The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-01-20 00:00:00

CUTTINGS F.RnM AMERICAN PAPERS.

"What would you do, Mr. M., if your wife died?"
asked Mrs. D. Mr. M. (who is very methodical) : "I
would bury her."

In giving geography lessons down East, a teacher
asked a boy what State he lived in, and was amused
at the reply drawled through the boy's nose, "A state
of sin and misery."
A well-known member of-the Governor's Council. at
a late public dinner, overheard one of the coloured
attendants ask another : "Who's dat gemmen,
Sam?" And Sam responded: "Dat's Purfessor F."
Then the other queried: "How did he know he was a
purfessor ?" To which Sam replied with dignity:
" Oh, all dm yere purfessors is polished off on top 1 "
Why should a man who is in a bad fix be said to be
"up a tree?" Lots of men who have stood in the
midst of a ten-acre lot with a cross bull approaching
have heartily wished themselves in the branches of a
lofty vegetable.

A young man restored to convalescence says he
appreciated the motive of his friends in the next room
at the hotel, who, when he was very sick and likely to
die, thought, as they had a piano, they'd cheer him
up with a little music, and got together and sang,
"Nearer, my God, to Thee," but he says the air some-
how didn't cheer him much,

The joking against Chicago women's feet has been
let loose with burlesque extravagance. There must be
something to warrant it. Here is a specimen ;—" An
elephant stepped on a Chicago young lady's outside
toe last Saturday. The lady said she didn't mind it
so long as the elephant only kept two of his feet on the
toe, but when he put all four of them on at once, she
requested to be permitted to remark that he was a
great, ugly, nasty brute."

A Massachusetts tradesman says—" A man who is
owing me a little bill, said he would call last week and
pay me if he was alive. He still appears in the street,
but, as he did not call, it is naturally supposed he is
dead, and is walking about to save fumral expenses."
When an obituary ptice reads: "No further seek
his faihres to diSeloso," it weans " Whisky killed
him."
The evidence of a witness in a life insurance case
involved in the blowing up of a steamboat on the
Qhio is droll, just because it is characteristic. The
witnoss knew the missing man, and saw him on the
deck of the 3t4MI)OA before the explosion. ,When
ipked" by the lawyer—" When sys be last time
you saw him?" he answered. "The veryja'st tiu.ie
set eyes on him was when the boiler bus and I was
going up. I . met' him and the smoke-pipe coming
down."

The Prince and Princess- of Wales were present at
the performance of "Rip Van Winkle" in the
Comedy Theatre, London; on Ig ondOy night.

BURNING OF A CIRCUS IN RtTSSIA.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

On Saturday night, while a performance waa being
given at a circus at Berditzcheff (a commercial town
of Russian Poland), a lire broke out, and before the
spectators could escape the whole building was in
flames and a large number of persons perished.

Later details says that the fire broke out at ten
o'clock in the evening, towards the end of the per-
formance. The members of the orchestra were the
first victims. The audience, KO in number, rushed
frantically to the door of exit, which, however,
opened inwards, and as the crowd pressed forward
t was rendered perfectly useless. A rush was
1-then made to the side doors, both of which proved,
unfortunately, to be nailed up. Toe Fire Brigade)
arrived within half an hour, but it was found im-
possible to extinguish the flames, as the water in the
tanks were frozen. The fire lasted two hours. The
number of victims is net definitely ascertained, but is
believed to exceed 150. Eye-witnesses report that
when the doors were at length opened the fearful
spectacle presented itself of a mass of burning human
beings. Many of the terror•stricken wretches, with
their clothes in a sheet of flame, sprang out of the
windows into the street. The horses and properties
belonging to the circus were all destroyed.

The Vnna Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
gives the following particulars cf the disaster :

For the last fortnight an itinerant circus company
had been performing in a large wooden building con-
structed ad hcc in a field about a quarter of an hour's
walk from the town. For the night of the disaster
was announced the benefit of Mdlle. Loisset, probably
a relative of the unfortunate young lady of that name
who met with a fatal accident at Paris some months
ago. The building was crammed, and out of the
600 spectators no less than 400 were Jews.
Just after the fifth number of the programme had
terminated one of the clowns rushed into the ring
find called out " Fire! " At first, the audience
thought he was jesting, and greeted him with
laughter. But he was immediately followed by three
grooms, who announced that the circus was burn-
ing. An indescribable panic then took place, and
many of the terrible incidents of the Ring Theatre
catastrophe were renewed. People jumped over the
galleries, injuring themselves and those below in their
fall. The ring, which happened to be covered with a
thick carpet, was soon crowded by men, women, and
children, many of the latter being suffocated and
trampled upon in the melee. Presently, ten horses, that
had escaped from the stables came galloping futiously
into the ring, and, prancing and kicking amongst the
crowd, increased the general terror and confusion.
Within twenty minutes the whole structure was Ablaze,
and hundreds who had not Contrived to effect their
exit were lost beyond all rescue. Those who managed to
escape give fearful accounts of the scenes enacted inside
during the life and death-struggle that followed the
first alarm. Unfortunately, as the fire brigade was on
its way to the circus, the ice broke while it was cross-
ing the River Berdivicza, and when at last, with the
aid of forty men, it was extricated, there was a great
scarcity of water, the ice being more than a foot thick.
It is estimated that 90 men, 120 women, and 60 chil-
dren perished in the flames. Many of them are sup-
posed to be. strangers, as a large leather fair was being
held at the time.

The Vienna correspondent of the Daily Chronicle
gives the following account of the catastrophe
The performance had reached the fifth item in the
programme, some clowns being in the ring, when
another clown in acting costume rushed in, shouting
"Fire I" At first the people thought this was part
of the performance, and laughed; but immediately
afterwards the ringmaster rushed in and gave the
alarm. The scene of horror that ensued was inde-
scribable. The audience were so closely packed that
motion was almost impossible. Some in despair flung
themselves from the galleries, and parents unable to
save themselves made a desperate attempt to save
their children by throwing the u down into the ring.
Sbme of the men, wearing the long coats of the
Russian Jews, were entangled on spikes, and
•remained hanging in the air, while the whole
building resounded with heartrending cries. In
the ring, where the clowns had been performing,
there was a carpet, and for a little while the children
were safe in the centre of this; and when the grown-
up people in their despair began jumping from the
dress circle and galleries, the whole ring became one
inextricable mass, in which the children were trampled
to death or suffocated before the flames reached them.
But even this was not the worst. The horses soon
became unmanageable, and about a dozen of them,
driven mad with pain and terror, broke into the ring,
trampling to death the people huddled tegether there.
All this occurred in less time than it takes to describe,
and in twenty minutes all was over—at least half the
people who had been in the building be ing burnt to
death or suffocated. At the windows and various
exits scenes of the most horrible description were
enacted, some of the strongest, in their efforts to ex-
tricate themselves from the struggling mass, forcing
others weaker than themselves into the flames.

A Renter's telegram dated St. Petersburg, Jan. 16,
says that the official report concerning the disat‘trous
fire at Berditscheff gives the number of killed as 268.
Among the victims there are, it is said, many foreigners
who were travelling in Russia.

The town of Berdiz nal is a place of considerable
importance as a.coiincial centre, it has a resid. nt
population of about 50,000, but this number is largely
increased on the occasion of the quarterly fairs, when
the city is visited by dealers from a long distance,
and very large business is done. The resident popula
tion is largely composed of Jews, and pilgrimages are
also made to the church of a large Carmelite convent
in the town from all parts of Russia,