The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-10-11 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The number of visitors to the Health Exhibition last
week was was 220,951; the total since the opening is
3,317,829.
At Ashton-under-Lyne on Saturday morning a
steeple-jack named Christopher Delaney fell from a
factory chimney and was instantly killed.
On Saturday at the mills of Messrs. MTarland and
Co., Carre,,cans, Londonderry, a young man was caught
by a revolving shaft and carried through the machi-
nery, sustaining such injuries as to cause instantaneous
death.

As the Brussels express was leaving the Admiralty
Pier, Dover, on Saturday afternoon, for London' a
labourer, employed on the line, attempted to cross the
rails, and was knocked down and cut in two. He
leaves a widow and ten children. - -

_
The Luton magistrates on Se turday committed for
trial George and Edwin John Palmer, builders, of
Luton, father and son, for alleged conspiracy to defraud
creditors. The evidence in the case, which is the first
prosecution in the district under the new Bankruptcy
Act, went to prove various alleged bogus deeds between
the prisoners.
A quarryman living at Bethesda, North Wales,
named Robert Jones, was shot through the head on
Saturday night by a farm servant named Roberts, and
he died in a few miuutes. The men were not quarrelling,
and Roberts. who is custody, states that he did not
know that the gun was loaded.
A dresulful accident occurred at Wolverhampton on
Saturday. Two men, named James Wild and Robert
Berry, in the service of the London and North-Western
Railway Company, were run over by a train and
killed. Their bodies were shockingly mutilated, being,
in fact, cut to pieces.
An elderly man was discovered about a mile from
Penzance, on the Cornwall Railway, about six o'clock
on Saturday 'evening, with his head severed from his
body. He has been recognised as a tramp, and must
have got over tho hedge from the turnpike road to
reach the railway line.
On Saturday afternoon the men employed at the
Milnewood Ironworks, near Coatbridgc, received all the
money due to them, their services being no longer
required. Several hundred men are affected by this
sten-
On Tuesday afternoon a large foundry in Liverpool,
in course of alteration, collapsed. Several persons who
were in the place at the time had narrow escapes. One
man was injured and had to be removed to the hos-
pital.
At the Whitby Police-court on Tuesday, Thomas
Hutchinson and William James Hutchinson, fishermen,
were fined ao and costs for smuggling 441 b. of tobacco,
received from a Dutch " coopering " lugger on the
Yorkshire coast. The tobacco was confiscated and has
been destroyed.
One of the most handsome viaduct in the North,
over the River Esk, at the Whitby end of the new
Scarborough and Whitby Railway, is approaching com-
pletion. The structure has cost £50,000.

A fire occurred on Saturday moruing at the Cheap-
side Mills, Batley, Yorkshire, belonging to Messrs.
Taylor and Co. The damage, which is estimated at
£5OOO, is covered by insurance.
On Saturday night an explosion occurred at the
engine-house and boiler at Lord Dudley's No. 23, Salt-
wells Colliery, near Dudley, wrecking the boiler and
renderings all the fittings useless. A tin can, used for
carrying explosives, was found in the fire hole, where
also have been discovered portions of another can which
smelt very strongly of gunpowder, and a second boiler
escaped injury, and efforts are being made to imme-
diately resume werli. The place is an open works,
where labourers and inexperienced colliers can obtain
coal with little difficulty, and it is situated away from
the rest of the district.

- Daring the early hours of Sunday morning the ther-
mometer went down to 30 degrees at Lou2lborough,3s
at York, 36 at Oxford and Parsonstown, and 37 in
London.

Mr. Wm. Richard Ransome, the well-known agricul-
turist, has died of paralysis, at his residence, Coursers
Ridge, Herts. The deceased, who was aged 62 years,
was an active member of t..e Hefts Agricultural
Society.
An accident occurred on Saturday night at the
Sheffield Station of the Manchester line by which about
a dozen persons were more or less injured. As the
Rotheram train was going out the engine struck the
van of another passenger train. The shock threw the
passengers in the first carriage into great confusion,
and several of them were severely cut and bruised about
the head. One little girl, it is feared, received con-
cussion of the brain.

At Wolverhampton, whilst a young girl, named Edith
Mary Wiley, was standing in front of a drapery shop
in Queen-square a large stone forming part of the
cornice of the building, which is a very high one, fell
upon her, and she received such injuries that she died
shortly afterwards.
Prince Henry, the second son of the German Crown
Prince, will, about the middle of October, proceed to
Kiel, in order to attend the lectures at the Naval
Academy. He will be promoted at Christmas to the
rank of naval captain lieutenant, and will go again next
spring on a lengthened voyage abroad.
The rains have caused a wash out on the railway near
Bay fled, Wisconsin, U.S.A., into which a train plunged
on Thuisday. Two persona were killed and fourteen
injured.
M. Charles Huber, who was travelling in the interior
of Arabia in the service of the French Ministre de
l'lnstruction Publique (formerly together with Pro-
fesser Euting, of Strasburg), has been murdered near
Labegh (Rabegh ?) by Bedouins of the Han l tribe. His
Arabian servant Mahmoud has met the same fate.
The new rooms devoted to the National Art Library
at South Kensington Museum was opened for public
use on Friday. Theire are in the library upwards of
60,000 volumes and over 190,000 drawings, designs,
engravings, prints, and photographs, all bearing upon
art. The number of readers has reached a normal
yearly average of 24,000. The new reading rooms will
accommodate 160 readers with comfort.
Orders which have been issued directing the collec-
tion of the Herat revenue in money have been can-
celled, and the system of payment in kind has been
restored, being convenient both to the Government and
to the people, and measures are being taken to stock
Verat with supplies.

Liveri,vol and Manchester are now connected by tele'
phone, whlch will be opened when the license of the
Postmaster-Oeneral is obiwined. _

About 1000 children were recorded as absent on
Bromley morning from the board school in Aberdeen
through an epidemii . of measles.
James Linton and Elizabeth Burns were committed
for the} at the assizes by the Whitehaven magistrates
on Blonaay for robbing with violence Ederath Cunning-
ham of Workington. The prorecutor vras struck,
knocked down, seized by the throat, kickedyanel robbed
of his money. Linton iva.dischargeasoldier.
A young widow, who bed apparently had sucte•differ-
ence about money matterewitla a member of the Royal
Marine Artillery band, whit that band was playing on
The pier at Souchsea on Manday, went. tnthe refresh-
ment room, and there sudderAy swallowed a•quantity of
laudanum. She was removed to the hospital fir a
critical condition.

At a town's meeting held in Manchester on, Monday
afternoon a resolutkin was passed by an overwhelming
ma,jority declaring that the meeting consented to the,
mayor and aldermen promoting, in coniunction with.
others, the Ship Canal Bill, and contributing out- or the
city rates towards the cost a sum not' exceeding-2d. its
the pound. A poll was demanded on behalf of the
North-Western Railway.
On-the occasion of the liberation from Clonmel
on Monday of a farmer named Carey, who had been
sentenced to seven days' imprisonment for trespass on,
an evicted farm near Cahn-, there was- a, singular
demonstration. A fife and drum band awaited him:
outside the gaol, and he was marched at the head a
a procession towards Cahir, the band playing nationat
airs.

An event took place on Monday which indicated the'
gracious interest taken by the Queen in the personal,
concerns of her servants at Balmoral. A young man,.
the son of Mr. Thomson, the superintendent of roads,
and walks on the estate of Balmoral, died on Friday
last, and his remains were interred in the churchyard
of Crathie on Monday afternoon. The Queen) who was,
accompanied by Princess Beatrice, left the Castle in
an open carriage at the hour appointed for the funeral.
and drove to a point where the cortege passed to the
old kirkyard. Her Majesty also sent a. beautiful
wreath to the parents of the lad, to be placed upon his.
coffin, and a wreath was also sent by Princess- Beatrice.
A boiler in a coachbuilder's works at Yeaman Shore,
Dundee, suddenly exploded on Monday morning, with
disastrous results. One man was killed on the spot..
another was so badly injured that he was conveyed to.
the infirmary where he afterwards died, and a. third
man received serious injuries; and is under medical
treatment. Nothing is known as to the cause of the-
explosion.
The Liverpool police have discovered a portion of the
clothing of the girl Pollard, whose nude body was found
in the canal under suspicious circumstances. The lock
in which the body was found had been dragged without
avail, but on Sunday it was emptied to allow of repairs.
being made, when part of the girl's clothing was found
in the mud. A reward of E. 5 had been offered for the
recovery of the clothes.
A woman named Bridget Leonard was remanded by
the Hanley magistrates on Monday morning on a charge
of wounding another woman named Margaret Stanton,
residing in the next house to her, on Saturday. Leonard,
who had an old grievance against Stanton, rushed at
her, exclaiming she would eat her alive, and getting
her right hand in her mouth, bit the end of the fore-
finger clean off, and otherwise maltreated her.
The large number of 103 actual shipwrecks was re-
ported during the past week, chiefly owing to the loss
of 79 vessels off Iceland in a cyclone. The total wrecks
for the year are thus raised to 1149, comparing with
1148 at this time last year, when the wrecks for the
week amounted to only 36. Of the above total for the
past week only 21 are reported as British-owned, the
vessels lost at Iceland being principally Norwegian.
Five vessels (all British) sunk off Great Britain, five
sunk by collision, two destroyed by fire, four abandoned
at sea.

Afire broke out on Monday morning at the silver
works of Messrs. Vivian and Sons, at Swansea. Before
the flames could be extinguished a large building in
which the smelting is done was destroyed, much valu-
able machinery being spoiled, and a quantity of silver
lost. _ _ _ _

Shortly after passing Weybridge on Monday, the
guard of the London and South-Western train, which
left Bournemouth at eleven o'clock, noticed smoke
issuing from the footboard of the luggage van in the
middle of the train. He immediately signalled the
driver to stop, which he did at Walton Station, and on
examination it was discovered that the axle of the van
had become overheated and had set fire to the woodwork
of the carriage. After the fire had been extinguished
and the van uncoupled the train proceeded on its
journey to Waterloo,where it arrived about an hour and
a half behind the advertised time. The accident caused
some excitement among the passengers.
At Manchester, on Monday, Catherine O'Malley,
lodging-house keeper, was remanded on a charge of
causing the death of James Malone, a lodger. The de-
ceased went home drunk on the 28th ult. and made a
disturbance. He was told to leave the house or go to
bed, but he declined, and struck prisoner in the mouth.
She thereupon snatched up a poker and struck him on
the head, fracturing his skull in several places. in con-
seauerxe of which he died.

An inquiry into the charges agitinst the police in
connection with the recent prosecutions instituted by
Mr. Alderman Norton was conducted on Tuesday by
the Poole magistrates the Mayor, Mr. H. Trevanion,
presiding. Superintendent Hunt, two sergeants, mid
two constables were examined, and it was agreed to
send the evidence to the Rome Secretary as a reply to
his inquiries on the subject.
A fire was discovered on Monday evening in the
carriage works of Messrs. Wilson and Hull, Northamp-
ton. The flames rapidly got a strong hold of the in-
flammable contents of the workshops, and great
exertions were made to save the contiguous buildings.
Several small tenements were destroyed and the
tenants rendered homeless. The damage is consider-
able, amounting at the carriage works alone to several
thousand pounds.
While assisting to put a strap on a pipe-boring lathe
on Tuesday morning at the Skinton Ironworks, near
Nottingham, a young man named Joseph Guttridge
was caught by the strap, dragged over the pulleys, and
killed. t
A curious case of wrongful conviction came before
the Swaffham magistrates on Tuesday. A month ago
a man named Smith was convicted before them of
night-poaching on the evidence of three gamekeepers,
who swore positively to him, and he was sent to
Norwich Castle for three months' hard labour. On
Monday a man named Scale was summoned by the pri-
soner's mother' charged with the same offence, and he
admitted that he was the guilty party and not Smith.
The magistrates directed a report of the proceedings to
be sent to the Home Secretary, and application has
been made for Smith's release. One of the gamekeepers
in the above case also charged a man named Stapleton,
on September 22, with attempting to fish from a river,
and, as the identity in this case was doubtful, the
hearing was adjourned till Monday, when it turned out
that the wrong man was summoned, and the solicitor
for the prosecution withdrew the charge, paying all
costs.

On Tuesday, at the Bushell Police-court, William
Blakemore, certificated manager of the Aldridge Col-
liery, near Walsall, was, on the complaint of the mines'
inspector, fined 20s. and costs for not keeping the inter-
communication between the shafts of the statutory
dimensions. Convictions were also recorded in two
other cases of allowing the roof of the roadway to be
insecure, and for not properly fencing the communica-
tions between the seam and the shaft.
A man named Edward Slaven, an ironworker, who
figured as one of the principals in the party riot at
Coatbridge in August, 1883, and for which he was con-
victed and sentenced to eight months' hard labour, was
brought before Sheriff Mair, at Airdrie, on Tuesday,
charged with assaulting the police while in the dis-
charge of their duty at Whiffiet by throwing stones,
whereby Constable Lamont was seriously injured.
Slaven was sent to gaol for another three months.
A. man named Charles Jackson, of no settled resi-
dence, was at Manchester, on Tuesday, charged with
robbing a farmer named James Read, living at
Partington, Cheshire, of £2OO by means of. the confi-
dence trick. He met the farmer in Market-street, and
induced him to go to an hotel, where he told him that
he had been entrusted to distribute a large sum of
money to charities, and asked him to be one of his
almoners. The farmer consented, and the prisoner
then told him to come next day with some money as a
deposit to prove his honesty, and Read met him next
day at the same hotel, and handed over £2OO. When
he got the money prisoner pretended to place the large
Bum he had promised to entrust to the man for distri-
bution into a bag, and then escaped. The bag was
found to contain only a few papers. He was remanded
to allow Read to appear.
At the Portsmouth Police-court on Tuesday, David
Clements, alias Buxton, 31, was committed to the assizes
on a charge of highway robbery with violence, in a
populous part of the town between ten and eleven
o'clock on Monday night. He had attacked an artillery-
man named Rees, half throttling him and kicking him
in the eye, after emptying his pockets. He was, how-
ever, followed by a comrade of the prosecutor, and cap-
tured. The Depot Battery 3rd Brigade Royal Artillery,
to which Rees belongs, being ordered to India, he askad
to be allowed to go with them, but was told that he
would be sent to goal if he did not enter into his own
recognisances to prosecute. .
An accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon at Ports-
mouth, resulting in the partial destruction of a bridge
over which passengers cross the railway, a short dis-
tance from the lower railway station. It is supposed
that a train was backed by mistake into a siding, and,
w
coming into contact with the bridge, carried the end
away. A telegraph post was knocked down, and a
•
child playing on the bridge sustained injuries.
At Sheffield, on Tuesday, a 'boy, named Collis
Frederick Unston, was charged with placing an obstruc-
tion on the Midland Railway, in the shape of a heavy
chain coupling. On the 9th Septembei the lad, whilst
walking near the line, picked up a chain coupling and
whole
hcircumstance
slaughtered,l: froni the disease.
The wh,
h all
t h thee
exception cattle
were
ee
of
La' ton as ea
s This hen did three times,
ght in the wheels
of a passing engine and removed. The lad was ordered
to receive six strokes with a birch rod.
Twenty-seven head of cattle suffering from pneumonia
have been slaughtered at Major Boyd's farm, Crofton.
It is a singularerd
apnladce uditiimt
aateicroyss thteheobmster
bred on the farm, and that none of the beasts on the
adjoining estates have yet suffered
three calves, which appeared to be uninfected, and the
district has been declared an infected area. ••
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the. mean
reading of the barometer last week was 29.98 iii. The
mean temperature was 53.7 deg., and 01 deg.. lielyw
T was
e
the average in the corresponding week of 20 'years.
The mean showed an excess on Sunday and Menday,
whereas it was below the average during the remainder

of the week.
In London last week 2610 births and 1329 deaths were
registered, the former having been 12, and the latter
117, below the average numbers in the corresponding
periods of the last ten years. The annual death-rate
from all causes, which in the seven preceding weeks
had declined from 2r2 to 16.1 per thousand, rose again
to 17.2. There were 10 deaths from smallpox, 12 from
measles, 26 fro scarlet fever, 21 from diphtheria,
11 from whooping-cough, 18 from enteric fever, and_
70 from dysentery. • -