The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-03-06 00:00:00

tIVE STOTTRERIDC4E OBSERVER.

that he was treasurer of a soclety and had to pay the
money in the morning. The sum of £29 10a. 7d. was
found in a box in his house, that being, as was ad-
mitted, the sum wlahl he ought to pay over to the
memhersof the society. The BUM of money stolen was
£65 sa. 81. Thv police then asked him if he had lost
a can bd. He said he had. They said, "This has
'l'. B. upon it," and the prisoner said, "If it has T. B.
Upon it it is mine." The can was on the table at the
time, and the lid fitted it. The lid smelt strongly
of creosote ; the can did not. This was the lid
which had been found in the guard's van. The
I prisoner's boots were drying before the tire, and
were taken by the police and ccmpared with the
footmarks by the side of the line, with which they
corresponded. Upon being charged the prisoner said,
"I don't care for myself; it is my wife and children I
care about." No clock weight was found to be miming
at tne prisoner's house although he had two clocks.
No money-bags were found there. When be was
taken to the police-office his hands and clothes smelt
strongly of creosote. He accounted for his clothes
and hands smelling of creosote by saying that he had
handled the lid of the can which the police had shewn
to him. The pollce said that he had never touched the
Ican. Betwven the Edgbaston station and the spot
where the hoz was found a small cask and fragments
of a glass hottle were fotuld by the site of the line.
The prisoner made the following statement when in
the gaol :
All right. I admit buying the stuff. A man came to me
and scraped an llegllftilitallee With me, and he asked me to
get some creosote at Northampton, saying he had a job to
smoke some hams. I said. "Cannot you get it here ?" lie
"Yea, but you can get it stronger and more of it there."
Ile gave me a two-Ridding piece and a small bottle. I can-
not account for the lid getting into the van except by nky-
larking. You kuow what men are, flinging their things
about.
The prisoner did not meotion the name of the man
who had asked him to buy the creosote. At 12.20 the
prisoner was seen near his own house, and going to-
wards it. .

For the prosecution the theory was that the prisoner
had made away with the funds of the society; and, in
despair at has ing to account for them the next day,
had determined to commit the daring deed with which
he was charged. That having bought the creosote he
got on the last carriage of the train while the train was ,
starting, passed between it and the van, poured the
creosote from the bottle into the lid of the can, flung
the creosote into the guard's eyes, threw the box out
at the door, jumped from the train, broke open the
box, and retuned home by 12 20, having cut open the
money bags and secured a SUM just sufficient to inty
the demands of the society.
For the defence it VALS contended that the prisoner's
character was most excellent • that he WAN not shown
to have been near the train; that the man who told
him to get the creosote might have got possi-ssion of
the lid of his can to throw suspicion upon him ; that
he might have been concealed in the back division of
the van, which communicated with the part where the
money was kept, and that he might have got the
money and run off with it ; that none of the bags
were traced to the prisoner, and that there was no
evidence at all of his having embezzled the funds
of the society; that the evidence of boot-marks led to
nothing, as it was his duty to be at that spot loading
sand ; that the smell of creosote upon his clothes was
accounted for either by the fact that he had bought
some for the supposed thief, or that he was at work
upon the line, and that in the process of steeping the
sleepers in creosote, which is generally done, some
might have got upon his clothes ; that it was itnpos-
sible the prisoner could have done the deed and reached
home at 12 20. . _ .

'I hese were the main features of this curious case,
which lasted from 11 • 'll 6'30. _

The jury found a verdict of Guilty.
His Lordship, in jg sentence, said that the act
of the prisoner showed a nerve and skill such as he
had never heard of before. The prisoner was a ser-
vant of the railway company, and was not pressed by
want RS many eriminuls were. He hail inflicted a
frightful injury upon the guard, from which the surgeon
had stated he would never completely recover. He
hardly knew how any sentence he could pass would be
adequate to the crime committed. His lordship passed
sentence of ten years' penal servitude.

Icy E !—ln the American news we find that '
"an Ice Bridge has been formed near the falls." We
should imagine there would be a great many falls near
the ice bridge.—Punch.
DRUNKENNISS AS A DISFASIL—Dr. Bacon read
a paper on thissubject at the last meeting of the Cam-
bridge University Medical Society. He noticed the
prevalence of theevil in northern climates, and classified
drunkards as the casual, the chronic, and thoeein whom
the tendency to excessive indulgence was a purely
mental disease—a form of insanity called dipsomania.
The chronic drunkards he described as the most in-
tractabie—women preponderating over men—as gene-
rally the class above want, and often clever and agree-
able persons, though full of deceit, and capable of any
stratagem to gratify: their appetite for drink. The
vice of the disease is often tra.nsmitted. He quoted
Dr. Howe as showing that, in the State of Massa-
chusetts, of 300 idiots, as many as 145 were the off-
spring of intemperate parents. Dr. Bacon advocated
the establishment of ganitaria for the treatment of
inveterate drunkards, his amazing that such institu-
tions are so rare, and that we are as yet without legal
sanction for treating chronic or inveterate drunkenness
as a case of insanity or irresponsibility. Many a god
life and character would be saved if the law would give
this power to friends, subject to medical certification.
The very fear of being sent to such an institution
would operate powerfully in some cases. The study
of drunkenness ass disease is still imperfect, and would
well repay inure special attention than it has yet re-
ceived. .

Tills MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS—The Court of
Appeal of Naples has reversed the decision of the
Civil Tribunal of Salerno, by which it was decided
that a priest was always a priest, and was bound by
the obligations he centracted as such. The judgment
of the superior court directs that the marriage of the
priest Signor Liugi Triglia, with Signora Marianna
Montefusco (on w nose case the question arose), shall
be proceeded with according to law. The Appeal
Courts of Genoa, Palermo, and Trani had already de-
cided that they were valid after the ceremony was
performed, but by the judgment of the Neapolitan
Appeal Court the bgality of the principle is established.
In the present instance, also, the husband has neither
abjured his religion nor abandoned his profession as a
priest.
POOR MERCY NERVES A young woman
named Mercy Neeves residing in Brighton, met with
her death in a shocking manner on Sunday evening
last. She had been to visit her eister, who lives at
Southwick, near Brighton. In returning home she
went to the railway—the departure platform of which
is on the opposite side of the station to wLere her
sister lives, and hence she had to cross the rails. It
being a small station there is no bridge or anything by
which passengers cross over the line. The train was
approaching RR she WU preparing to cross; she, how-
ever, went forward, and succeeded in clesring the
engine. Scarcely had she done so, when she was
caught by the steps of one of the carriages and thrown
down. A portion of the train passed over her; her
legs were nearly separated from the body, and she was
also mutilated in other ways in a frightful manner.
The wheels of one of the waggons was upon her when
Ale was removed. The screams of the unfortunate
woman soon made known that an accident had hap-
pened, and much excitement prevailed among the
passengers. Death was instantaneous.
ARB.TRATION v. SiaiXEB.—An important con-
ference was held at Darlington on Monday between
the ironmasters of the north of England and repre-
sentatives of the workmen. The object of the con-
ference was to discuss the desirability of establishing
courts of arbitration in the northern ironstrade district,
and as prevent the periodical disputes and strikes
which have been so disastrous to both niasters and
men. A claim for an advance of wiiges consequent on
an improvement in the iron trade has lately been made
by the men, and the men in one or two instances, we
believe, suggested courts of arbitration. The chief
manufacturers. at a meeting held at Newcastle a week
since, fell in with the ides ; in fact, made a proposi-
tion for the present meeting. There was a pretty foil
meeting, mord of the works in the north of England
being represented. The increase of wages asked for
Was refused for the present. A joint committee of
masters and men was appointed to draw up rules for
establishing courts of arbitration and conciliation. The
conanittee is to report to a future meeting. The meet-
ing was of a most harmonious character throughout.

AN ANSWER IN lima—When you lament
that you are not well enough off to pursue your
favourite studies, travel, hunt, shoot, and fish, live
amid the surroundings you would like, dress like a
gentleman, and associate with your friends on equal
terms, some people pretend to offer you consolation
by bidding you compare your lot with that of a beggar,
and reminding you how many paupers there are in
the workhouse. As if anyone with a rightly-con-
stituted mind could derive any satisfaction from con-
sidering the unhappiness of others. —Punch.

- -
A PROTECTOR TURNED TRAITOR.—A most re-
markable story of coincidence comes to us from the
Middlesex Hospital, (says the Lay get.) On Christmas
Day, 1867, a young man Wan zarotted. Next day he
bou4ht a pistol, which frem th it time lie alwayscarried
about with him when out at sight. On Boxing I/ay,
18.68, ha went to a dance, snd, with proper regard to
consistency, took his pistol with him in the pocket of
his overcoat. When the party was over there was the
nsual search for Lots and coats, and the little room in
which these were placed was tilled with 12 or 14 per-
sons. One of this number took up the young man's
overcoat by mistake for his own, the trigger of the
pistil was accidentally jerked, and the weals 41 went
off, shooting its owner, who that day twelvemonth had
purchased it to protect his life ! He was adinitted into
hospital under Mr. de Morgan's care, with a dangerous
wound of the chest, from which he h s now happily
recoveied. After this, what critic oil! dare to corm
ment upon the improbabilities of sensation novels?

•
SIR JOHN PAKINOToN AND THE WORCESTER-
SHIRE HUNT. —A correspondence has been published
between Sir John Pak ington and Mr. Henry Al'Bopp,
of Hindlip Hall, near Worcester, with regard to the
alleged trapping of foxes by Sir John's keeper. Mr.
Allsopp had drawn attention to the fact that a large
trap with a pheasant close by, AR if for bait, had been
observed in one of Sir John Pakington's coverts, and
Mr. Allsopp's son had also seen several similar traps
lying about on the same beat. In a letter to Mr.
Allsoop, Sir John Pakington said, that in vindication
of his own good faith, he had felt bound to discharge
Simons, the keeper, although the latter had said
that the traps were only intended for trespassing dogs,
and that foxes would not go into them. Sir John
added that he could not conceal the regret with which
he discharged a faithful and valuable servant. Mr.
Allsopp, on the part of himself and some of Sir John
Pakington's friends, replied that the good faith of Sir
John had never been questioned, and requested that
Simone, on the strength of long and valuable services,
should be reinstated in his position.
THE NEW RATING BILL.—Mr. Goschen's bill
for amending the laws with respect to rates assessed
upon occupiers for short terms has been printed. It is
to enable occupiers of tenements, whose rents are pay-
able at shorter perieds than quarterly, to pay rates
and deduct the same from their r. nts ; but overseers
are rot to be prevented from entering into an agreement
to collect the rates from the owner whenever such
agreement may now lawfully be made. No occupier
is to he compelled to psy a greater amount of the rate
than would be due for one quarter of the year, nor
more than twice the amount of the rent payable accord-
ing to the period for which the same is reserved. In
ascertaining the rateable value an allowance of 25 per
cent, from the gross estimated rental is to lie made in
respect to the liability imposed upon the owner by the
Act. There are also provisions, viz , for appeal against
' valuation list and rate, and for enabling overseers to
make the poor-rate payable by instalments. The Act
provides for the rating of successive occupiers, so that
each shall pay such proportion of the rate as may be
due upon the time he occupies the tenement.
MakhdahE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.—
On Tuesday morning printed copies of the bill pre-
pared and brought in by Mr. T. Chambers and Mr.
Morley, to render legal marriage with a deceased
wife's sister, were issued. The bill is short and
simple; it legalises such marriages, and is retro
spective back to the passing of a and 6 William IV.,
with such exceptions as are rendered necessary by the
past non-recognition of the legality o of such marriages,
awl where the interests of others would be compromised
by the retrospective portio on of the act. The act also
provides that no marriage with a deceased wife's sister
in Scotland is to be void by reason of affinity.
A SINGULAR MARRIAGE.—A ruffian who
recently committed a criminal assault on a young Jen
sey woman' was brought up betore Recorder Hacket,
who said that his crime demanded a sentence of twenty
yore' imprisonment, but as the poor creature whom
he had violated requested that the criminal might be
compelled to marry her, the Recorder permitted him
to go free on fulfilling that condition. The Recorder
then married them on the spot, and told the fellow
that if he didn't treat the gill well the sentence of
twenty years would yet be inflicted.—" When the pro-
bable future life o t this unfortunate victim is considered,
it may be a questi in whether her judgment in demand-
ing marriage, or that of Recorder Racket in perform-
ng it was most at fault," says the New York Paper,
Den which we have taken the paragraph.
TAKEN CARE OF IN TIME.—On Saturday after-
noon E. gentleman, apparently suffering from apoplexy,
was found lying in Scotland-rd., a crowded street in the
Irish quarter in Liverpool. He WRA removed to the
Northern Hospital, where he wee found to have upon
him £7OO in notes and coin. His letters and papers
showed that he was a Seotchman named Charles B.
Duff, and that he had arrived in Liverpool with the
intention of sailing in the Royal Mail steamship
Russia to join his wife and family in America. He
had been staying at the Queen's Hotel.
THE CLERGY' AND THE PEOPLE The Spectator
is greatly distressed at the way in which the clergy
are behaving. The Debate in the Lower House of
Convocation promises very ill, it says, for the prooopects
which all who, love the National Church must desire
with their whole heart. The clergy are talking the
most rank and undulated Toryism. Ni. party meeting
of Tories in the country has ventured to announce
views nearly so rabid. They are talking scone and
fiercer Tory ism than they did last session. They are
apparently irritated by the verdict of the nation into
more violent opposition to its wishes than ever.
How WE SHALL TRAVEL ON THE PACIFIC
RAILROAD.—If you journey from St. Louis to San
Francisco, you will enter the train at St. Louis, and
you need not leave it until you can perceive the Pa-
cific rolling at your feet. You may sleep in luxurious
state-rooms, your feet cushioned with the best Brussels
carpets, your water service complete, your linen of
the finest, your toilet conveniences complete without
a want. By day you will have drawing-rooms, where,
.m the most yielding of sofas and .fauteuils, you may
lounge the daylight hours away over books. When
hunger calls, you may repair to a sumptuous salleat-
laanger, and at a fixed tariff regale yourself with the
choicest viands of the season, especially the rich wild
game of the western forests, made yet more palatable
by genuine Chateau Margaux or Chablis, or the pure
young wines of the Californian hillsides. No comfort
to be found in the beet American hotels is to be absent.
If you emerge from your carriage at a quiet farweatern
station, it will be rather to admire the primeval land-
scape, and take a glimpse of the recent settlements,
than to gobble down a half-conked dinner in a quarter
of the time necessary to its consumption. You wil

have all the delights of the—Atlantic voyage without
its distresses; and you may actually write your great
work of travel, which is to give Europe new light on
the western world, en route; and the expense of
travelling thus luxuriously will be less than it now
costs the poor emigrant to make his weary way SeIIISS
the seemingly boundless plain.—Dickena's "All the
Year Round."
THE IRISH JACK SHEPHERD—Sometime back
the capture of &burglar, named Harrigan, in Limerick,
and his committal to the coutty gaol was reported. It
was stated at the time that he had had a most extra-
ordinary career as a gaol breaker, having escaped from
Cork Gaol, from Spike Island, from Mountjoy ;
from Mullingar Gaol, arid s number of other places of
confinement. An additiiimd escape has now to be
added, for one morning, recently, he was found non eat
at the Limerick County Gaol. It would seem, from
an inspection of the place, that he first broke the
wooden table in his cell, and then with its leg he bent
the ron bars sufficiently apart to allow his body to
pass through. He then denuded himself of all his
clothing except trousers, stockings, and shoes, and
forcing his body through the bars dropped into the
yard. Then came the high and smooth-surfaced wall.
A four-inch gas pipe ran up to supply a lamp above,
' and by means of this slender help he asiiended the
inner wall. On the top he perceived that a gulf of
sixteen feet yawned between bin, and the outer wall,
but a man who could fly over a space of fifteen feet at
a standing jump needed not to falter at an additional
foot, and jump this he did, and by the impetus given
to Ids body he must have tumbled off the top down on
the smooth soft grass plat, which surrounds the ex-
terior of our county gaol. Once on the outside, it was
an easy task to clamber over the Eve or six feet of iron
railing. In the grey of the morning's dawn he was
seen by a startled countryman, who took him to be a
maniac on the run, at the other aide of the town of
Bruff.
GOOD NEWS !—Accounts from San Francisco
continue to express strong anticipations as to the
supply of wheat likely to be furnished this year from
California, The rains have been very copious, and are
considered to give an assurance of a most abundant
harvest. It is estimated that the yield for 1869 will
be greatly in excess of any former year. Vast tracts
never before under cultivation are stated to have been
ploughed and seeded, and now give every appearance
of vigour. Should the results, it is remarked, equal
present expectations, "we shall have a surplus of
10,000,000 centals of the new crop to export during
the harvest year of 1869-70, which will require 500
ships of 1,000 tons each to carry away. Add to this
prospect the certainty that we have now on hand a
surplus of 3,400,000 centals of the crop of 1868, exclu-
sive of Oregon supplies, ad an idea may be formed of
the magnitude of our prospective wheat trade for the
ensuing 12 months."
DEATH OF AN INFANT PIANIST.—A Richmond
(U.S.) paper says:—
The little blind musical prodigy, Willie Coffman, whose
performances on the piano have excited the wonder of the
many who have witnessed them, died in this city, at Ford's
lintel, Friday night, aged three years. lie performed in
Pittsburg Thursday evening and seemed in his usual health,
but was taken with convulsions in the train on Friday while
en route to Richmond, where he was to have given another
exhibition of his wonderful gift. He was born in one of the
counties near Norwalk City, and gave evidence of musical
genius when not quite eighteen mouths old.
TICK I•T-OF-LE ATE MEN. Lieutenant-General
Cartwright, her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary
in the midland district of England, with the Eastern
counties and North Wales, states in his report for the
year ending at Michaelmas, 1868, that the police
supervision of licence-holders continues to work very
satisfactorily, but that the reduction in the number in
the district during the year made it one that hardly
gave the system a fair trial. He considers that a
central establishment in London is much required, and
that more needs to be done than at present in reference
to the licence-holder's arrival or non-arrival (on dis-
charge from prison) at the place named for his first
reporting himself, and as to notice of movement under
condition of licence, with the date of arrival or non-
arrival at the piace specified. Immediate information
through the Police Gazelle or otherwise on infraction of
the condition of the licence should be given to the
heads if police. A circular might also explain to the
authorities the mode of proceeding and payment of ex-
penses in the pursuit and capture of offenders against
the condition of licence. Lieutenant-General Cart-
wright observes that the necessity for central super-
vision will become more apparent ae the numbers of
these pennons thrown on the country increase, as they
must do very largely. The cost of an additional clerk
at a central office would soon be balanced by the
expense saved through even a very small reduction in
the number of re-committed ticket-of-leave men.
A SAFE Gum.— We see a little treatise
advertised under the attractive title of The Stomach
and its Difficulties. What may be these difficulties, we
who are not medical and know not indigestion, are
happily quite ignorant. We apprehended, however,
that with very many persons, the chief difficulty of
the stomach is that of regularly filling it. —Punch.
Pitt ECRIDH.G IN CHEAP PERIODICALS.—A most
dangerous practice prevails of publishing in some of the
cheap literatuie of the day various receipts for the cure
of minor ailments, and it is one that is certainly upon
the increase (says the Lancet.) Many of the prescrip-
tions so given are absurd, and even dangerous; and
this is not to be wondered at if we consider that the
writer is often very deficient in all real knowledge of
medicine, and that he is assisted by the errors of the
printer, to whom the symbols of quantities are so
many hierogls phicii. Our attention has been called t •
the following prescription for ilistanee :—" Syr. of
poppies, one ounce and a half; Kyr. of squids, half-an-
ounce; tincture of digitalis, thirty drops; a teaspoonful
to be given to a child frequently." We can quite
imagine a fractious baby being dosed into the effectual
quietness of death by such a mixture.
CAPITAL PONISHMENT —M Lallemant, advo-
cate at the Court of Nancy, has published a letter on
the subject of capital punishment, (says the Pall hell
Gazette,) in which he maintains, on the authority id
his own experience in criminal cases durigg a period of
, eighteen years, that the punishment of death is the
only one which great criminals fear. As for transpor-
tation to Cayenne or New Caledonia, they rather like
it; and an assassin, who in virtue of " extenuat-
ing circumstances," finds himself let off with
travavr forces for life, dances the can-can and shrieks
with delight. "To understand this question," nays
M. Lalienomt, "you should have witnessed as I have
done, the loud, expansive joy of murderers on re-
entering their prison after just escaping the scaffold.
How happy they are, how they rejoice, uttering cries
of joy between two dances of the most expressive
character, at only being condemned to hard labour for
life." Under the old French law often too severe,
theft, like assassination, was punished with death, and
the consequences was that a thief, already liable, if
convicted, to capital punishment, did not hesitate to
proceed from theft to murder, if by doing so he could
increase his chances of impunity. The same thing, M.
Lallemant argues, would happen again if capital
punishment were altogether abolished. The thief,
who now thinks twice before he commits murder,
would no longer pause, for, whether he wintered or
not, his punishment would still he only hard lahow for
life. M. Lalleinant says the public are very much
mistaken in imadninge that "great criminals" are not
affected by such considerations as these; and, while
allowing that juries cannot be too particular in re-
quiring conclusive evidence before they convict, he
blames them for finding "extenuating circumstances"
where no extenuating circumstances exist.
A BOOKWORM'S OBSERVATION.—When a man
has mit turned of 70, he is in the Appendix of Life.
—Punch.
ATTEMPT TO POISON A FAMILY.—At Sheffield
a young man named Barker has been sentenced to
five years' penal servitude for attempting to poison his
mother and sister. Some few weeks ago Barker went
to a chemist's and obtained from him a packet of
Battle's Vermin Killer, under the plea that there were
&large number of mice in his house, and he wanted to
destroy them. On the following day he went to his
father's house, and when he made his appearance there
his mother and sister were engaged in cisiking the
Sunday's dinner. Taking advantage of their tempo-
rary absence from the kitchen, he put the vermin
killer into a saucepan in which a rabbit and a leg of
mutton were being cooked. The mother'e attention
was subsequently attracted to the strange appear-
ance of the water in the saucepan, and both she and
her daughter tasted it to see what was the matter with
inhgadw.hapwpreonn: happened, btihiteyfe,,eldisnegly cire:m
it The latter almost immediately became sick, and,
suitekdnot hwai tn geowruheatht
fused to all air the meat the sent up for dinner. The
water was afterwards analysed by an analytical che-
mist, ant was found to contain a considerable quantity
of strychnine, of which Battle's Vermin Killer is

largely composed. The prisoner pleaded "Guilty"
to the charge.
SCHOLASTICA-L.—There is one measure which
the Lords cannot possibly object to have sent up to
them at the fag end of the Session- the Endowed
Schools Bill-a useful piece of legislation which we
hope both Houses will Foster. -Punch.
Too BAD !—A Boston exchange is responsible
for the following story :-A short time since a man ap-
peared at the Boston City Hall, requesting an inter-
view with the Chief of the Police. "What can Ido
for you ?" inquired the official "Are you the Chief?"
"Yes." "Can I speak to you privately?" " Yes-
speak out!" "Will no one hear us?" "No." "Are
yon sure?" "Yes." "Well, then, listen. As I was
crossing the Common last night, about twelve o'clock,
I saw a woman approach the pond with a baby in her
arms, lookim carefully around all the while to see if
she was followed, and then, when ridlit at the edge,
stooped and- -" "Threw Vie child into the Frog
Pond !" exclaimed the appalled officer, his face white
with horror. "No," replied his visitor: "washed its
face I"