The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-23 00:00:00

A FATAL AFFRAY ON THE RIGI.

The following fence appeared In Tht Times or Tuesday :
As so many of your sutr.erihers (of whom I am one)
take much interest in Switzsrland, I venture to relate
brit fly a tragic ocoorrence which happened in the very
mishit of a crowd of vieitors this morning.
. .

In the grey dawn of this (Sunday) Morning, while
awaiting the sunrise, with about 100 ladies and gentle-
men, on the summit of the Iti<i, I se, about 16 Italian
navvies engaged upon the lti4i Railway come among
the visitors in an excited manner, and before any one
could interfere one of their fellow-workmen was atm&
down, surrounded by the rest of the gang, one of whom
dealt the poor watch on the ground a deatheblow on
the temple with a long-handled spade. The rest gave
a shout of approval, and immediately after etriking a
second blow to insure the death of their victim these
staVl:Zei walhei rat idly dawn the mountain, one of
them fl turidling the spade amid the approving cries of
the rest.
. _

The entire proceeding occupied less than three
tuffintes, the visitors being horror-stricken. I st,r lon
the wooden stage at the leo summit of the Rigi, about
30 yards off, and witmeried the whole affair; but
tnose rearer, an I even quite close, had no tune to
attempt to shield the murdered man from the vem
mince of the gang of savages—intact, the ruffians had
got out of sight in the twilighrbefore we knew the
poor man war dead.
As it WAR mohably a vendetta, the chances are that
there murderers will altogether ec.pe punishment.
lo incream the horror of the sad deed, the corpse was
left for more than an hour before even a sheet was laid
over it. —I an, H. W.
110 tel itigi Kuim, swltserland, Aug. IT.

THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM.
(From the Daily News.)
The first anniversary of the Brighton Aquarium's
existence was celebrate I on Satui day, and deserved
lebration better terhaps than many anniveisaries
around which a grander. halo is thrown. The remark-
able success of the Bright so Aquarium ha 3 stirred op
numerous sea-coast towns to emulation, and a good
aquarium will soon be a necessity in every such
holiday resort. That at Brighton brings whole legions
of excursionists there every Saturday on the
strength of its own attractions alone. Everything
that can be done to make the institution a pleasant
resort has been done liberally, an I a reading-room, a
lounge, a place of study in marine life, it refreshment
place, a promenade—all may be found within me com-
-11A6.9 of one building. Brighton still keeps far ahead
of all rival. 3. in the size of its aquarium, and fairly
deserves to be countered the leader of the very com-
mendable fashion that has set in. The public are be-
coming every day better acquainted with the pecu-
liarities of the more recondite creatures who live
where the purple mullet and the gold fish rove, and
where the mermaid is decking her green hair with
shells —creatures., many of %tom, which were not nearly
so well known before this to in ant people as the mer-
maid herself. We need hardly proceed to dilate on the
various advanta. es which must come from this clinical
study, if we may use such an expression, r4f the fish.
But we may perhaps make distinct allusion to the
promise held out by Mr. Frank Bucklaud, that the
letter knowledge thug acquired may teal some day to
salmon at fivepence a pound. While this good time is
coming, however, the Brighton Aquarium is as pleasant
a place of resort as lilt never could teach liny body any-
thing. Naturally the creatures most eagerly gazed atand
studied there are those which keep themselves longest
and most anxiously out of sight, and which, when they
can be seen, Dole to most observers as if they were like
Love as discovered by Virgirs shepher -according to
Dr. Johns,u—natives of the rocks. People may
derive a moral lesson from this if they will, and learn
that obt.usiveness does not always secure attention;
and thus the Apt .rium may add occ .sional toilettes
of moral philosophy to the other instructi in it so
agreebly conveys.