The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-09 00:00:00

THE BALKAN DIFFICULTY:

(Reuter's Telegrams.)
COXSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 2.
The Turkish Admiralty has ordei ed from an Eng-
lish firm a number of nets for the protection of iron-
clads against torpedoes, similar to those used in the
British navy.
The Redifs in the provinces of Aleppo and Damascus
have been called out, and are now on the way to
Salonica and Dede Agatch.
Gadban Effendi, the Turkish Commissioner at
Sofia, has requested permission to proceed to Con-
stantinople, in order to make several communications
to the Porte, and is expected to arrive here shortly.
Sir William White being asked by the Porte when
the British Government would reply to the Turkish
Circular Note with regard to the Bulgarian question,
stated that the Note did not require an answer.
M. de Nelidoff, the Russian Ambassador, has
recently displayed great activity, and thereby suc-
ceeded in regaining considerable influence at the
Porte, where a strong inclination is manifest to
follow the counsels of Russia.
BELGRAMI, Jan. 2.
The following official statement is published here
to-day:
"Contrary to the provisions of the Armistice Con-
vention, the Bulgarians still hold Bregovo with two
companies of infantry. They yesterday made an
examination of the Bregovo bridges, and sent out
reconnoitring parties both up and down the Timok
River.
"The Servian monastery at Rzana, in the district of
Pirot, has been completely pillaged by the Bulgarians,
even the priests' vestments and church vessels being
carried off." _

ATIIHNS, Jan. 2.
Military preparations are again actively proceeding,
and, by order of the Minister of War, troops are being
massed on the frontier. Torpedo practice also is
being carried on daily.
The death is announced of the Turkish Minister
here.

A Vienna correspondent stated on Monday that
the prospects in the East were less hopeful through
the internal situation in Servia, the evidences of
rivalries among the Great Powers, and the attitude of
Montenegro acting under the intluence of Russia.
The Greek Government addressed a note to
the Powers demanding the restoration of the
boundary of the Greek Kingdcm originally fixed
by the Berlin Congress. This claim is put forward
on the ground that the recent union of Bulgaria with
Eastern Rournelia involves the loss to Greece of
thousands of persons of Greek nationality. On the
arrival of the Shipka Regiment at Philippopolis on
Sunday they were received with much enthusiasm by
the populace, and cries of "Long live Bulgaria!
were raised. M. Mijatovics is named as the Servian
representative in the peace negotiations with Bul-
garia.
BELGRADE, Jan. 5.
No agreement has yet been come to with regard to
the place where the peso negotiations are to be car-
ried on, General -Sorvatovich will hold an inspec•
tion of all the trooper the provinces after the
holidays.
• • PESTII, Jan. 5.
The Pester Lloyd to-day states that the magistrates
of Pesth have voted the sum of 700011. for the relief
of the Servian andltulgarian wounded.

Having for years given sepulchre to the bob veal
rhymings of diseased imagination' the Louisville
Courier-Journal now says to its contributors. "Oh,
girls; sweet girls I Swear by the moon that you will
send no more meterless rhymes to this newspaper.
Send them to your best young man,. or to some near
relative, or to the New York Triune. Poetry and
rhymes, like all good gills, should have pretty feet."
When Rubenstein was in America, "Josh Bil-
lings" was introduced to him, and the pianist in con-
versation presently endeavoured to impress upon the
Y,ankee an idea of his family rank. "Indeed," he
said, "I have ascertained that my ancestors were
prominent men in the crusades, and one of them ac-
companied the Emperor Barbarossa." "On the
piano, I suppose," said "Josh."

THE STOKE NEWINGTON MYSTERY.

Giorge Herbert Thackray, alias King, who was
arrested at Grimsby on a charge of vagrancy, and
afterwards stated that he mnrdered a clerk in St.
Mary's-walk, Islington, on New Year's Eve. 1884, has
since made the following confession:
" On New Year's Eve, 1884, I and a man named
Mick Sullivan were drinking in the Three Nags
public-house, Whitechapel road, when a clerk came
in and began talking about the amount of money in
his possession. hullivan said we would have the
money, so we dodged him about until after midnight.
He bade a companion good-bye under the trees in St.
Mary's-walk, Islington, and then I pounced upon him,
put a handkerchief round his neck, and strangled him.
We dragged him up the embankment, and threw him
into the reservoir, after robbing him of £5O. We
took his watch, but afterwards lost it. After that I
went to my lodgings at 72, St Dunstan'o-road, Bur-
dett-road, Limehouse. I got £2O as my share of the
£5O. We dragged the body through a hedge before
throwing it into the reservoir, and we left the hand-
kerchief round his neck."

The police who had charge of the original investi-
gation have, it was stated on Saturday, grave doubts
of the truth of the statement alleged to have been
made by the man now in custody at Grimsby. It
will be remembered that Inspector Swanson, wh3 had
the inquiry in hand, was of opinion that the case was
one of suicide. Another theory was that the deceased
had been decoyed away by a woman and afterwards
robbed and murdered by her companions. So far as
Thackray's statement is concerned, its principal
points are that he and his companion first saw
Tower in the Three Nags public-house, White-
chapel, when he was talking about the amount of
money in his possession. This is contradicted
by the evidence of Ernest Cogden, who was with
him from half-past six o'clock in the evening of
December 31st until 12 25 a.m. on January Ist,
when the Watch Night service terminated.
There is also the fact that the young man was ex-
tremely temperate, and a very unlikely person to
drink in a low public-house in Whitechapel, and
talk about his money. Beyond this it Las been
ascertained that there is no such public-house as that
mentioned by Thackray. Next, the prisoner says he
"dodged him about until after midnight, when he
bade a companion good-bye under the trees in St.
Mary's-walk, Islington." As a matter of fact, it was
not St. Mary's-walk, Islington, but Queen Elizabeth's-
walk, Stoke Newington, where the supposed murder
took place. Then, according to the "confession,"
they robbed Tower of £5O. Ernest Cogdon, at the
inquest, swore the deceased had about £8 in his pos-
session, and this statement was borne out by the fact
that the salary paid the young man was £8 6s. Bd.
monthly, and that he had just received it. Thackray
after this states that he went to his lodgings in "St.
Dunstan's-row, Burdett-road, Islington." There is no
13urdett-road in Islington, but a reference to the Post
Office Directory shows that there is a St. Dunstan's
"road," Burdett-road, Bow.
A Grimsby correspondent on Saturday supplied the
following confession made by King, of the murder:
My mother resides at 43, Jun'• road, Mile-end-road,
London. I came down to Grimsby in 1883, to Mr.
11. Smethurst's, my mother ha, aig previously wrote
to him about me, and the money was paid for my
railway fare by Mr. Smethurst. I made two trips on
board the cod smack Carl, and then I wished to go
home again, and Mr. Smethurst gave me 55., and I
started to walk it, although I had more money than
would have paid my railway fare. I arrived in
London two days after Christmas Day, about four
p.m., and gent straight home to my mother. I was
taken to St. Mary's-walk by Mick Sullivan (proper
name Ned Sullivan) the night before New Year's Eve,
1883. We got there about five p.m., to look at St.
Mary's-walk and St. Elizabeth's-walk. We went into
a public-house there near to a plantation. Sullivan
went into a private bar, and bad a conversation with
a young woman he met there. I remained in another
room. He came out and said it was all right. We
left there and went home through Finsbury and
through Spitalfielda Market and down Commercial-
road, and to the Three Nags, where I met "Doctor,"
a man who was a " pal " of mine, who mended
cane-bottomed chairs, and lived in Bethnal-green. '
I went home to 72, St. Dunstan's-row. I left home
between 10 and 11 a.m. next day, and I saw Sullivan.
We had dinner together at the cook-shop next to the
Three Nags. We had a little conversation, and went
home. We arranged to meet at seven p.m.. at the
Three Nags, and we did so. We sat there about
half-an-hour, and then he took me to St. Mary's-
walk. We arrived there about nine p.m., and walked
about for a mile or two round about there. Sullivan
left me standing under a hedge near the plantation
of trees, and he came back and said, "I hear they
are going to a chapel or church somewhere near to
see the Old Year out and the New Year in, and they
will be about right for us at two a.m." He meant
two young men that he had previously seen. One of
the young men was about 22 years of age, and the
other, from what Mick said, would be older. I was
under the hedge waiting when Sullivan came hack,
and said, "Now, darkey, play sharp, and do the thing,
and get him out of the way." The young man was
coming along, when Mick strums him wi:.h a cudgel
about two feet long, which knocked him down
on his knee. I put my arms round his
arms and held him. He began to call out. Mick
said, "It is no use to do that. It is all up with you."
I put my hand over his mouth. Mick put the
handkerchief round his neck and drew it tight and
strangled him. Mick got held of him in front, and I
got hold of his legs. We took him through a hedge,
and got him up the embankment and slid him down
into the water. Mick took the money, which he said
was £5O, and gave me £2O, and he said he took the
watch and ring, but afterwards said he had lost them.
We made across some fields, and then came to some
1 adjoining buildings, and then, as far as I know, we
made for Finsbury-pavement. We walked about all
night down Mile-end-road about the coffee-stalls urtil
daylight, and then I went home. I spent most of
the money in the Three Nags, and Mick was with me
until some man, who was often there with a stick,
whom we took to be a detective, came, and we left off
going there. Miclr Sullivan resides in Wilson-street,
or did when I lived there. I and Mick were together,
until I was apprehended fcr loitering, and two others.
I was getting on a wall, and a policeman came and got
hold of my leg, the other two got away. I was afterwards i
charged with stealing rabbits. My mother, f she
hears about it, will soon let the cat out of the bag.
She will say it was Walter Reynolds that was with
me, and she knows where he lives. (Signed)
GEORGE HERBERT TIIA.CRRAY NELSON KING.