The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-10-03 00:00:00

Vorset (Dahl Elven,

TUESDAY. OCTOBER S. IPZB

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Fair play, time to develop their plans, is now
all the Conservative cry, "I ask you, at any
rate," said Sir Stafford Northcote to the 25,000
working-men Conservatives at Wakefield, "to
give the Government time and fair play." "I
believe," he said again, "we shall find among
the men of Yorkshire that which perhaps has
been somewhat lacking in other parts of the
country—a readiness to give fair play to all,
which is wanted at the present moment." The
daughters of Pella' probably asked for fair play
from their neighbours when they were cutting
up their old father and putting him into the pot.
"Give us time ; do not hurry the boiling; and
see with what a renewed youth and beauty the
old man will emerge."

The case of John Chiddy, the quarryman who
saved the "Flying Dutchman' tram at the
expense of his life, has not, we are glad to say,
yet been dropped. A few benevolent persons in
Bristol have proposed to collect money enough
"to buy a small piece of huid and erect a cottage,
which will form a lasting memorial, and will
also carry out his own wish, of thus providing
for his family, consisting of a widow and eight
children." In a circular soliciting subscriptions
for this object, the following account is given of
Chiddy's heroic act, which will serve to remind
our readers of the circumstances :—"The Flying
Dutchman is well known to railway travellers as
the fastest train in the world, running between
London, Bristol, and Exeter at the speed of
nearly 60 miles an hour, every effort being made
by the officials on the line to ensure safety in its
rapid speed, but when on its journey, March $1
last (1876), at about 2.20 p.m., and within two
miles of Bristol, a large stone fell on the rails
only a few hundred yards in front of the train
as it flew from a tunnel along a part of the line
cut out of the rock on one side, and embanked
above the river Avon on the other. A few
seconds more, and the train with its living
freight might have been either dashed against
the rocks, or hurled into the river; but at the
very instant of peril a poor quarryman, named
John Chiddy, working near the spot, caught the
stone from the rail and saved the train; so rapid
was the speed, however, that his own life was
sacrificed, the engine striking him dead on the
spot." Lord Etch°, it will be remembered,
proposed in the House of Commons that some
acknowledgment should be made by Parliament;
but there were no funds available to meet the
case. But surely the country, great as are the
calls at present on the purses of the charitable,
will not allow so rare an act of bravery to go
unrewarded, will not have the meanness to
accept without return the sacrifice of this poor
family's breadwinner. The secretary of the
Chiddy Fund at Bristol is Mr. John Wall 'rrew,
1, Wine Street, Bristol.

A private letter from Miss Pearson and Miss
M'Laughlin, who are tending the sick and
wounded at Doini Milanovitz, Servia, tells the
following little sad story :—" Amongst our
wounded is a lonely little child, who literally is
nobody's child. It seems that the Turks entered
a village near &Haar some two weeks ago, and
this poor little fellow, aged eight or nine, was
I flung into the fire and awfully burnt. How he
crawled out, half dead as he must have been,
no one knows; he was brought to Negotin. . . .
When the people of Negotin fled to Doini
Milanevitz, fearing the approach of the Turks,
they brought the boy here. . . . He did not
speak for days, and we thought him an idiot;
but under the influence of eggs and half-pence,
he begins to smile and even to talk. . . . All I
can make out is that his father ran away with
the pigs into the wood when the Turks came,
and he was left, and was thrown into the fire,
and he got away, And some one brought him
here, and here he is." With reference to the
wounded, Miss Pearson says :—" The wounded
are very patient and so gratefuL When we
arrived, they were lying on straw, eaten up by
flies, dirty, neglected, half-starved. Now every
man has his own clean bed, his wounds are
dressed, if necessary, twice a day, and besides
those two regular meals twice a day. . . . Good
soup, eggs, and wino are given to the worst
wounded. We have some so bad that really I
do not know what will be the end of it. The
rest are doing splendidly. We are now expecting
sixty more, who are coming lu uo smith' from
Saitchar (or close by), but so bad is the weather
that they are detained." Miss Pearson adds,
" We now get the Daily News every day, which
is a comfort." -

Americans have always been famous for their
advertising powers, and for the many extra-
ordinary specimens of the art which they have
given to the world, but one which appeared in a
recent New York journal deserves high rank
among the most remarkable. It is the advertise-
ment of an insurance company, and gives a long
list of the advantages likely to accrue to an
investor. One gentleman, we learn, took out
an accident policy for 10,000 dollars, and eight
days afterwards he was thrown from his carriage,
breaking his skull, and died the next day.
The

it of the Eastern war, the

_
rejection of the armistice by Semis, and the
continued negotiations for peace, are so many
considerations that weigh with those who advo-
cate an autumn session. Although it would be
too much to say that there has been throughout
the country a demand for this, that demand has
certainly been made at many influential
meetings. On the advisability of such a course
we need not argue, but there does not appear to
be the slightest probability of its being adopted.
The Premier, it is well know, is opposed to it ;
Lord Derby has expressed himself pretty clearly
against it; the Chancellor of the Exchequer
said nothing about it ; and ministers generally
cannot be favourable to it.

So at last Temple Bar is to go I After two
sittings and innumerable reports, the Common
Council have consent to abate a nuisance, and it
is to come down bag and baggage—as they say
of the Turks. It was a hard fight, and gaUant
was the defence of vested interests; but it has
succumbed at last, and the British Constitution
is still safe, and there is no talk of repealing
Magna Charta or suspending the habeas corpus
We live in wonderful times, and may be thank-
ful for seeing such mighty changes.

Next session two menbers of the House of
Commons, according to notice they gave at the
close of the last Parliamentary campaign, are
going to call attention to the mode of reporting
dm debates in the House. Several members are
dissatisfied with the newspaper reports, inas-
much as the late speeches—those delivered after
midnight—are very scantily reported, while those
after "the wee short hour aymit the twal " (as
Burns says) are cut shorter still, or are not
reported at all. A few members advocate official
reports, to be published the next day; but such
a proposition would very speedily betsughed out
of the House. The reports in all the provincial
daily papers, London and provincial (the latter
of course by telegraph) are, however, admirably
done, and are quite lung enough for the general
public. If members of Parliament want any-
thing more than this, they should advocate
"early rising "—at night.