The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-07-12 00:00:00

DEATHS BY DROWNING.

On Monday afternoon a number of boys were
bathing in a pool from Mt. to Bft. deep in the Old
Channel of the Spey, near Elgin, when two of them,
James Young, aged 5, and Daniel Morrison, aged 12,
went beyond their depth. They could not swim, and
their cries attracted the attention of some fishermen,
but before they could reach the spot both boys had
sunk. Their bodies were recovered, but life in each
case was extinct.

On Monday a coroner's inquest was held on the
bodies of two lads, named Wilson M'Coosh and
Samuel Stewart, who resided near Lisburn. They
left their homes early in the morning, and it appears
bathed in the River Legan in the vicinity of Gllen-
more. After noon they had a second bathe in the
river. Stewart got out of his depth, and was strug-
gling for life in the middle of the river when M'Coosh
immediately proceeded to try and rescue his com-
panion, but all hope of rescue was lost, and both were
drowned. The jury returned a verdict of "Acci-
dental Death."

. One of the Royal Irish Constabulary, named
Patrick Tracey, has been drowned near Stewartstown,
county Tyrone, while bathing in a small lake adjacent
to the town. Ile was accompanied by another police-
man, who was unable to switn, and accordingly could
render no assistance.

TIIE BITTER CRY. --Brown (of the Daily Chrono-
graph) : "Well, good-bye, old man; I can't ask you
to liquor, I'm off to "Slum" for our people, so I've
left my purse at home." Jones (rising artist on the
Grapbistrated) "Ha ! Why, I've done just the
same. I'm on the sketch for a fancy fair, you
know. Ta-ta! Better luck next time." [Exeunt]
—Fun.

A NODEL SCHOOL TEACHER.

A tolerably athletic young man took a certain
school to teach years ago in Western New York after
a number of pedagogues had tried it and given it up
in despair. The big boys had driven the teachers
away inrariably, and tbie discouragement was so com-
plete the first day that they were not willing to under-
take a second editios.

This young man took hold with s. full knowledge
of the difficulty, and with a hope that he could un-
met He was mild-mannered, alnd he opened 'the
school the first day with a pleading smile on his
lips that made even the small boys reckless. He
was taking the names of the children, and pro-
gressed without difficulty till he came to John Tar-
box, the ring-leader of the unruly ones, and the boy
who always gave the signal for "trouncing the
master."

The new teacher approached him with a sweet
smile on his face, and said: '

"Now, will you tell me your name, please? '9
The boy leaned back in his seat, put his feet over
the top of the desk, and looked cross-eyed at the new
telcher, while all the school roared.

"Please tell me your name," repeated the teacher
pleadingly, and without noticing this rudeness.
" Wal, drawled the fellow, "sometimes they call
me Bob, and sometimes they call me Pete, and some-.
times they call me somethin' else, but you better not
call me anything."
The mild-looking teacher had been expecting all
this; there he had the advantage. He had prepared
himself for a fight, not a fight for a minute but for an
hour or a day, if need be; he had been in a manner
trained for it, and so, just as the last words were out
of the boy's mouth he dealt the big lubber a blow
between the eyes that stunned him, and then grasping
him by the collar dragged him headlong over the seats,
stood him up on the floor with a jam, and thundered
out—

"What is your name?"
"John Tarbox !" exclaimed the boy promptly, and
with his eyes fairly bulging from his eyes.
"Very well. Take your
.seat, John," said the
teacher. And John took it.

There was no more difficulty, and at the end of
the season that school was said to be the best in the
country.