The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-02-26 00:00:00

TERRIBLE DISASTER AT MUNICH.

An extraordinary and terrible accident is reported
from Munich. The Students of the Academy of
Painters were holding a masked fete when the costume
of one, who was dres.sed in the flax costume of an
Esquimaux, caught fire. In his terror the young man
rushed with his blazing costume among the others, and
several other inflammable dresses caught fire. Eight
persons have died of their injuries, and others are
severely hurt.

A Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph gives the follow-
ing particulars respecting the dreadful affair :
At about twelve p.m., just as the Fasts was at its
height, I (who was in the American Block Hut')
heard shouts of fire and shrieks for help. There was
a small opening into the street from our hut, and a
crowd of shrieking people came surging in. We,
however, joined together and forced them out into the
great hall, where a terrible scene confronted us.
Amid a mass of panic-stricken people, rushing in all
directions, and wildly dashing through the crowd,
were five or six students completely enveloped in
flames. One of the most terribly burnt (Herr Kriest,
who had since died) came shrieking along, one mass of
flame, and endeavoured to get into our hut. We spc-
ceeded in throwing him down just at the door, and
after pouring all the water we had on him, threw a
blanket over him, and at last extinguished the flames.
He was so terribly burned as to be unrecognisable. As
I assisted to get him into a sitting posture his flesh
seemed to peel off in my hand. We gave him some
whisky, which revived him a little, and he was then
carried to the hospital. Altogether seventeen persons
were burnt, of whom twelve of those most seriously
injured were at once taken to the hospital. Up to the
present (Sunday, three p.m.), eight are dead, one is
expected to die, and there are three whose recovery is
doubtful. What made it still more terrible was that
most of those burnt were dressed in an Esquimaux
costume made of flax, and fastened to a skin-tight
canvas covering with a sort of pitch, which melted
with the flames and stuck the tighter to them. It
was horrible to see their frantic efforts to rid them-
selves of their fiery robe, but, of course without
success.

The origin of the fire was in the Esquirnaux hut,
where three of the students were sitting together in a
small cave at the back selling herrings. One of them
reached out to get some money, and put his arm in the
flame of a candle that was standing on a barrel. His
coat of flax was at once in flames. The case being
so small his companions could not escape, and so
were at once on fire also, They rushed madly
through the hall, and, in that manner com-
municated the flames to the others. The
greatest praise is due to Herr Neidhard (music
conductor), who, as the band were rushing away,
ordered them to remain, and play a selection from
'Carmen,' which, restoring the confidence of the
panic-stricken people, prevented a catastrophe, the
extent of which is dreadful to contemplate. The hall
was crowded to such an extent that it was scarcely
possible for it to have held more, and as most of the
people knew but one exit, the loss of life, had the
panic continued, must have been terrible. To-day
the whole of Munich is in a state of mourning."

PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PRO-
PERTY (IRELAND) BILL

The following is the Bill, as amended in Committee on
Monday night, for the better Protection of Person and Pro-
perty in Ireland :

_
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Faccellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords Spiritual and remporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows :
I. (1.) Any person who is declared by warrant of the
Lord Lieutenant to be reasonably suspected of having
either before or after the passing of this Act been guilty
as principal or accessory of high-treason, treason-felony,
or treasonable practices, wherever committed, or of
any crime punishable by law committed, in a prescribed
district, being an act of violence or intimidation or the
incitirw to an act of violence or intimidation, and
tendidr to interfere with or disturb the maintenance
of law and order, may be arrested in any part of
Ireland and legally detained during the continuance
of this Act in such prison in Ireland as may from time
to time be directed by the Lord Lieutenant, without
bail or mainprize ; and shall not be discharged or tried
by any court without the direction of the Lord Lieu-
tenant; and every such warrant shall be conclusive
evidence of all matters therein contained, and of the
jurisdiction to issue..and execute such warrant, and of
Mae legality of the arrest and detention of the person
mentioned in such warrant.

(2.) Any person detained in pursuance of a warrant
under this Act shall be treated as a person accused of
crime, and not as a convicted prisoner, subject to the
special rnles for the time being in force with respect to
prisoners awaiting trial; provided that the Lord
Lieutenant may from time to time, if he shall think
fit, make regulations modifying such special rules so
far as they relate to persons detained under this
Act. Any regulations made by the Lord Lieutenant
under this provision shall be laid before both Houses
of Parliament within 14 days after the making of the
same, if Parliament be then sitting, and if not, then
within 14 days after the next meeting of Parliament.
(3.) A list of all persons for the time being detained
in prison under this Act, with a statement opposite
each person's name of the prison in which he is de-
tained for the time being, and of the ground stated
for his arrest in the warrant under which he is de-
tained, shall be laid before each House of Parliament
within the first seven days of every month during
whigh Parliament is sitting, and when Parliament is
not sitting such list shall be published in the Dublin
Gazette within the first seven days of every month.

(4.) " Prescribed district" means any part of Ire-
land in that behalf specified by an order of the Lord
Lieutenant for the time being in force, and the Lord
Lieutenant, by and with the advice of the Privy
Council in Ireland, may from time to time make, and
when made, revoke and alter any such order.

11. (1.) Any warrant or order of the Lord Lieu-
tenant under this Act may be signified under his hand
or the hand of the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieu.:
tenant, and a copy of every warrant under this Act
shall, within seven days after the execution thereof,
be transmitted to the clerk of the Crown for the
county in the county in which was the last known place
of abode of the person arrested under such warrant,
and be filed by the said clerk of the Crown in
his public office in said county; and a further copy of
every such warrant shall, within seven days after the
execution thereof, be transmitted to the clerk of the
Crown tor the county of the city of Dublin, and be
filed by him in his public office in that city ; and such
clerk of the Crown shall furnish a copy of such warrant,
certified under his hand to be a true copy, on demand,
to any relative of the person arrested under such
warrant or his solicitor.

(2). The Lord Lieutenant, by and with the advice
of the Privy Council in Ireland, may from time to
time make, and when made revoke and alter, an order
prescribing the forms of warrants for the purposes of
this Act, and any forms so prescribed shall when used
be valid in law.

(3.) Provided that if any member of either House
of Parliament be arrested under this Act the fact shall
be immediately communicated to the House of which
he is a member, if Parliament be sitting at the time,
or if Parliament be not sitting, then immediately after
Parliament reassembles, in like manner as if he were
arrested on a criminal charge.
(4.) Every order under this Act shall be published
in the Dublin Gazette, and the production of a printed
copy of the Dublin Gazette purporting to be printed
and published by the Queen's authority, containing
the publication of any order under this Act, shall be
conclusive evidence of the contents of such order, and
of the date thereof, and of the same having been duly
made.
(5.) The expression "Lord Lieutenant" means the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or other Chief Governor
or Governors of Ireland for the time being.
111. This Act shall continue in force until the
thirtieth day of September one thousand eight hundred
and eighty-two, and no longer.

THE CETLON PEARL FISHERIES.—These fisheries
seem to be in a highly promising condition, as the
recent Government inspection showed that both the
value of the oysters and the weight ot the pearls had
greatly increased within the last year. One bank was
estimated to contain fifty-eight milLrn of oysters,
and the fishery is to be be,,un earlier than usual, so as
to profit by the fine weather. Curiously enough a
bed of young oysters is dying off—a most unpre-
cedented occurrence, as, though oysters under two
years old are apt to shift their quarters, such whole-
sale death has never been known.