suffocated by inhaling the carbonic acid gas generated in the process of fermentation, and the soft dough stopping his mouth and nostrils. Mr. Pemberton sustained a loss of 31. or 41., as he gave orders to throw away the dough in which the deceased was smothered. It is supposed to have been an act of suicide.
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