The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-23 00:00:00

FEARFUL SCENE IN A MENAGERIE.

cation :

The Rome correspondent of the Morning Poet, writing on
the 9th instant, gives the following account of a terrible
scene witnessed in a menagerie in that city on the previous
day :

A man of the name of Venturelli, from Reggio,
Modena, was going his habitual round, and giving the
public all the zoological particulars concerning the
ferocious animals belonging to the menagerie, when,
sin arriving at the cage of the lions, the un-
fortunate idea came into his head to pass
his arm through the bars and caress one of the lions.
The animal seized the forefinger of the right hand
with his teeth ; in order to free his right hand,
Venturelli passed his left arm through the bars ;
the other lions sprang upon him, and in one in-
stant, before assistance could be 'procured, muti-
lated him horribly with their claws and teeth.
The unfortunate inan's arm presented a shapeless
1:09.6.9 of bleeding flesh and bruised bones, mixed with
shreds of clothing. There was a cry of horror through-
out the building, and a good many persons occupying
the bark seats, and not being able to see what was
the matter, thought that one of the lions had escaped.
Imagine the terror aod confusion. Some ladies were
carried out fainting; others, shrieking wildly and
overcome by their fears, leapt over benches and balus-
trades with marvellous agility. The Munivipal Guards
and the pollee had been endeavouring for some four or
five minutes, with their drawn sabres, to put an end
to this dreadful scene, when the lion tamer, Signor
Bidel, entered the cage, and with astonishing courage
marched straight up to the savage animals, one of whom
had stretched his paw outside the bars, endeavouring
to drag through the bead of the unfortunate
Venturelli. It was a curious sight to see these ferocious
beasts, almost maddened by the sight of human blood,
become suddenly docile and subdued before the mes-
meric eye and authoritative voice of the intrepid Sig-
nor Bidel, who after compelling the animals to re-
linquish their 'lacerated victim, gave them a good
beating all round and sent them into different cages.
The one which remained no sooner saw his master's
back turned than he set to work to devour the torn
and bloody fragments of flesh and clothing which
covered the floor of the cage. The lacerated and
fainting Venturelli was immediately conveyed to the
Hospital of the Consolazione, where ether was adminis-
tered to him previous to amputation of the right arm.
A surgeon and attendant remained with him through
the night, and following morning hopes were enter-
tained of his recovery.

ARCHBISHOP MANNING ON ST.
PATRICK.
Sunday (the 17th) being the festival of St. Patrick,
Archbishop Manning preached to a crowded Irish con-
gregation in the Catholic Church of St. Patrick, Soho,
London. He referred, in the first instance, to the
wonderful fidelity of the Irish people to the Roman
Catholic faith, which they exhibited as strongly as ever
in the days when men established churches by Act of
Parliament, (Sr by the national will, as it was called,
or by collecting themselv, s together for the purpose of
setting up a church. St. Patrick, were he alive,
would teach them not to learn the faith themselves
alone, but to teach it to their children. He would tell
them it was not enough to see their children taught
to read and write and sum, to sew, or to work ; but
that first of all, they must learn to be Christians and
Catholics, and then they might learn what they liked.
St. Patrick would tell them that if they sent their
children to any school but a Catholic one they would
learn all but the one thing necessary; and woe to the
fathers and mothers who sent their children to schools
where the Catholic faith was not taught ! It was not
enough for them to send their children to Catholic schools
unless they taught them by their own good example at
home. Let thembe just, virtuous, truthful, and, above
all, let them be temperate and sober. He hardly liked to
speaktf thekatter subject, except to name it as he passed

and the usual scale on, which great public services - - s •
are rewarded, there was something niggardly in oit. He had been for many years jealonsi of the cna-
the grant allotted to Lady Mayo. That impres- racter of the Irish Catholics when this festival came
Rion is not removed by a further consideration , round. How could they best honour St. Patrick in the
eyes of men?
of the case. It is difficult to conceive any injury If the festival passed without any man
greater than that which the widow and children committing an excess, that would be the best way to
honour St. Patrick. The eve of this festival was a
of the late Governor-General have suffered In the loss
of their natural protector. Lord Mayo has been cut Saturday night, and the festival itself fell on Sunday,
off in the full strength of manhood. At the time of He prayed God that to-morrow morning he might not
his death he had not completed his fiftieth year. read anything or hear anythin, during the week which
would make his heart sad andheavy over the children
Little more than three years ago he was selected by
of St. Patrick in London. Let them become an example
the Government of the day for the office of Viceroy,
and it is acknowledged on all sides that the choice to men round about them, who, if they could find fault
did credit to the discernment of the Minister. At
with them, would find it. There were sharp, keen, un-
the time of his death he had won for himself the re-
friendly eyes upon them in London. Many sharp and
cutting things were sometimes said to him ; so let them
imitation of being one of the most succeßsful Vice
roys who has ever governed India. Europeans and not leave it in the power of people to say these things
Natives have united to lament his fate and to honour again. Let them be united in charity. Here in Eng-
his memory. A man of such powers and such a re-
land, where the Christianity of their forefathers was
utation must be looked upon as having a value for
breaking up, dissolving, dying away, there was still the
p
his family analogous to that which he ha Catholic Church standing united. As St. Patrick d for his
country. His family are deprived in a moment of one would have prayed, so he prayed God that no Catholic
who in the course of nature might have lived for many man or woman should be out of the Church--no poor
little child out of the faith—out of the careful teaching
years', taken a foremost rank in political life, and held
,
the highest offices in the State. of that faith which he had inherited.
Lord Mayo, it must be added, possessed only a very
moderate private fortune. The income of the Viceroy
is magnificent, and no doubt a man who goes to India
determined to snake the place remunerative is able to
lay by a considerable sum yearly. Lord Mayo how-
ever, was not one with whom these private considera-
tions would prevail. His first object was to maintain
the influence and to increase the usefulness of his
great office. He threw himself into the work with
a zeal which few have ever equalled, and he dis-
played a dignity and splendour unsurpassed in the
annals of his predecessors. He visited one Province
after another, received the Native Princess with almost
unexampled splendour, Raw with his own eyes the con-
dition of the land and the wants of its inhabitants, en-
courages! European enterprise, and his labours ceased
only with his life. With the courtliness and the politic
display of Lord Wellesley or Lord Dalhousie he united
an attention to details anti n willingness' to undertake
what may be called the drudgery of official life which
form one of the most valuable qualities of an Indian states-
men in these days, when the period of war is at an end and
that of material improvement his begun. In the
midst of his career he is cut off by the band of an
assassin. Surely the manner of his dsath raises the
case of his family above all precedents ? Never yet has
a Governor-General succumbed to such a fate, and we
may hope that for generations the murder of Lord
Mayo may be an act unparalleled in Indian history.
We have no desire to draw comparisons, but, as
the precedent of Lord Elgin has been mentioned by
Mr. Gladstone, we may say that the death of
a Governor-General from natural cause! does not
impose on the State the same moral obligations as a
death by assassination met in the immediate discharge
sf a public duty. Viewed in connexion with all the cir-
cumstances--the eminence of the deceased, the value
of his life to his family, and the terrible and excep-
tional character of his deatht—the grant appears
totally insufficient, and we hope it is not too late to re,