The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-28 00:00:00

A DECREE OF SEPARATION.

THE CURATE QUESTION.

The Free Church Society of London and Manchester
have addressed the following letter to assistant curates
in and near Lond,n :
16, Northumberland-street, Charing Cross,
November, IS6B.
" Rev and Dear Sir,—fhe plan of self-supporting mission
or school churches, originally proposed arid tarried Into
effi et by our society, is earnestly submitted t you, as bearing
materially upon the position of unbeneticed clergy at this
time.
"By means of the offertory collected secretly, as in bags,
at every service' and frequent services—all the seats being
free—an income may, with good management, be obtained
considerably larger than incumbents now offer to assistant
aerates.
"5 plain structure holding 000 people, one half at every
service giving lit. and the other 21. each, yields about £5OO a
year.
" the cost of such mission churches allows of their being
established as fast as the permission of the incumbents can
be obtained.
"'f he direct result of this self-expanding system Is to
create a minimum of curates' income of £l5O to £2OO per
annum.
" hence the opposition to the society's work, and the
refusal to allow Church services to lie provided for the
thousands of families shut out of their parish churches by
the pew-rent system
" May we hope that you will candidly examine the system
for yourself, and aid us in working it nut by giving your
name on the committee 111,W being formed in connection
with the National Association, with the special object of
creating the demand for and thereby gradually augmentibg
the iliqcreelitably low stipends of curates—an object, it is
submitted, better 1,0111 for them and for the Church than a
merely eleemosynary addition.—Yours faithfully,
" EDWARD HEREFORD, Chairman of the Council."

UNREQUITED LOVE, MURDER, AND
SUICIDE IN AMERICA.
(From the Madison (Wis.) Journal.)
It will be remembered that in June last we pub-
lished the detail:4 of a horrible murder in Grant County,
Miss Catherine Jordan having been killed by her lover,
William E. Kidd, in Glen Haven, June 15, 1868.
There were circumstances of such peculiar atrocity
connected with the crime that public indignation was
aroused to the utmost, and large rewards offered for
the arrest of the murderer as follows : —By the State
of Wisconsin, 500 dols. ; by Grant County, 500 dels. ;
by citizens of Glen Haven and Bloomington, 550 dols. ;
and by citizens of Fenimore, 100 dots-, making in all
1,650 dols. This stimulated detectives and police
officers to the utmost, and there were several dif
erent rumours of Kidd's capture, all without founda-

thin.
It appears that he went immediately to the railroad,
and thence through the heart of the State to its prin-
cipal city, revisited Milwaukee, went to Chicago,
and heard policemen talking of his crime and the
chances of his arrest, then made his way westward to
the mines of Colerado, and was finally arrested after
many wanderings in the wilds of Minnesota. Mr. Dela-
ware, a resident of Glen Haven, managed to trace him,
and with the assistance of Frank Winship, of Sioux
City, lowa, arested him in Noble County, Minnesota,
on October 8, Kidd giving himself up to all appearances
willingly. Ile was taken to the railroad as soon as possi-
ble, and while on the cars. Octoberl4, near Jefferson,
Green County lowa, committed suicide by taking strych-
nine. Careful search was made about the person and
clothes of Ki,kl for concealed weapons or poison, but no-
In the Court of Prohate and Divorce, the cause of thing was found. After taking the poison Kidd told of it,
"Davies v. Davies (Clerk)" has been heard, and was saying, "You searched well, but the small paper of
a petition by the wife for a judicial separation, on the strychnine had been sewed inside the lining of my
pound of cruelty. The husband answered, denying , pantaloons, where its discovery was next to impos-
the charge. tilde." The poison hail been provided for use in case of
It appeared that the petitioner, Mrs. Emiline , need. Kidd's death took place one hour and twenty-
Davies, was married to the respondent, the Rev, five minutes after taking the poison. At intervals
Davi Barndril Davies, a clerk in holy orders in con- , between spasms he conversed freely and even with
nec• ion with the Church of England, in August, 1861, cheerfulness, giving directions alit° what ehould betold
the lady has log been possessed of some fortune 'a bit t., Ids friends at home. &c.
she inherited from her father and mother, +as. were The following is the substance of 1, confeesion made
new dead. After the marriage they cohabited at by Kidd to Delaware on the first night of his capture.
Wail 818 places in Larnw.shire and Yorkshire, at some He and Katie Jordan had always been intimate
of which the respondent hell curacies. It was, how- friends ; that he loved her, and told her that if she
ever, alleged that some five months after the marriage! didn't marry him she never would marry any one.
the respondent commenced to ill-treat his wife. Some This was two months before the murder. A couple of
misunderstanding seemed to have taken place between days ls, fore the act he took his trunk to Casswell, and
him and his wife's relations about money matters, and shipped the mine to S. 0 B. Martin, Mazornanie.
he would not permit his wife to visit or correspond 00 Monday evening thereafter he went with his horse
with them. In the sunimer of IMO, a child, a girl, and buggy Li Malvern to see her, asked for her, and
was born of the marriage, but that event instead of sh• came out to am him ; they talked awhile, and he
h• aling, seemed rather to have widened the breach be- , asked her to take a ride with him, saying that it
tween them. &Sin after the birth if the child the , would be the last ride she would ever take
re-pondent was appointed citrate Li the Rev. Mr. I with him. She got into the buggy ; he re.
Swallow, the rector of the parish of Black+ oil, in Lan- , ferred to the presents he hasl made her,
cashire. While there he was stated to have given his and that he had a set of furs in his trunk that he haul
wife a black eye (and had also threatened her with a I intended to give her, and other articles ; observed
bill-hook), and she went with her child to the rectory , while riding that a ring he had given her was not
for protection, when a scene took place between them, worn; he then ran nesl her picture. which she took
but after some tinie they went home Ligether. From and put in her pocket ;he let down a fence and named
that time down to August, 1867, matters seem to have through a field, casne to a ravine, turned his horses
gone on from had to worse, and at that time the ; wti- quartering across the roast; then took out his revolver
timer left her husband, unable longer to live with .snd told her to shoot him ; she refused, and answered.
him, in consequence, as she alleged, of his save: mid " Wiliiam what are you going to do ? I am afraid of
unkind treatment. you ;" he then took out his knife, and she said, "My
Mrs. Davies herself was the chief witness to make Coal, William, are you going to cut my throat?" He
out her ease. She was a person of education, but gave answered "I am; ' he then placed his arm around her
her evidence in a rather eccentric mai ,r When head and aimed to draw the knife across her throat ;
asked whether sl e was really alarmed at ,si bill-hissk, she seized the knife, and in so doing cut her hand
she said that she thought her own thoughts, that she hat! severely ;he then wrenched the knife from her and
stated the facts, and that the court must draw its os n nut her throat, holding her heasi with his arm until life
conclusions from them. When Sir James Wilde was extinct; he then alighted and lifted the body out
pressed her on the point she replied, "You are a of the buggy, intending to throw it into a sinkhole
judge, judge for yourself." At a later part of her nearby, when the horses started ; thinking somebody
errs examination, Sir James put the question once I VIM coming he left the body and jumped into the
more. , buggy, drove to his father's, left his team, and got a
Witness • C
. an you make me answer you, judge! 1 horse and fled.
The rest of his confession refers to his life after this
Sir James: No.—Witness :Then drop it. (Laughter.) I diabolical murder, which waa such as might be ex-
The Rev. Barnard Davies+, the respondent, was put , pected of a wretch so abandoned and desperate.
into the witness-box, and he denied seriatim, the i islmal.•
charges of cruelty brought against him. I
, THE BORDER EDITOR.
At the conclusion of the evidence, the learned judge I
saisl that the evidence clearly proved that the parties The editor of the ralkee A ralanehr, by way of describing
hail never lived happily all their married life, and that his agreeable vocation, as conductor of a frortier paper,
the quarrels between them had been chiefly caused by makes the following interesting reflections:—
disputes which arose between the respondent's and the oh, the felicity of editing a paper ! Charming,
petitioner's relations. He could see from her behaviour agreeable, in a horn ! Fascinating, attractive oceupa-
in the witness-box that the petitioner was very ercen- Lion, but so difficult to appreciate. How nicely and
trM, and not easily managed, but that there was no smoothly one gets along without an " onpleasant-
remou why she should be ill-treated ; he therefore now!" For instance, in a recent issue we referred
would grant a decree of judicial separation, the wife to directly to a ruffian known as Captain Prescot, and
have the custody of the child. incidentally to a guerilla named Al. Cage. We did
this in justice to ourselves and the community at large.
The other day, while quietly seated in our sanction,
taxing our brain for more copy, in response to the
everlasting cry of the 'devil," the two above-named
villains, one of them armed with a hatchet, and the
other with a bowie-knife of large dimensions, made a
violent attack upon ow. person. The only alternative
was to tight or die. We accordingly seized a large
knife, about two feet long, need for cutting paper, and
bled our assailants pretty freely. They sued for mercy.
We spared their worthless lives, and told them tsi
dust, and they got up and dusted. We would take
this occasion to state that if they or any one elm attack
us with the intention of doing us bodily harm, we will
shoot them dead in their tracks, or cut their throats
from ear to ear.

The opening of the new City of London meat and
poultry market took place on Tuesday with becoming cere-
mony. The Lord Mayor first went to Amithileld, and de-
clared the market open, and then dined in it with a great
number of persons interested in one way or other in the sec
cess of the undertaking. It is seldom that any puilic work
in this country has been carried out in a Timmer so entirely
satisfactory as this has Wen; even its actual cost Ls £12,0110
, wins the estalarthl sum.