The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-02-07 00:00:00

IMPORTANT ARREST.

An import-tia-a-r;e;t--an—d discovery were made by
the police in connection with the dynamite explosion
at the Tower. Inspectors Jarvis and Aberline, acting
on information received, proceeded shortly after five
o'clock to a house in Whitechapel, and took into cus-
tody a man whose name has not transpired, but win
is believed to be an accomplice of the prisoner
Cunningham, at present under remand. In the man's
possession was found a brown box, heavily weighted,
which, there is little doubt, is the box that, according
to the evidence given before the magistrates, was re-
moved from Cunningham's lodgings. The police
regard tke arrest of great importance, and inquiries
have been actively made, with the result, it as under-
stood, that further evidence in the case has been
obtained.

The other day a telegram was advertised as lying
at the Western Union Office addressed to a well-
known lithographing firm. The manager went up to
the office. "Why in thunder didn't you deliver this?'
"t didn't know you kept an employment office.'
"Employment office be banged! This is for some
lithographs." The telegram was from a theatrical
agent , and read' "Send isle one ballet girl and one
Indiari Ptincesi."

DETERMINED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSI-
-3' ATE O'DONOVAN ROSS&

THE AGITATOR THRICE SHOT BY A
WOMAN.

Rossa and his followers held a meeting last Sunday
night in New York, and rejoiced loudly over the
London explosions. The newspapers generally refused
to report the meeting, on the ground that Rossa is a
braggart who gets his living by pretending to be a
terror to England.
O'Donovan Rossa, says a New York telegram of the
2nd inst., was shot this afternoon whilst leaving his
office, by a woman who was at first supposed to be the
wife of Phelan. He was shot three times in the back.
Rossa was taken to the hospital in a critical condition.
The assassin proves to be an English girl, about
twenty-five, and good-looking. She speaks with a
strong English accent. When arrested and asked her
motive she said, "I shot him because he is O'Dono-
van Rossa." The pistol is a small one, and was fired
five times. He was hit just under the left shoulder-
blade, and on arrival at the hospital the doctors
probed the wound. Rossa's depositions were
taken, it being at first feared that he would not re-
cover. The affair caused intense excitement amongst
the Irish.
Only one shot took effect. The wound was, later
in the evenings pronounced dangerous, but not neces-
sarily fatal. It is not known whether the girl had
confederates, though there is a rumour that another
arrest had been made. The woman gave the name of
Yseult Dudley. She says she is a native of England,
a hospital nurse by occupation. She came from Eng-
land five months ago. When taken to the police-
station she handed the officer the revolver, saying,
"I guess all is empty now." She said she was a
widow, 25 years of age. She answered all the ques-
tions quietly and deliberately, and seems perfectly
sane. She says she had an interview with Rossa on
Saturday, and met him again, by appointment, in
a letter written to her by him. She is well dressed,
wears spectacles and looks like a so.hool teacher. The
bystanders say le coolly drew the revolver and fired.
At the first shot Rossa 'threw up his hands above his
bead exclaiming, "I'm shot," and fell heavily to the
ground. She emptied the remaining four barrels at
him as be lay prostrate, and calmly walked away with
the smoking weapon in her hand. She was followed
by a large crowd and arrested without resistance. Rossa
is lying in the same hospital with Phelan, whose cot
is near. The latest report says the wound will not be
fatal.

The Philadelphia correspondent of the Times,
writing on the 3rd instant, says: The shooting of
Rossa absorbs the public attention. His wound is
not a dangerous one, but this fact causes general
regret, and it is generally held here that he richly
deserves to be killed. His assailant, Mrs. Yseult

Dudley, is a little Englishwoman, with. a pleasant, in-
tellectual face. She is a nurse by profession, and is
aged 25. Her husband and two children died abroad.
She had been a nurse in hospitals in both London
and Paris, and holds several certificates. Her father
has been a British cavalry soldier. Mrs. Dudley's
friends describe her as a woman of keen, bright,
intelligence, and of intense patriotic feeling. She
became excited when the news arrived of the recent
explosions in London, declaring that America should
surrender Rossa to England. She bought his
newspaper, and appears to have formed last week a
plan for entrapping him. Mrs. Dudley on Saturday
afternoon sent a letter to O'Donovan Rossa at his office
in Chambers-street, stating that a lady wished to see
him. She added that the lady was interested in the
Irish cause and desired to assist it, but did not care
to visit his office. She would, therefore, await
him at the corner of Chambers - street and
Broadway. O'Donovan Rossa accordingly met her
and walked with her to Sweeny's Hotel. O'Donovan
Rosen says that they entered the ladies' parlour.
She told him that she would be able to give a con-
siderable sum of money if anything good could be
done, and that she would call again on Monday after-
noon. Rossa does not say what else transpired at
this interview, but Mrs. Dudley's friends state that
on Sunday she declared that she had had an inter-
view with Rossa cn Saturday, and she had Rossa's
word for it that he could get a ton of dynamite in
New York, that he knew and was in league with those
who made it, and that he did not care if they stopped
its export and import. Mrs. Dudley added that some-
body would be even with O'Donovan Rossa yet.
On Monday afternoon she sent another message
to Rossa at his office, and he joined her at the
street corner. She showed him a receipt, which he
was to sign for the money to be contributed, and sug-
gested that they should go somewhere for the pur-
pose. Rossa's statement is that he said the paper
contained the word " dynamite " and that he objected
to sign it, remarking that he received money for no
such purposes—he "only collected aid for the
Irish cause: Rossa, however, put the paper in
his pocket, and they then walked together along
Chambers-street towards Broadway. On nearing
the corner, Rossa says that she suddenly stepped
back and drew a pistol, with which she fired several
shots at him. Mrs. Dudley is very near-sighted
and wore glasses. She fired five shots, the first
one only striking him. She continued firing until
she had emptied the five-chambered revolver in her
hand. It was early in the evening and crowds of
people were in the streets, so that she was quickly
seized, still holding the smoking pistol, and taken
without resistance to the police-station. Rossa, when
the shot struck him in the blck, below the left
shoulder-blade, fell on the pavement. He afterwards
rose and walked towards his office. Somebody sug-
gested that he should go to the hospital, and with
two companions assisting him, he walked to the
Chambers-street Hospital about a quarter of a
mile distant bleeding considerably on the
way. A great crowd soon surrounded the
hospital, and the news of the shooting quickly
spread throughout the city, causing great excitement.
Mrs. Dudley, during the polica examination, was self-
possessed, answered some questions, and declined to
answer others. She readily 'told who she was, and
detailed her antecedents. She was asked if she knew
the person whom she had shot. She replied coolly,
witt an English accent, "Yes, I shot O'Donovan
Boise." She declined to say why she had shot him,
and also refused to grant any interviews. Later in
the evening she asked about Rossa's condition, and
seemed sorry when told that he still lived. Rossa
at the hospital was assigned a bed near Phelan's,
the man who was recently assaulted and
stabbed in Rossa's office. Phelan appeared to be
pleased at the fact that Rossa had been shot. An
examination of the wound showed that the ball had
not touched the spinal column or lung. It was
evidently lodged in the muscles of the back. Rossa,
beyond the effects of the shock, is suffering little.
The probing was unsuccessful. The doctors pro-
nounced that he was not in danger, but he made an
ante-nwrtem statement, in which he described the
shooting, declaring that Mrs. Dudley was an agent of
the British Minister or somebody else. Rossa after-
wards turned over all his papers, including letters
received from Mrs. Dudley, to Mr. Patrick Joyce.
The friends of Mrs. Dudley generally assert that
she has been partly mad on the subject of dyna-
mite. She appears to have acted entirely on her
own responsibility, having thoroughly duped Rossa
into the belief that she intended to give him a hand-
some contribution for the dynamite cause. The
British Consul at New York says that he knows
nothing of her. Rossa's friends visited the hospital
in great numbers throughout the night. He re-
peatedly declared that the shooting was a premedi-
tated affair, and that it was the work of the English
Government, whose policy had always been to assassi-
nate the men whom they could not otherwise reach.
Telegrams received from all parts of America
show that great interest has been excited by the
attempt on Rossa's life. Much excitement was caused
by the news in the Canadian House of COMMORS at
Ottawa, where the first report stated that he had
been killed. When the later reports said that the
wound was not dangerous there was a marked exhibi-
tion of disappointment. Much sympathetic feeling
is expressed in New York for Mrs. Dudley. Several
Americans express a desire to subscribe to a fund
for her defence. Rarely has public opinion been
shown so strongly favourable to any accused per-
son. American newspapers universally show detes-
tation of Rosen. The New York World says:
"Perhaps there is a society in England for the
suppression of American dynamiters. There is food
for reflection in the thought. Rossa is now in a
position to partake of it." The New York Herald says :
"It is an odd but a natural commentary upon the
method of Irish Revolutionists that in one half-hour
an English spinster, with a little pistol of the size of
a perfume bottle, has done more execution upon
himself than Roma in twenty years of swaggering and
roaring has done upon the English nation. It is
another peculiar indication, due, no doubt, to differ-
ence of breed, that when an Englishwoman had
imagined it was time somebody should be hurt,
she did not send any one upon the dangerous errand,
did not take care to be on the other side
of the ocean at the time, but went and
found the enemy, and paid her respects to him face
to face. These are little points that agitators of
revolution may profitably reflect upon." The Herald
says it regrets that Chambers-street Hospital is being
filled with people like Rossa and Phelan, as respect-
able citizens might some day be honestly hurt and
need a place there. The Philadelphia inquirer says
that decent people will be more pained than pleased
to learn Rossa's wound is not considered mortal. The
New York nibune remarks: "In no case is there
likely to be much sympathy for the victim. He has
been preaching assassination for years. It is
not surprising that some one should take
him at his word." The New York Times says:
"If. O'Donovan Rossa as an Irishman is justified
in inflicting injuries, or claiming as his own injuries
inflicted upon persons or property of casual English-
men, he must accord like belligerent rights to casual
Englishmen. Whoever finds him will naturally slay
him. He cannot condemn the slayer. Sauce for the
tyrannical Saxon goose must be sauce also for the
oppressed Celtic gander." In the police examination
Mrs. Dudley said she had been in New York about
four months. Being asked why she shot him, she
answered, "Because he, is O'Donovan Rossa andl ars
English." She had an interview during the night with
a reporter of the Tribune. She asked, " Wilrgossa
die ? " The answer was that the doctors thought
he Ira recover. She replied, "Oh ! that's bad,
that's bad." The reporter said that the ball had not
yet been found. She renlied with ionie animation.

Rossa

"Then there is still nope. She afterwards made the
following statement: "I have no relatives in this
country. lam in it but a few months. I do not
suppose the people with whom I boarded have heard
of the affair yet, but that man ought to die. He is a
villain. I did not believe what the newspapers said
of him. It was all too horrible, but they have not
told half the truth about him. He has convicted him-
self oui, of his own mouth. I determined to satisfy my-
self about him. I wrote to him about the Emergency
Fund. I told him that I took an interest in the work
he was doing for Ireland. He answered my letter,
and made an appointment with me. We met on
Saturday at Sweeney's Hotel. I asked him if it were
true that he was at the bottom of the dynamite ex-
plosions in England. He said he was. Then I said
to him, 'But think of the awful wrong you are doing
in killing innocent women and children." What is
the death of a few women and children compared to
the wrong that Ireland has suffered at English
hands?' he said. Then I made up my mind that
be was the worst villain on the face of the
earth. I determined to kill him. I met him this
afternoon by appointment. He had told me every-
thing about his schemes. I had no doubt at all
about his wickedness. I felt that he was too bad a
man to live." " Were any of your friends killed or
injured in any of the dynamite explosions in Eng-
, land ?" "All English are my friends," was the
reply. "Before meeting Rossa to-day had you
determined on making an attempt on his life ?"
"Yes. There was nothing to be gained, perhaps
much to be lost, by waiting. We met in the street.
I told him it was not a proper place. He said we
might go to an hotel. We turned to go, but seeing
an open door, Rossa said we might stand in the
hallway. It was then I shot him." "Were you
perfectly cool at the time ? " "Perfectly. I was as
cool as lam now; but he fell at the first shot. I
suppose that disconcerted my aim."
Mrs. Dudley further said, "I used the receipt to
attract his attention. I could not ask him to stand
still until I could get my pistol out of my pocket,
where I carried it, and shoot him; so I expected to
fire while he was signing the receipt. I have had
many conversations with Rossa. On Saturday he
showed me the cypher they used. He also told me
during conversations I had with him of many of his
plans,*