The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-04 00:00:00

A MADMAN AT LARGE.

The Daily News gives the following account of a singular
scene In London, which was witnessed in Little auild-
ford•street, Southwark, on Saturday :
- - -

It appears that on Wednesday a man returned to his
home in that greet from a lunatic asylum, where he
had been coetined for a long time. Nothing very par-
ticular occurred until Saturday when he attracted the
attention of a large crowd by marching rapidly up and
down the street in front of the house, No. 17, Little
Guildford-street, saying he would bet any one 100 to 1,
or 1,000 to 1., and using other meaningless expressions.
After this he went into the house, and arming himeelf
with a handspike, commenced hacking down the win-
dows of the second-floor room overlooking the street. A
large crowd had by this time assembled, amongst them
being three police-officers, but none of them interfered.
The next proceeding of the infuriated man was to throw
the windows down into the street, fortunately without
injuring any one. These were speedily followed by
chairs, table, and earthenware, all broken into pieces.
Then came the bed and bedding and several other
articles. He threw a kettle of hot water out of the
window, and then the fire-stove, which he wrenched
' out of its place, and broke into atoms. Then with
the handspike, the man broke away a lot of thebrick-
work, and the wood of the room, all being thrown on
to the heap of debris below. The bystanders remon-
strated with the police as to the advisability of taking
the man into custody, but they—five in number by this
time—declared themselves unable to touch the man, or
to enter the house, as they had no warrant. To the
horror of the crowd, the man then got out of the win-
dow and sat upon the ledge, dangling his legs in the
air. About an hour and a half had now elapsed since
the man commenced this strange behaviour, which
seemed plainly to show a loss of reason. Having sat
on the window-sill for some minutes, he rushed from
the room into the street. Then there was a scene of
almost indescribable confusion, for though several
persons tried to hold him, it was impossible. as he
had no clothes on. One man, however, obtained a
rope, and the poor madman was apparently captured.
Being a powerful man he managed to escape, and ran
from Guildford-street to the Mint, followed by the
mob and the police. Eventually he was stopped, and
surrounded, just at the door of the St. George's Work-
house, into which he was thrust. Here he became
more violent, and kicked at those who surrounded
him. At length he was bound, and Dr. Smith, of
Newington-causeway, was called in to examine him.
That gentleman pronounced him to be raving mad,
and ordered his immediate removal to a place of safety.
The man's wife eventually made her appearance, and
stated that her husband, who has been a soldier, was
named Jones, and had received a sunstroke, which had
ended in a fit of madness. He had been in an asylum
and only, on Wednesday last came home for a month,
apparently recovered. She did not know of anything
to cause the sudden outbreak. Shortly afterwards
Jones was taken by three warders and a constable to
the lunatic asylunLat Beeolcwoo