The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-29 00:00:00

EXECUTION OF A MURDERER

An execution at Usk Gaol took place on Monday
morning, when James Henry Gibbs, a native of Rich-
mond, Surrey, and lately a butler at Llanrumney
Hall, Monmouthshire, was hanged. He was con-
demned to death at the last Monmouth Assizes for
the murder of his wife, SWAZI Ann Gibbs, whom he
married at St. Helier's, Jersey, she then being
twenty years older than himself. They had formerly
lived in the service of the Rev. J. Tomlinson,
at Lyrnington, Hampshire, where they became
acquainted. They quarrelled, and he went to live
at Llanrumney, where he formed an acquaintance
with a young woman named Mary Jones, but Gibbs
having some money he made her his wife. He left her
at Cardiff, continuing his acquaintance with Jones,
and in the course of time—for the purpose, it is sup-
posed, of ridding himself of his wife—he sent her
(Gibbs) a loiter to meet him at Penyland. It is thought
he then took her to the Llanrumney estate, where he
struck her a blow rendering her insensible, then cut
her throat and dragged the body up a ditch, where it
was found on the 3rd of June last in a state of
putridity.
Since his sentence he has protested his innocence,
and has given no indication that he was guilty of the
crime imputed to him. He has taken food well, and
slept soundly. The chaplain has been most assiduous
ii p ,nding out the awful nature of the crime and
position in which the prisoner stood, but with no effect,
as far as any confession is concerned.
On Sunday he partook of the Holy Communion in
the prison chapel, and appealed to God as a witness of
his innocence, having written a letter to his father to
the same effect. The gallows was brought from Mon-
mouth, and was erected in a corner of the prison
building, opposite the window of the magistrates'
room, where the four representatis es of the press, who
were admitted to attend, had to witness the execution.
Shortly before eight o'clock Marwood, the execu-
tioner, went to the pinioning room, and the prisoner
was informed that his last hour had come. During
the process that followed Gibbs shrieked and screamed
in a piteous manner, and had to be supported by two
warders in the mournful procession to the scaffold.
When asked by Colonel Alilman, the governor, if he
had anything to say, the prisoner, in a loud, though
painfully tremulous voice, said, 'God bless all ! God
forgive me for these and past sins. It is happy for me
to know that I die innocent- Good-bye, aIL Good-
bye, my dear parents ! "
The white cap was then drawn over his head, the
rope quickly adjusted, and the executioner drew the
bolt. Death seemed to follow quickly, and only a
slight quivering was noticeable.
Colonel Milman states as to the prisoner's conduct
in the condemned cell, that he was somewhat morose
and sullen in manner, but never disclosed anything
that would tend to establish his innocence.
, After the inquest the body was interred within the
I precincts of the gaol.

A sad ewe of drowning is reported from Charmouth,
Dorset. The three sons of the tev. J. Whist —who, with
his family, was staying on that part of the coast—went out
bathing on Thursday morning. Two of the young men could
swim, but the other, Martin F. Whiah, aged about seventeen
could not. lie got beyond lils depth, became frightened, and
asuk. Ms brothers brought him ashore, but be was dead.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

A New York cook says he defies the world to tell
quails' legs from frogs legs after they are cooked.
Booties of young ladies and tails of kitee are now
both made of paper—such keeps the flighty thing steady.

• - -
It is a fact, which a gastronome may find amuaing,
that there are 1,032 table dhotes in Paris
"What is Heaven's best gift to man?" asked •
young lady the other night, smiling sweetly on a pleasantlookiog young man. "A hone !" replied the young man.
with great prudence.

- -
An American sportsman and philosopher puts •
two-ounce can of nitro-glycerine inside of a chicken. tosses
the chicken to an alligator, and that alligator would have
preferred a milder pill. it. blew up some of the neigh hour.
hood with himself

The proprietor of a young ladies' academy in Illinois
has utterly ruined his lniainew; by causing to be inserted in a
large number of papers a picture of the bnildln,, with girls
standing on the balcony with last
,N cars' hats ..11 their heads.

A Vermont eaitor say A that maple sugar is so
abundant in that State this season that the girls are twenty
per cent sweeter than usual.

Massachusetts, or at least the north-eastern portion
of the State, seems to have fallen Into the posseasion of the
Scotch and Irish. According to the Boston Pilot there are
914 O'Sullivan, or Sullivan. After the Sullivan. came the
Mnrphys, who number 820. The O'Brien. are 452 the
McDonald' and McDonnells, 432. the McLoughlin., 304 ; the
O'Neils, 213 ; the Fitzgerald& 240 ; the Ilogans, 100 the
Coughlins, 104 ; the Welches, 370 , the Flynns, 225 ; and there
are small companies of the 31Douagles, M'Oulrea,
O'Keeffes, O'connors, O'Donnells, Sheehan',
Flaherty', Foley& Connollys.

Smith, the American poet laureate, wae employed
hat month to do the coming-of-age ode for the daughter
of • rich Irish farmer who had struck oil He said It

' Ile —y Mavourneen, I see thee before me,
Lou, long, " " dwell on thy beautiful am—ile.
Thy face in my mera'ry will linger, yea, wh—ile
My fancy with beauty my soul sloth begu— ile."

The oil-ariker-sent him • new t--o- a hat.

Josh Billings, the celebrated musical composer,
boasted that there was no point connected with the science
of innate that he did not understand. A stranger sent him
• note, requesting an interview with him, on a particular
day, to consult shout a difficult question in music, which he
said no other man could answer. Josh Billings promptly met
him, and said to him," Whatever your question may be, I
pledge myself to answer it, as there Is nothing connected
with the science I have not mastered." " My question is an
important one," replied the stranger, a man of severe mien
"indeed, it affects the whole world, and has never yet been
answered." "Let me bear it," said Josh Billings, growing
excited. "Ills this," said the other, "when a man snore*
in his sleep through two octaves, so that the whole house
can hear it, do you consider the sounds produced to be
vocal or instrumental music?"

The other day, in Detroit, an individual from th
rural districts, having considerable money in his poasession
and being moderately drunk, was warned by • policeman to
take care of himself To which the self .confident bacchanal
responded—" You bet I will Why, mister, I'm chain
lightning rolled up ins ball and stuck full of red-hot bowie
knives. I'm a thunderbolt from the North— I'm • regular
rip-up thunderbolt ! Folks want to let me alone, they do I"
Alas, that such a dream of invincibility should be dissipated
When the morning dawned, the drinker, where was he?
Well, he was discovered by the same policeman in • wel-
shed. Ills eyes were mourning, and there was non-natural
hole in his head. Watch gonc ' Money gone ! The police-
man, arousing the slumberer with a touch of irony in his
tone, inquired, "Aren't you the thunderbolt from the
North I" Then the thunderbolt sat up, and slowly and sadly
replied, "No, I Want 'sactly a thunderbolt, but I'm the
Mumid fool who thought he waa"