The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-02-25 00:00:00

ACCIDENTS • AND OFFENCES.

It will be remembered that a few days ago three
workmen were killed in London by the falling of an
unfinished house, on which they were then employed.
On Wednesday, the jury commissioned to investigate
the causes of this esdamitycame to the concluoion that it
was occasioned by the use of "inferior materials,
undue haste in the construction, and the want of a
more efficient eurervision." A stronger condemnation
of the builder could scarcely have been pronounced,
without, indeed, a verdict of " nianslaughtar" had
been returned. As it is, it remains to be seen whether
further proceedings will be taken.
ANoTHIR FRIGHTFUL COLLIERY ACCIDENT. A
frightful accident occurred about twelve o'clock onWed-
nesday lest, in the Getitin cold pit, Merthyr Tydfil, by
which 49 lives were lost, end another is said to be mis-
sing. The colliery belongs to Mr. Crawshay,,of the I
Merthyr Iron Works. The full force of the men
working in the pit ,W4O, but only about a quarter of
that number were !Wet the time of the explosion. As
Boon as the fact was known,which,ax a matter of course,
travelled with all the proverbial celerity of bad news,
there wee the greatest excitement in the surrounding
district. From the town and hamlets in the vicinity of
the pit the relatives of the men at work in the danger-
OUJI depths flocked to its mouth, and the miners on the
off-shift rushed to the scene of the rumoured disaster to
ascertain its truth, and to render assistance if the terri-
ble tidings were true. In the course of two hours more
than a thousand people, men, women, and children, had
congregated hear the pit, the wives and children of the
unfortnnate men, who it was certain had met an awful
doom, giving vent to the most passionate manifestations
of grief. Nor was the grief of their male relatives,
fathers and brothers, leas touching, although not no
loudly expressed. It was • trying scene to witness;
one of those spectacles of human suffering and woe
which, when seen, leave their impress indelibly fixed
upon the memory. For some time there was nothing
but confusion at the pit's mouth. The suddenness of
the calamity, coming as it did no closely upon other
calamities of • similar eharacter,seeined to have stunned
every one, and for the moment deprived them of the
faculty of thought or action. If on many faces the
oes of a wild despair were visible there were on
rs the expression of blank insensibility, as if they
been suddenly paralysed by some physical stroke,
but this trace of bewilderment and inaction was brief.
Exposed as the ruiner is at all times te danger,.he is
- peculiarly prompt in hastening to the rescue of his fel-
lows when in dangerous positions, sad • body of men
was soon ready to proceed down the shaft. From the
condition of tb• pit this was a work ef great danger, but
it was undertaken by men of great daring. Operations
were speedily commenced with the view of penetrating
to the place where the accident marred, the cause of
which, as well as the tun nature and extent of its cones-
qtiences, were still enveloped in mystery. From the quan-
tity of poisonous gab with which the heading was filled,
the progress made by the workers in their humane search
was necessarily slow, but, although death as it were
literally encircled them round about, they bravely per-
severed in their exertions, While the work proceeded
I below the er owd above continued to accumulate, and
1 the excitement as the time passed without any tidings
' of the fate of the fifty men being received greatly in-
creased. In the course of the afternoon, Mr. Morris,
Superintendent of the County Police, and a body of
his men, arrived at the pit, and kept order among the
crowd. A great many of the gentlemen of the neigh-
bourhood were also preeent, and expressed their
sympathy with the sufferers, trying to encourage them
by kind and hopeful words, still the time past, and no
intelligence reached the anxious and grief-stricken
waiters and watchers at the pit to give confirinaaion to
the hopes that those kind words inspired, A fall which
took place in the workings—a result no doubt of the
explosion—retarded the progress of the searches and
increased the foulness of the mine. This new difficulty,
instead of checking, seemed rather to give a new
stimulus to their energy. The obstruction was bravely
attacked and bravely removed, and about six o'clock
intelligence was received at the pit mouth that •
number of the holies had been reached, At first
twangy were discovered and sent to bank, and the scene
that ensued there as the relative, crowded round the
corpees in order to identify three near and dear to them
was heart-rending to the extreme. Among the
thousands gathered together not a dry eye was to be
seen. The wail of newly-made widows, as they recog-
nised the features of their husbands, pierced every ear,
and moved every heart. None, save those who have
witnessed • similar scene, can have eny appreciation of
the will torrent of grief which flowed from those
stricken hearts. The first twenty bodies recovered were
speedily followed by other seven. At interval. doting
the night other bodies were recovered, until the long
tale of forty-nine, as has already been stated, were
brought to the upper air. One was still missing by the
latest accounts, and the search had been,in consequence
of the state of the pit, temporarily suspended. Three
horses have also been destroyed. The cruse of the
explosion is still unknown, and in all probability will
be so till the inquest takes plasm.
OUTRAGE AT A SRI/FIELD CO-OPERATIVE STORE.-
1 A very singular incident took place in Devonshire-
street, last night, at the Co-operative Society's store.
The finance committee of the society were in their room
on the second floor (the window of which looks into the
street), about ten minutes past nine o'clock, when they
were suddenly startled br • loud crush of glass, They
instantly hurried to the window, and found that a bullet
been fired through it from the street. Most fortunately,
the window is protected by iron bars, crossed, and the
bullet had caught two of these, and was thereby
diverted from its course. A large fragment of the
bullet, flattened and shapeless as it had rebounded from
the bars, was picked up from the floor of the room. A
small roend hole, such as bullets usually make in
passing through glass, was seen in one d*li• pause;
and from the apparent direction of the shot the bullet
must have struck the secretary of the committee but
for the interposition of the bars. One of the members
of the committee ran down into the street, but could
see no person about. The committee did not hear
the sound of any explosion in the street, and they con-
jecture that the bullet was fired from an air gun. The
motive for such a malicious act they are tumble even to
conjecture, A blind was drawn across the window at
the time the shot was fired, and this also shows a per-
foration by a bullet.—ffhelfeld huirpentient:
SUICIDE OF A POLICE-SERGZANT.—Robert William
Spain, late a sergeant in the Sunderland police force
committed self-destruction by hanging himself on
Tuesday night in a shipbuilding yard at Idonliwear-
mouth. Spain was recently charged with making •
false entry in the police-books, and the sub-watch com-
mittee recommended, as a puniahment, that he should
be fined 20s. and costa, and dimated. When the matter
came before the Town Council, however, they decided
upon his summary dismissal, and this harsh proceeding
en-ems to have preyed upon the unfortunate mar's
mind ever sines. The jury found that he had cont.
'flitted suicide while in a low Mete of mind. Deceased
was between 40 and 50 years of age, had been formerly
• soldier, and was twelve years in the Sunderland police
force. He has left a widow and five phildren to
lament his sad end. Hs was a sober, well-conducted
, man.
, CHILD KILLID BY SWALLOWING A PEA.—On Thum-
day afternoon an inquest was held at the Black Boy,
, Wapping, on the body of George Russell, is, fine child,
aged two years. It appeared from the evidence of the
mother, that the little boy put some peas into his
month, and was immediately seized With a choking fit.
She patted him on the back, which caused several of
them to be thrown from his mouth, but the choking
continuing she took him to & surgeon. The child got
better, and apparently well, but at night he was again
seised as before, and died almost immediately. Mr.
Laminiman, a surgeon, made • poet glories& examina-
tion, and found a pea lodged in the bronchia, which,
by moisture, lied swelled, and so caused death by
suffocation. Verdict accordingly.
A GIRL SHOT BY HER BROTHER.—A melancholy
catastrophe is reported at Syleham, Suffolk, Ann
Creasy, a girl of 11 years of age, was left by her mother
in the keeping-room of the family residence, with
her brother, George Creasy, a boy of nine. The
mother had only quitted the children • few minutes
when she heard • great noise, and on going beak she
found the girl in the agonies of death, and lying in •
pool of blood. The boy was shrieking and half-dis-
tracted, and on being questioned he stated that he had
taken up • gun which was in the room and pulled the
trigger, although he did not know the gun was loaded.
He had a dispute with his sister, as he wanted to blow
the fire with the bellows, and she would not let him do
so; but he protested—and there is no reason to doubt
the sincerity of his asseverations—that if he had known
1 the gun was loaded he would not have pointed it at his
I sister for all the world. When the deceased was found
1 part of her brains were lying on the bricks, a great deal
of blood was splashed on the walls, blood was still
flowing copiously from her head, and she died in • few
minutes. As it is generally thought that the boy only
I intesded foolishly to frighten his sister, and as no one
has manifested deeper grief than he has at the conse-
quences of his dreadful error, no public, action has been
taken against him by the authorities. ,
MELANCHOLY FATE OF " STEZPLI JACIE."—A daring
Sheffield man, who, from his feats in affixing lightning
conductors to high steeples, and in repairing factory
chimneys, had earned for hitnself the title of . ' Steeple
Jack," met with a shocking death on Thursday. His
real name is Charles Faulkner. Mr. Haineworth, iron.
founder, in the contractor for the iron work for • large
cotton factory in oourse of erection, for Mr. Edwin Lea-
royd, and the deceased was employed at the pima.
About eight o'clock he was engaged on the third story
of the unfinished building, and while walking on •
narrow plank his foot slipped, and he fell • distance of
about 40 feet. His head came in contact with one of
the iron beams of the basement story, which drove in
the skull, and caused immediate dosth.—Manchester
Guardian.

A fire occurred in the vicinity of Dursley on Thou-
day morning, which resulted in the destruction of a
large cotton manufactory. The damage is estimated at
. .

A fire of a serious character, resulting In the destruo.
tine of property to a large amount, broke out on Fri-
day on the premises of Buckley and Co., saw mill
proprietors and timber merchants, London. The
buildings were almost totally destroyed, and they were
but partially insured.
A servant girl has got into trouble near Cheltenham,
In eonsequence of an excess of credulity in a fortune
teller. The girl was at • farm, and one day recently,
during the absence of her master and mistress, she was
',irked by • gipsy woman, wholthreatened, to bewitch
her if she did not give her "something worth having."
In order to avert the threatened doom, and propitiate
the weird sister, the girl handed her over eighteen
shillings' worth of her master's cheese, in return for
which the sybil " told the girl her fortune," and said
she could bring her " young man" a distance of •
thousand miles in twenty-five hours —• fair rate of
locomotion. The girl was taken before the magistrates,
and it came out that the gipsy and herself were old
acquaintances, and that the farmer's cheese and bacon
had on former occasions been given in return for • peep
into the future. The dupe was sentenced to fourteen
days' imprisonment, but the gipsy had not turned up to
receive her share of a deserved punishment.
HOLLOWAY'S Pima, an Unfailing Remedy for the Cure of
Indigestion and Disordered Stomach .—There are few remedies
advocated by the present medical faculty that am
permanently serviceable the core of these diseases, tir.e=
sauce a martyrdom to NO many of the population of this
oonutry ; and the only remedy for the extinction of them
maladies that on he safey. recommended to both seem is
Holloway's Pills. They are a blaming to old and young,
restoring beaith and energy altar all hied*lnid ha; Mau tried
In vain. The peculiar value Of this preparation omelets In
the influence it possesses In purifying the blood, whereby the
heart's action Is controlled, and the ciroutstiou threngh the
lungs dulg nurie4

THE GREAT DISCOVERY OF THE AGE,
rifIMIT'S MAGIC BEETLE POISON.—
This oelobrotod ittopttOtito ts tertate deo* to
lackbeetles, Cockroaches, Crickets, Rate and Mice, it
being the °renal, &MI tE óiily 01213-toli-relied on.
Thousands may-be destregek•in-,ese might, without
danger to household pets. In consequence 'of the
immense demand, Agents have " •
town in the United
Cheiblitkoilusen, Ind.:we; s.
14 stamps, by Emery& Co., 35, Foley PlNssaLondon. W.
Insist on none but "Emery's as am an awl
diaitesuw oad WSN ingtaoC4W?"