The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-09-02 00:00:00

ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES.

Ax ALPIEE AIXTDENT.—Mr. Whymper, father of the
Alpine climber, kindly supplies us (4ideseeues) with a
few particulars respecting his accident DE 813 Matter-
bona. It appears that previous to the aeoideut the
mountaineer had made two attempts, with guides, to
ascend, and had fixed liii tent at an elevation of nearly
12,000 feet. It WAS in one of his trial excursions from
this point, to try and find some higher ledge on which
to sleep, that the accident betel him. Up to this
height the ground was pretty familiar to him. as he had
traversed it no leas than eight times. We may now
use his own graphic words I found a sleeping-place
about 300 feet 1114 her, and came quickly down. In
palming the tent I left everything behind that I could,
including my axe. The Col WAS passed in safety; but
on ,turning a corner of the precipice' to nay right,
found that two days' sun had nearly destroyed some
steps in the ice which I had cut the day before. The
position was awkward; a long elope of ice, as smooth
as glees, led away below me : a precipioe literally per-
pendicular rose above; the route lay along the junction
of the two on the top edge of the slope. Time forbade
my returning for the axe, so I commenced with my left
hand to dig the steps afresh with the point of my
baton, holding to a cranny with my right. I had nearly
finished, when, on stepping downwards, my foot slipped.
Down I went like lightning ; in a moment my &Won
was dashed frout my hand, and my knapsack brought
my bead down fret; some rocks peeped out 20 feet
down, and into these I fell. It was now, not eliding,
but flying absolutely head over heels. I fell 103 feet
in five or six bounds—striking my head four titnee.
The last hound must have been fully 60 feet; it took
me right across the gully, into some jagged rooks. I
clutched at them with &limy might, and after eliding
a little further, happily itoxped lnyself. Had I fallen
10 feet lower' I nhoult have shot over a precipice of
at least 800 feet." Mr. Whymper's wounds, theugh
numerous, were superficial. The application of snow
partly stopped the bleeding. Mr. Whymper is of
opinion that the Matterhorn is inacceasiole to mere
arms and legs. Professor Tyndall took a ladder, but
even with this aid it was found impossible to conquer
the last precipices.
SAVED BY CEISOLINE.—One day lately a lady
named Williamson, belonging to Coventry, was ramb-
ling with some friends among the ruins of Kenilworth
Cagle, when she fell over a precipice jot* the gardens ,
adjacent to the highest accessible portion of the ruins,
from a height of about 50 feet. Au she descended her
dress, which was extended by crinoline, caught in the
ivy which grows so luxuriantly upon the walls of
Kenilworth, thereby. breaking to a considerable extent
the force of the collision, and on being taken up she was
found to have sustained hut little external injury. She
was of course much bruised and shaken, and it will be
some time before she recovers from the severe shock
she has received.

FATAL RAVAGES OF A WATKR-SPOUT.—A. letter
from Madrid, of tho 20th, in the Message,. de
Bagonne, says:—" A. frightful catastrophe occurred
the day before yesterday on the Madrid and Alicant
Railway, a water-spout having burst in the neighbonr-
hood of Villarobledo, by which a portion of the line
was destroyed at the moment that the train was arriv-
ing. The locomotive and several of the • ',mons were
precipitated into the excavations caused by the
disaster, some nine or ten feet deep. The nuniber of
persons injured amounts to more than fifty; four have
already expired. Several passengers have disappeared.
having been, it is supposed, carried off by the water.
A GRAVE CHARGE.—The well-known editor of the
Gazettes di Verona, Perego has been arrested on the
charge of having oommitteifthe murder of Signora Seel-
hullo di Colloredo, in whose will lie is designated as sole
heir. The poor lady was found burned in her bed. The
public voice loudly accused Perego, and the authorities
were obliged to take charge of him.
FALL FROM Dovga BRIGHT/L-0E Saturday after-
noon a private soldier of the 59th Regiment, now on
duty at the Western Heights Barracks, who was in
custody for his mid-day intemperance, managed to slip
the vigilance of his guards, and outpecing them, disco-
cumbered himself of his shoes, and made for • point of
the cliff opposite the new Palmerston Bridge, where the
frequently shelving banks afford a practicable but at all
times dangerous descent. Whether the man was cut
off from this point by one of the gantries, or those he
had escaped from were pressing him too hard is not
certain. but, in full sight of the people on the niers and
romenades, the poor fellow's body was seen rolling from
point to point of the jutting chalk cliffs, until at last it
fell with a dull sound at the base of the rock in the Paris
Yard, the area of which is occupied as a boiler, shed,
&c., by the Imperial Mail Packet managers. Several
men immediately ran to his assistance, and in stew
moments soldiers arrived from the Grand Shaft Guard
with a stretcher, upon which the man was conveyed to
the military hospital at Archaliff Fort. On the way he
rallied from the stunning effects of a fall nearly 180
feet in depth, and, although much bruised, no fatal
results arc anticipated.
FEARFUL SCENIC AT A FIRE.- k fire broke out on
Friday at Blakeridge Mill, Batley belonging to Messrs.
J. and J. Taylor, woollen inanseaoturere, and did
damage estimated at g 15,000. The conflagration com-
menced while all the operatives were at work in the
factory, and spread with such rapidity that those em-
ployed in the upper rooms were unable to escape
except through the windows. Before either ropes or
ladders could be made available, several workpeople—
males and females-- to avoid the fierceness of the flames,
were compelled to suspend themselves from the
window frames outside the building, and in this
perilous position hung on ia agony and desperation
until their scorched fingers could no longer retain their
grasp. They then one after another fell to the ground,
some sustaining frightful injuries—two young women
being, it is believed, fatally hurt, and three others
rendered incapable of motion. One man was also
reported to be miming; and another, from his heroic
conduct on behalf of the female operatives, narrowly
escaped a terrible death. The entire factory—a large
and handsome stone structure—was speedily reduced to
ruins, notwithstanding the efforts of every available
agent to arrest the progress of the conflagration. It is
supposed the fireyronginated in what is milled the
"plucking room," by the machinery coming in contact
with some metallic substance, the friction igniting the
inflammable material.
COLLTSION ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY. —Between
11 and 12 o'clock on Thursday night • terrible accident
occurred on the Midland Railway, at Market Her-
borough, by whieh two passengers were killed and 25
injurei. Two excursion trains left London that night,
one for Barton and the other for Manton. The trains
were of considerable length and heavily laden; the one
for Manton had nearly a thousand passengers. To pass
through the station at Market Harborough the Midland
trains runs for nearly half a mile on the London and
North-Western line. On arriving at the junction at
Market Harborongh the Burton train, which started
first from London, stopped to take in water. During
this stoppage the Manton train came up and dashed
into the other, smashing three of the last carriages to
pieces. Owing to the darkness of the night, it was im-
possible at first to realize the extent of the disaster ;
but the shrieks ard groans of the wounded proved that
the requite must have been very serious. In a very
short time a large number of people assembled and
rendered all possible aid to the passengers. Without
delay search was made for the injured, and the broken
fragments of the carriages were piled up and made a
fire of for the purpose of giving light to those engaged
in clearing the lino, for the station was but poorly
lighted. It was then that the extent of the catastrophe
was found out. One poor man named Stinson,
a labonrer, more generally known as a carrier,
at Whitwick, was discovered lying under a carriage in
a fearfully mutilated state, and was quite dead; it was
over an hour and •-half before the body could be
extricated, when it was removed to the nearest. hotel.
Messrs. fleygate, Francis, and Ody, surgeons, of Market
Harborough, together with Dr. Lanca.ter, Mr. Bolton,
Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Denton, of Leicester, who were
sent for, rendered every assistance to the wounded.
One young man, named Sherwin, of Market Bosworth,
had one of his arms go seriously maimed that it was
found necessary to have it amputated a little below the
elbow, which operation was performed by Dr. Lancaster.
About six others hail resolved fractured arms, legs, and
breasta, and at the present time remain at Harborongh
in a very dangerous c0n4iti0n.,.25 persons in all were
severely injured. Another of the wounded has died
since, and others are not expected to recover. Fortu-
nately. the Manton train was not travelling at any con-
siderable speed when the accident occurred, or the con-
sequences must have been much more actions. The
engine was thrown off the line by the shock, and it was
nearly 4 o'clock on Friday morning before the Manton
passengers were enabled to proceed on their journey.
With regard to the cease of the accident it is not yet
known who is to blame—the signalman at the junction
or the driver of the Manton train. The former. states
that the signals were properly adjusted to stop an
approaching train while the latter maintains that
such was not the fact.