The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-09 00:00:00

THE FIRST ASSIZES IN BIRMINGHAM.

The first assizes held in the borough of Birmingham.
were begun on Monday before Mr. Baron Huddleston
and Mr. Justice Wills. The Commission having been,
informally opened, the Recorder of Birmingham (Mr.
Dugdale, Q.C.), accompanied by the Mayor (Mr.
Alderman Cook), and the Town Clerk (Mr. E. 0.
Smith), and in the presence of a full bar of the _
land and Oxford Circuits, read an address. Mr.
Baron Huddleston, in reply, said he was desired by ,
his brother Wills to express their gratification at the
reception and hearty welcome they had met with
and the establishment of Courts which they hoped- ,
would be of advantage to the town. As Bir-
mingham was adjacent to both the Micllar.id and-
Oxford circuits they would have the united force
of two of the most powerful Bars of England;
It was on the understanding con4yedlo- the Chan-
cellor that permanent accommodation would be pro-
vided for the proper administration of justice that
these assizes were now held, and they must remember
that as an order in Council had given Birmingham
assizes, the same power could divest them of the
privilege. He hoped that permanent accommodation
would shortly be provided, and that it would be con-
venient for the purpose that the architect would not,
as was too frequently the case, attend only to exterior
structure. For instance, his Lordship said a jury
box was too often measured out to give the smallest
possible space into which twelve men could be
squeezed. In France jurors had armchairs, desks,
facility for taking notes, and every attention to
their comfort. Ile remembered that the late Chief
Justice Erie objected to making the jury too
comfortable for fear they should go to sleep, but he
thought they might have better accommodation with-
out that undesirable result. His lordship instanced'
as Courts that might be copied those at Shrewsbury,
Nottingham, Leicester, Worcester, Durham and Bed-
ford. Mr. Horton, President of the Birmingham Lava'
Society, also presented an address on behalf of that
body urging the desirability of making Birmingham the
centre of an assize district with permanent High
Courts as in London. The society also personallY
Congratulated Mr. Justice Wills, whose father wag'
one of its members.

" ON,THE MART."—First Speculeor : " Pekin Turn-
Pike. Second Mortgage Bonds! What did Tou clear
by them ?" Second Ditto: "My pockets! '—hotch•
NEVER DROP YOUR UNDER-JAW IN SOCIETY.—SW
"Who's that tall man with the bald head?" fle
"Brown, the Q.C. Ile's the hardest-workilig man
know. Prodigious brain—stupendous!" She: "
deed! Just now he looks as if he were eiving it *
little rest I "-Punch.

(

SAIURDAf, AUG. 9, 188,

tAtr. ItIGIIT! REBERTBI3.I

AMBITION'S LADDER
Ay the Author of " Attlerstont Grange," "A Life for
a Lore," j-c. a

CHAPTER VL (Co n tiltned,)

"The others ought to be here by this time,"
*mid Joe Bradley, as he closed the trap over the
last of the departed revellers. "What can be a,
keepin' on 'em, Carrie? The metal's in prime con-
dition, but there's no one here fit to turn it oat
proper."
Carrie Bradley, who had been gazing out of the
window at the river which ran darkly and noise-
lessly below, answered hica liztlessly and without
turning her head.
"Watching won't bring them, father."
"No," grumbled Mr. Bradley, puffing viciously at
his pipe. "But they ought to be here. Business is
busines.s, and-
The boy on the pallet moved uneasily, and
moaned as if in pain.
"Where's Alick ? " he muttered heavily. "I want

" Hush ! hush! dear," soothingly murmured
Carrie, as she gently lifted his head and smoothed
the pillow. "He will come soon."
Even as she spoke a quick firm tread was heard
without, and Carrie sprang to the door.
" Hark !" she cried. "There is some one

comilw.9l/
. " Who is it?" asked her father. "18 it him ? "
rho girl drew in her head again, a glad look in
her eyes, a tenderer ring in her voice as she
answered.
"Yes," she said. "It is Alick at last."
"And high time too," grumbled the old man.
"He's a deal too fond of keepin' us waitin'."
The next moment Alick Wood sprang lightly
from the top iung of the ladder into the room, and
nodding familiarly to Joe Bradley, drew Carrie to
his side and saluted her with a kiss. _ .

A very handsome couple they made, standing
there together, She with her grand dark-tinted
beauty eihanoed by the light of love gleaming in
the eyes rhat gazed so tenderly upon her lover, and
he such a youth as a girl might well regard with
favourable thoughts. Very little changed in fea-
tures by the few years that had transformed him
from a boy into manhood, Mick had fulfilled the
promise of his earlier years, and developed a manli-
ness of form an erectness of carriage and bold bear-
ing that made him the teauideal of a reckless, gallant
sailor, and the dress he wore—that of a mate in the
merchant service—showed off his lithe, well-formed
person to the best advantage.
"Come now, stow that !" authoritatively exclaimed
the old man. "I've told you afore as I:aint a-goin'
to havemy gal made a fool of. Where's Sinclair
and Dick Turley ?"
"That's more than I can say, Joe," tho young
man answered lightly, though a careful observer
might have noticed something of constraint in his
tone. 'l've been on my own hook all day, and
not so badly either I can tell you. Jack Tar ashore,
and out on the spree, is about the best dodge going.
It's good fun, too, to see how the knowing ones are
taken in, all the while fancying they're making the
sailor pay through the nose, while all the time poor
simple Jack is besting them up to the nines, and
passing the genuine Brummagem coin."j
As 'he spoke he carelessly flung a handful of
money on the table. One piece, heavier than the
rest, fell to the ground, and before he could re-
cover it Joe Bradley had pounced upon it and
picked it up.
Not without a struggle, though, for Alick tried
to prevent him, and a scuffle ensued, during
which the terrified girl looked anxiously on till
her father threw off his antagonist and narrowly
inspected the cause of dispute, which proved to be a
• sovereign.
"halo, youngster !" he exclaimed suspiciously,
"what's your little game, now? You're a gettin
on in your perfession' it seems. Silver ain't good
enough for you, ain't it? How did you come by
this? Answer me directly, or
"What's the use of making a fuss about nothing ?"
sullenly said Alick, as he picked himself up from the
corner of the room, whither Joe Bradley had flung
him off. "It's good."
"So I see; all the more reason, my chicken,
that you should answer my question. Where did
you get it ?"
"I won it over a game of cards, if you must
know. Is there any harm in that `r"
"Well, no," replied the old man, still sus-
piciously. "But why couldn't you say so at once
instead o? trying to hide it?"
"Because I didn't mean to say anything about
it to you, and that's the truth," answered Alick,
looking his interlocutor boldly in tho face. "It
was my own making, and I wanted to buy some-
thing as a present for Carrie. Now you know all
about it."

"Don't you trouble yourself about presents for
Carrie, my pippin," said Joe Bradley, pocketing
the coin. "What she wants I can find her without
you're a tryin' to cheat me out of my dues."
"Your dues!" .hotly exclaimed Alick. "It's my
own, honestly won, and —"
" Pah ! there you go again with your jaw about
honesty," broke in the old reprobate. "It's enough
to make a feller swear! Don't I pay for all your
grub, and togs, and find you in plenty of pocket
money, too, besides look arter that sickly little brat
for you, and yet you try to make a private purse of
your own and prato about honesty! Don't let
me hear no more of such jaw, that's all I've got to
say to you."
And with this warning Joe Bradley lifted the trap
and went below, leaving the two too-ether to go and
look at the fever-stricken lad, by whose side Carrie
told her youthful lover of the doctor's visit, and
what he had said respecting the invalid's treatment.
" But I don't know where the money's to come
from for the medicine and things he's ordered," she
went on. "Father won't give me any, and he's
taken away what you had.
Not all, Carrie," Alick returned in a low voice.
"There's more where that came from—honest
money, too, that not a beak in London could send
me to quod for. And, I tell you what it is, I'm
getting sick of this sort of work. If I could only
get the youngster safely looked after, I'd cut it."
"How could you do that, Alick? Where could
you go ? " asked the girl, laying her hand upon his
arm, and looking earnestly in his face. "Besides,
even if you could—you would not leave me, would
you ? "
"Leave you, my darling? I never had ti-u-Cfi a
thought. No, Carrie, if I go, if I break away from
this life—as I mean to do, as I must —won't you
come with me? We are both of us young, I know,
but so much the better. There's time to turn over
a new leaf. I can't go on always without being
nabbed. Honesty's the best paying game, after
all, and I mean to try my b,and at it if you'll
help me. Won't you, Carrie? We'll get married,
and do something better than smashing to earn a
crust."

The girl hesitated, but only for a moment, as she
thought of her father. He, rough as he was, loved
her— she knew that—and had carefully abstained
from employing her in the nefarious trade he
followed. • But it was a lonely, wretched life she
le& and Alick's proposal opened out to her a vision
of happiness and comfort ; for she loathed the
atmosphere of vice in which she had been reared,
and had often sighed enviously when passing in the
streets others of her sex leaning trustingly upon the
stalwart arms of honest labourers, and wished that
her lot could be like theirs.

And how could she hope that when any day, any
moment, her lover might be detected and arrested,
thrown into prison and separated from her by long
years of punishment?
" Ah, Alick ! " she murmured, wistfully, "do you
mean it ?"

Again he ki3sed her and repeated his determina-
tion.

"You're fitted for a better life than thie. I am
tired of it," he said. "Besides, there's only one
ending if we don't cut it. Portland for me; for
you-''
" Ah, don't ! " she exclaimed, shudderingly.
"But, father, how am I to tell him He will
never consent."
"He must not know."
"But he will find out."

"Not before'we are beyond his reach, my darling.
Listen, Carrie.- I can't tell you everything now;
it would take tco long. You must trust to me to
find the way; I will find it. ,I've got friends who
will help me— —"
" Friends ?"
"Yes, good friends. You shall know in. time—
and I will work for you, darling, without having to
live in fear and trembling every time a policeman
'passes me in the street. You'll come with me,
won't you, Can-ie, and be my wife ?"
And, thus urged, the girl consented, agreeing to
her lover's request that her father should be kept in
entire ignorance of their plans; and after a few
more minutes' conversation between them, brought
to an abrupt close by Joe Bradley's surly voice
summoning Alick with an oath to the secret work
that was going on below, they parted—he to obey
the call of the master he dared not disobey, and she
resuming her tch by
the sick boy's bedside,
wa

CHAPTER vn.
A STRANGE REQuEBT.
And I see, in the dreary place,
The gleqm of a thin white face,
And my heart is stirred.

—Buchanan.
TRUE to his word, Dr. Sampson made his way to
the place of his appointment with Carrie Bradley
the following evening, but failed to recognise hheer
figure among the many that flitted by h
walked slowly backwards and forwards for nearly a
quarter of an hour.
It was annoying, vexatious indeed, to the testy
but warm-hearted little man. His adventure of
the preceding night had interested him so far that
he would have been glad to follow it up, besides
that his natural kindness of disposition prompted
himtp feel some anxiety mspecting the patient to
Whom
he had been so strangely conducted, and
fearful lest he should suffer through lack of proper
attention and advice.
\ 'O-'.we it seemed that no choice remained to

him out V 3 retrace his steps homewards and leave
the boy to his fate, since it was certainly impossible
to find the way to him without his promised guide,
and she was evidently not coming.
In which surmise Dr. Sampson was correct, as
ARA: Wood had requested the girl to let him take
her place, and that young gentleman made his
appearance upon the scene at the very moment
when the doctor, convinced of the uselessness of
any further stay, was about to take his departure.
Alick was of course personally unacquainted
with Dr. Sampson's appearance, but Carrie had
furnished him with such a description as enabled
him to recognise the object of his quest, more
especially as the doctor's manner and close scrutiny
of every female who passed him helped to that
result.
I beg your pardon, sir," said the youth civilly,
placing himself in the doctor's path as he turned to
take his departure. "I believe you are looking for
a young woman who promised to meet you here for
the purpose of taking you to see a boy you visited
last night. Is that so ?"
Alick had changed his seafaring suit for one less
likely to attract observation, and was now dressed
quietly and respectably, but Dr. Sampson looked at
him a little suspiciously before answering.
"Yes, you are quite right," he said. "But why
isn't the girl here herself, as she promised to be,
half an hour earlier than this, and who may you
be? I don't know that I care about following a
stranger."
"Not much more a stranger to you than she is,
for that matter, sir," quietly answered Alick. "As
for the reason that she has not come herself, I can
easily explain that. I asked her to let me meet
you, and you may trust yourself to my guidance as
safely as you would to hers."
"Upon my eoul I don't know that that is saying
very much," muttered the doctor, half undecided
as to what he slaould:do, then aloud. "Who are you,
pray ? "
"You would be hardly likely to know my name
when I tell it you," replied the youth, with a frank
smik. "It is Wood—Alick Wood."
" Oh ! so you're Alick
"At your service, sir, and perhaps you won't be
so doubtful of me as you are when I have explained
to you why.l wanted to see you."

"It was for this reason, sir, I wanted to ask a
favour of you."
"Upon my word! Well, go Dn."
• "A very great favour and kindness, too," re-
sumed Alick, earnestly. "I dare say you wonder
why I should venture to say such a thing to a per-
fed stranger, and, indeed, I can hardly tell what
emboldens me to dc. so, unless it is that your kind-
ness in going to such a place as you did last night
makes me believe that you will listen to what I have
to say, and, even if you don't see your way to help-
ing me yourself, advise me what to do."
"We'll see about that presently," Dr. Sampson
replied, looking keenly at the youth. "Except in
the matter of my own profession I don't much care
about advising people, for, as a general rule, advice
is a mistake, it is so seldom taken. Still, if you like
to make a confidant of me —whatever it is about
without any promise on my part to do what you
desire, I'll see what can be done. '
Alick considered a few moments before answer-
ing.
" Very ell, sir, I'll leave it for you to decide,"
he said at last. "To begin with, I needn't tell
you that the place you went to last night is one it
would be hardly safe for you to visit if its owners
suspected you of any intention to speak of it again."
"No, I don't want to be told that," coolly re-
plied the doctor. "But there is no necessity to
speak more explicitly on that subject. lam quite
content to understand in a general way, without
being forced to know so much that I should find it
incompatible with my duty to hold my tongue."
"Thank you for the hint, sir," Alick said in the
same quiet tone. " I*,will speak as briefly as pos-
sibly, then. Carrie, the young woman you saw
last night I mean, told you that the boy you were
kind enough to attend has no other protector except
me."
Yes"
"Well, sir, I won't say but what it will be better
for him, poor little lad, but he'll have to do without
me very soon; and, bad as I may be, he's hardly fit
to look after himself."
"You want to rid yourself of your responsibility
then?"
"I have no choice, sir. lam going away. A
friend, who knows by what means I live now, has
advised me to try another way, and has promised, if
I agree, to find me the means of leaving England,
and so getting clear away from old associates who
would never allow me to rest in peace. Now, I
can't possibly take Lennie with me.''
" Lennie ! ' exclaimed the doctor.
"What was his mother's name?"
"Mrs. •Grant she called herself. What's the
matter, sir ?" Chap 7
"Nothing, nothing," hurriedly returned Dr.
Sampson, who had stopped suddenly short, but now
resumed his walk. "Go on, lam listening. This
Mrs. Grant was ? "
"A lady, I'm sure, sir," replied Alick, em-
phatically.
"But how did you come to know her ? "
"Because she lodged at my mother's house from
the time tig child was only a few months old till a
little over four years ago," answered the youth ;
"lived there earning it very poor living for them
both, till—"
" Yes ?"
"She went out one night," slowly continued
Alick, as if deliberating over his words, "and—we
never saw her again alive."
(Was he thinking now over that night, reproach-
ing himself that he had not followed the helpless
woman, and saved her from the self-sought fate
that befell her?)
"What! was she killed? " asked the doctor. _

"Killed, no—at least, they didn't seem to think
so; but that she drowned herself, for she was found
in the river two days afterwards."
"Good heavens ! " exclaimed the doctor, in an
agitated tone, "what a sad fate! Poor girl! poor
girl! And so the boy—Lennie you call him—how
strange !—has stayed with you ever since "
"There was nothing else for him, unless he'd
been sent to the workhouse, and mother wouldn't
have that. But she died soon after," he went on,
with a touch of sadness in his voice. "Perhaps,
if she'd been spared she might have kept me
straight. But it wasn't to be, and father he died
too, and I was left alone to battle my way through
the world as best I might. I've done it, some way
or other, and looked after him as well. Not that it
was all for the boy's sake," he added, frankly, "I
don't want to pretend as I'm better than I am. I
like him well enough, but I like myself better, as is
only natural; and I don't suppose I should have
troubled so much about little Lennie if it hadn't
been that I saw my way to some advantage for
myself throuzh him.'

"Candid, at all events," said Dr. Sampson. "Bat
how e"
"That is my secret at present, sir," Alick
answered decidedly, but with no disrespect. "It's
no use asking me any questions, meaning no
offence, sir; I mean to keep my mouth shut till
the proper time comes, and, then —"
"Demand a, price for what you. should. give
freely, and. trust for your reward in the generosity
of those you serve," interrupted the doctor. "But
finish what you were going to say—for, of course, I
cannot make you speak."
Though at the same time he had determined on
taking steps the very next day to force Alick Wood
to open his mouth, and confirm or dispel certain
suspicions which had found their way into his head
during the past twenty-four hours.
I'll speak fast enough when it's to my interest
to do so,' Coolly answered the youth. I don't
mean any offence to you, sir, as I said before, but
it's a ticklish matter to meclale with, and I must
be careful for the boy's sake."
" To Say nothing of your own, eh ?" observed
Dr. Sampson. "But that's no business of mine.
How do you propose, or rather what do you want
me to do to help you ?"
"Well, sir, that's the thing you see, and. I don't
quite know how you'll take it when I ask you."
"Never mind that, ask away."
Still Alick hesitated Something told him that
there was no fear of the doctor's anger, and yet he
hardly knew how to frame his petition, which was
in very truth neither more nor less than that Dr.
Sampson should either undertake himself, or find I
some one else who would out of charity perform so
much—the charge of the orphaned boy.
But he found words at last, and to his great re-
lief, as well as no, a little surprise, the doctor
neither refused point-blank, as he had half-ex-
pected, nor even showed much sign of astonishment.
"It's a strange proposition, my lad," he answered,
after a slight pause, " and. one that I cannot give
an answer to at once. I must consider the matter
thoroughly, and know something more of your pro-
t6ge's antecedents and your own before I decide."
;„ But you do not refuse ? " eagerly asked Alick.
"No-o, I don't absolutely refuse, but I must have
time to think. Meanwhile, how much longer shall
we be before we reach the place?"
"We are almost there now," answered the
youth.
Indeed, a few steps further brought them to the
gateway of the rieketty building in which the sick
boy resided, and they mounted the ladder again;
this time unimpeded by Joe Bradley.
The place was deserted now, and perfectly quiet,
and the room in which the patient lay was tidied
up, looking brighter and more cheerful for the
light of a lamp by which Carrie was working at the
table, rising every now and then to wet the parched.
lips of the sufferer with a sip of lemonade or a slice
of orange.
" Well, my girl, and how is the little man to-
night? " asked Dr. Sampson, in a, cheery tone, as he
entered the chamber.
"Very much better, I think sir," answered Carrie,
rising from her work, and goingto the bedside with
the doctcr. "He woke quite sensible in the morn-
ing after taking the draught you ordered for him,
and has slept well this afternoon; and he's been
talking quite lively to me."
" Ah, you mustn't let him talk too much. But
I don't think he'll have a long bout this time par-
ticularly if we can only. get him out of this close
Itice to where there is pure air and change of
scene. Eh 1 my fine fellow ?" he_ went on to flie

- 7 7