The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-14 00:00:00

FATAL ACCIDI NT TO A YACHTSMAN.

At Hyde, KO," on Tuesday morning, an accident I
occurred to a New York yachtsman, which cast a
lloom over the whole of the yachting community there.
Mr. Cornelius Grinnell, of New York, had come to the
old country for the purpose of witnessing the races and
festivities connected with the regattas. At Cowes he
purchased the steam yacht Hawk (142 tons), and he had
been but recently elected a member of the Royal
Victoria Yacht Club. He attended their dinner on
Monday night, and on getting to his lodgings met with
a fatal accident. The inquest WWI held on Tuesday
afternoon, before Mr. Blake, coroner for the Isle of
Wight, when the following evidence was given :
Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the NeleYork Herald, owner
of the yacht Dauntless, sail be had known the deceased
oh ,ut len days since his arrival at Cowes. He had seen him
about three years ago In New Vora. He believed decetrad
Heel in London, but did not know his age The previous sight
he Ilined with deceased, who wao lodging at 35, Pier-street, at
the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. Witness, Mr. Homans, and de-
ceased let t the club together about twelve o'clock. as they had
no rooms, deceased offered to allow witness and, Mr. }lonians
to sleep in his sitting room They all three went upstairs to-
gether. In a few minutes witness went down stairs, leaving
Sir. Homan' and deceased upstairs. NVheu he got to tile
front door he saw a holy lying partly on the pavement and
partly lathe road. Blood was streaming from the hack of
the head. The body was c.rried upataira, and Dr. °thud
sir.s immediately sent for Deceased was mine sober when
witness left him in his room. ---
B.eppard Montane, a gentleman from New York, cor-
roborated the evidence of Mr Bennett. lie added that
after Mr. Bennett went 1/0111l stain aecessed had an nu-
pr.sion that Sir. Bennett we wain; to b a k for another mom
rather than intrude on Ids anoints, lie said, '• I will see—l.
will .o out on the balcony " fie then t[row lip the Venetian
blind, opened the window, and atrium.' out. Ile disappeared,
and witness not hearing or seeing anything of him looked
, out of the window. Seeing no balcony, the thought flashed
• across his mind that deceased had fallen out. He looked
out of the window and then ran down stairs, and found the
I holy lying under the winnow. He felt the poise, anti found
It p. rfectly motionless. In his opinion death had been tn-
stantaoeous. Ile was sure he was unite ,ober.
Dr °Hard said that he mood deceased quite dead from a
frowner in the base of tl.e skull.
The Jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death,"
and appended to it an opinion that the window was in
an Unsafe c. mdition, anti required protection. At the
request. of Sir J. Burgoytie, their foreman, they ex-
pressed on behalf of the whole Brii WI cou muuity, and
aspecially of yachtsmen, their sorrow at the untoward
, accident to one of their vatitors.
____.

THE " HONOURABLE " WAY OF
SETTLING A DISPUTE.
Referring to the duel which has just been fought in
France, by two journalists, The Times has the follow-
ing leader ; and it is to be hoped that the time is not
far di.taht when the legislature of that country will
snake that foolish way of settling affairs of "honour,"
a capital crime, and visit it with a severe punishment
The telegraph informs us that the great duel of the year—
that tatwein M. Paul de Cassagnao and M. Gustave Flouter.
—came If on Tnursday morning. It is an event calculated
to tupplj converiatiou fora long time to come. Your French.
Marl, as a general rule, and your Parisian in particular, is In-
ordinately fond of a duel; not loath to be mined up with it
it can he managed, but, if otherwise, ho tries to console
himself by at least talking about it. It is not that duels in
Paris are events of uncommon occurrence. We hear of no
less than four "affairs," about the imminent issue of
which tine city 6 101 l of pleasurable emotion. The duel is a
sti.le.L that ne,i r palls, All arm in a sling from the
nurest scratch of a sharpened fencing-foil is some-
thing more to snow about the Boulevard or the Bois
than a whole rainbow of 'Mends at the button-
hole. Crimean and Lombard campaigning may be all very '
well It. its way, but on the battle-field heroism goes by whole-
and "every bullet has its billet " To try a man's nerve
and skill, in a Frenchman's opinion, there is nothing like sin
square feet of ground and bare steel. The cannon lithe
King's ultima. relic; hut the rapier is the only argument of
" the brave." And It is so true that duelling bravery has
nothtog hi common with martial valour that "in the French
Arniy, where the practice is winked at, a duel Mtween
rn e.s is a very rare occiirrence." Your ire-eaters
lii
FrilliCe are gwel ally journalists.
The hostile meeting id which the Orst tidings have just
reached us beton,' to this last category. It was an encounter
between M. l'aul de Cassagnac, the successor of IL °raider
de Cas.sglitic in the management of the ultra-Imperialist
organ, he Pays, and St. Gustave Flourens, one of the chief
editors of the ultra-Democratic payer, Le Rappel. The
quarrel arose out of an article hearing At. Cassagnac's signs-
nature, in which, It seems, he had "spokes slightingly of
the Republican party." According to other reports, "the
truculent M. de cassagnac had grossly insulted hi. liniments.'
We are not told what was the nature of the language in the
Pays, for it is one of the beauties of this duelling mania in
Prance that people go forth to eat each other's throats with.