The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-10-04 00:00:00

Out Fanbon 6orrtspo.O.,tnt.

TWe deem it right to state that we de not at all tiirm
identify OiatielYeli with our Correspouden•Vs opinions.]

...
1

-
!

.
,

Within recent years there has been no pAtical
work so thoroughly and earnestly conducte as the
azitation over the rejection cf the Franthise Bill.
Each party seems to have gone to the people with
the determination to make the most the time
between the prorogation of Parliament and the
autumn session. As a rule the month of September
is a very quiet one, so far as the delivery of the
speeches of public men is concerned; but in this recess
no sooner had September began than the aged Premier
began in Midlothian that campaign which lasted
very nearly until the end of the month, and has
been followed with much interest both in this
country and on the Continent of Europe. Mr. Bernal
04borne once said of Lord Palmerston, "Panting
Time toils after him in vain." But Lord Palmerston
lived in different days, and never had occasion to set
out on a political tour which was to last four weeks
at a time. So eager are the rival parties to win the
popular favour that one leader follows up each other
with wonderful celerity; before Mr. Gladstone is out
of Scotland, Sir Stafford Northcote is on his track,
and is then succeeded by the Marquis of Salisbury.
Happily Parliament will meet on the 23rd, and then
for a time the scene of debate will be removed from
the platform to the Legislature.
It will be just two years to a day that Parliament
assembled in the autumn for a very different purpose.
On the 24th October, 1882, the House of Commons
met, after an adjournment of two months, to complete
its revision of the rules of procedure. The Lords
also met, but their lordships were not called upon to
consider anything besides the vote of thanks to the
forces in Fgypt:. This glso came before the Commons,
which did not rise until Saturday, 2nd December. In
the present instance Parliament is summoned by Royal
proclamation for the despat.ch of divers urgent and
important affairs, and the Egyptian policy of the
Government is as certain to occupy the attention of
Lords and Corr.mons as the Franchise Bill itself.
Under these circumstances it will, in all probability,
be the middle of December before the autumn
session conies to an end.

The melancholy death of the lion. Gilbert Leigh
has deprived the House of Commons of a member
who was regarded with the highest respect on both
sides. Mr. Leigh was next to the youngest of the
representatives of the people whose death has been
recorded during the lifetime of this Parliament. Ile
was only 32, Viscount Helmsley, late one of the
knights of the shire for the North Riding, who
died nearly three years ago, having been 29. The late
member for South Warwickshire was the third
member who, since the general election, has come to
his death by violent means. On the 9th December,
1881, Mr. Walter Powell, M.P. for Malmesbury, wa3
drowned in a balloon adventure; on the 6th May,
1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish, M.P. for the North
West Riding of Yorkshire, was murdered in the
Phcenix-park, Dublin; and on the 22nd September,
1884, the lion. Gilbert Leigh, ALP, for
'4V-'arwicrislira, was killed whilst upon a mountaineer-
ing exclursio.n in America. There has not been a
IN.Ttimerit in modern times with such a singular
array of fatalities as this.
The election of Lord Mayor of London, which
always takes place on Michaelmas Day, is an annual
event of much interest and importance in the City of
London. The ceremony is conducted at Guildhall
amid all the paraphernalia which has invested civic
customs for centuries, in the presence of the Recorder,
the Common Serjeant, the Sheriffs, and the Aldermen,
the elective body being the Livery assembled in what
is described as Common Hall. The withdrawal of
the bill for reforming the local government of London
removes for a time all difficulty as to the continuance'
of the ancient mode of choice, for at all events
the remainder of this Parliament, which will
not expire by efflux of time for another two
vars or more. As a rule the Lord Mayor is not
re-elected unless there are special reasons for taking
that course. To do so would be to cast a reflection
on the gentleman next in rotation for the office; and
on the last occasiox when it was attempted, Mr.
Alderman Besley, whose turn had come, defeated
his pred.eees7cor, Sir diynes Lawrence, by a consider-
able majority. •

I

=!--•
,s
•
,

The l'ong spell of prosperity enjoyed by the Health
Exhibition will be brought to an end when the
gates at South Kensington finally close on the 30th
October. Its career of success has been unexampled,
and now that it is within a month of its termination,
redoubled efforts will be made by the railway com-
panies, by offering facilities of travel, to induce
country visitors te come to London for the purpose of
seeing what has long been known as the Healtheries.
The exhibition of inventions next year is likely to
prove equally attractive if it is conducted on the same
principles. Large numbers who go there do not care
so much for the contents of the long rows of stalls as
for the lounge in the grounds after darkness has set
in, when these are lighted up with a brilliance which
has never been surpassed in this country. With the
-Health Exhibition disposed of, there will once more
be a chance for the other places of amusement, which
have suffered so much from the competition of the
great centre of recreation at Kensington.
A costly experiment, conducted with a view to
supplying London more cheaply and expeditiously
with fish, has proved a failure. The Corporation of
London some years ago erected in Farringdon-street
a fruit, flower, and vegetable market, which was sub-
sequently converted into one for the sale of fish, in
order to relieve Billingsgate, many competent judges
being of opinion that this old-established waterside
mart was too remote to be of that service to the
public which it undoubtedly was at the time of its
formation. It has, however, held its own notwith-
standing this competition, which had the ad-
vantage of a central position in the heart of
the City, and of very powerful support. There
was every facility of access as compared with
the congested state of the little streets in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of Billingsgate in the earlier
hours of the day; but such is the conservative instinct
of business—using the word of course in its literal and
not in its political sense—that the market seems likely
to share the fate of that of Columbia, which the
Baroness Burdett-Coutts had constructed at an enor-
mous cost, in order that the poor at the East End of
London might be enabled to obtain their vegetables
better and cheaper than they could do under the con-
ditions which, like Billingsgate, had been in existence
so long.

-
' ji

Twenty-one years ago, when the first section of the
Underground Railway was opened between Bishop's-
road and Farringdon-street, the most sanguine ad-
mirer of this subterranean mode of traffic could not
have conceived that it would have reached such a
stage of development as that witnessed in the com-
pletion of what is called the Inner Circle, the exten-
sion of which to the Tower is now complete. An
underground means of transit is not the most
pleasant mode of travelling, especially in such
weather as we have had this summer; but it is at all
extents expeditious, and the vast numbers which avail
themselves of it show that it would now be
impossible to carry on the traffic of London
without this relief to the crowded streets.
We all know what became of the sinister predictions
respecting the depreciation in the quality of horses
which succeeded the introduction of the railway
system into this country; and it comes to pass that
the forecasts of ruin for the proprietors of London
omnibuses have equally come to nought. Never was
the London General Omnibus Company more
prosperous than it is now, notwithstanding the for-
midable competition of a rival on its own routes, and
the existence of railways under the thoroughfares of
the capital which have already carried:a number of
passengers equal to the population of the entire
globe.

A ROUGH PART OV EGYPT.—The Shaggieh country.
—Funny Folks.
A BRAVE Gum.—They were strolling m the green
field and he was telling her of his love. Just as he
was on the point of asking her to marry him, a eovt,
which was concealed by a bush a few feet away,
-mooed long and loud. Did the girl faint away, or
run away, or scream? No. She gave one little imper-
ceptible start and simply remarked: "Go away,. cow.
As you were saying, George— '
The woman who steps on a banana peel will be
down in a heap and up again with a faint little shriek
before anybody Icamvs authirys.p.l,3plip,
roan will fall the-Titiktror 4'173 whole -b.riacirTle"U'sditl,'
waving both hands in the air, kicking with both feet,
plunging, throwing hat and umbrel'a into space,
howling at every jump, until, breathiest :Lnd exhausted,
he caroms on an ash barrel at the end 3f the run and
rings down the curtain Ivy rolling (4own stair, kit° a
barber shop.

a 7:
iOr

ME

TH2 CHARGE OP CREMD STEALING.

In London, on Tuesday, at the Worship-street
Police-curt, Mary Ann Ingram, a married woman,
wis, et remand, charged with having, in the month
of September, stolen a male child, aged seven months,
named Sellin, at Victoria-park; and also with
having stolen a female child, named Dunnidge, in
September, 1878.
Mr. Sim, solicitor to the Treasury, now appeared to
prosecute, and the prisoner was undefended.
Evidence as to the first charge has been already
given and published.
Mr. Sim now called the mother of the child Sellin,
who described the dress of the child when she saw it
last, the description corresponding with the articles of
clothing found at the prisoner's house. She also said
that the child was not then bandaged with calico, as
it was found at her house, nor was it bruised as the
police surgeon found it. The case with reference to
the child Sellin having thus been completed, the other
charge was proceeded with.
Mrs. Eliza Dunnidge said that she was a married
woman, and in September, 1878, lived at Cudworth-
street, Bethnal-green. She gave birth to a female
child in July, 1878. On one day in the September
following she entrusted the child to a young girl
named Biggs to take out for a walk. The young girl
took it away between one and two o'clock. The
witness described the dress which the child then wore.
Later the same day witness heard that the girl Biggs
had lost the child. She went to the Bethnal-green
Police-station and gave information of the loss of her
child, describing its dress and appearance. She also
had a description of the child circulated in the
papers, but received no tidings of it until early in the
present month, when the police sent for her. She
saw the little girl now produced in court. She identi-
fied her as her own child, and had no doubt whatever
on the matter. (The young child was brought into
court., and apon seeing it the prisoner fell down in
the dock, apparently in a fit, and exclaimed several
times, "Oh, my own child." She said later on that
it was born on the 11th of September, 1878, and the
landlady of her house would say she nursed her.)
Mr. *Sim asked the mother (Mrs. Dunnidge)
wl,ether her daughter was vaccinated up to the time
it w,ts lost, and the witness replied tha it was not,
and added that it was still unvaccinated.

Louisa Biggs, a young woman, about 18 years of
age, stated that one day in September, 1878, she took
out the girl that had been brought into court. She
walked with it in Cambridge-road, where the prisoner
spoka to her. The prisoner was then dressed very
respectably, and was wearing a Paisley shawl. She
said, "Will you go on an errand for me to Mrs. Har-
ford, the woman upstairs." Witness knew that person,
who kept a chandler's shop in Three Colt-lane,
Bethnal-green, and agreed to go there with a message
from prisoner. She then said she would hold the
baby while witness was away on the journey, and took
it from her arms. Witness went to the house in
Three Colt-lane, the prisoner giving her a penny on
parting. There was no person of the name given by
the prisoner at Mrs. Harford's, and she returned to
the spot where she had left the prisoner, having been
absent about five minutes. She found that the pri-
soner and the child were gone. Witness looked about
for them, and did not return until ten o'clock the
same evening, but could not find the prisoner or hear
anything of the child. She now identified the pri-
soner as the woman who took the child away from
her. There was a plain wart upon one of her eyes,
and she was sun-freckled. She identified the prisoner
from among 11 women at the cells of the court on the
previous week. She had no doubt whatever about the
prisoner being the same woman. When she identi-
fied her she noticed that the wart near her eye had
been cut, IDA was still visible.
The prison6l', On being asked to question the
L; OS9, said she was not in Cambridge-road on the
day spoken of, and did not take a child from the
witness. She added, "I have only stolen one child
in my life, and that is the child of 'Mrs. Sellin."
Mrs. Charlotte Taylor, living in Lucas-street, Com-
mercial-road, said the prisoner lived in a room at the
same house in 1878. She knew her by the name of
Ross. In the month of September witness's aunt
died, and it was upon that day that she saw the
p7i:oner go out of the house. It was the 11th of
September, the day alluded to by the previous witness,
Biggs. She was then wearily* a Paisley shawl. Wit-
ness did not know she was then about to be confined,
but was not positive as to that. She remembered
very well that the prisoner had a wart near one of
her eyes. On the Saturday of that week, the 14th of
September, the prisoner called witness into her room.
Prisoner there showed her a baby, which was in the
bed with her, ana asked witness to look at it. Wit-
ness took it in her arms and remarked, "What a
beautiful baby--it 100-Its quite a month old." The
witness said it was common for women to say this of
one another's babies as a joke. The baby was soon
afterwards dressed in long clothes. Witness never
saw the prisoner suckling the child.
On cross-examination by the prisoner the witness
said she did not iay the same day in the kitchen that
the child was "like a little monkey, and was quite

a • -0-q"
ITarriet Garratt, 2, Gauber-street, Bethnal-green,
said that the prisoner was her daughter. She had
been married to a man named Smith, but did not
live with him, but had been living with a man named
Ingram for between six and eight years. When wit-
ness lived in Essex-street the prisoner brought to her
a little girl, the one which had been produced that day
in court. It was dressed in long clothes, but the pri-
soner carried it. Witness had not previously seen the
prisoner for a very long time, perhaps six months,
but on that occasion the prisoner said she expected
to be confined, although she then showed no sign of
pregnancy. Witness took care of the child for a
fortnight, and at irregular intervals occasionally, the
prisoner going to work daily. The prisoner told her
that the friends of the child had gone down in the
steamer Princess Alice, and that she had been taking
great care of it. Witness did not ask her how she
became possessed of it, and the prisoner did not
tell her. She always said it was her own child, but
witness did not belie ve that on account of the two
statements—that it was her own child, and then that
its friends had gc ne down in the Princess Alice.
Witness one day had some drink with the prisoner in
a public-house in Bethnal-green. The prisoner then
had the child, which walked about. An old lady
there took some notice of the child, and witness said
in the prisoner's hearing, "The parents of the child
have gone down in the Princess Alice." Afterwards
the prisoner chided her for saying such a thing. She
said, "I don't think we ought to say anything about
that to anyone."
This was the wh01..5 of the evidence, and Mr. Sim
asked for a committal upon both charges of stealing
the children and their clothing.
The prisoner merely said she did not steal the child
now called Dunnidge.
Mr. Bushy fully committed the prisoner for trial o
both charges at the Central Criminal Court.