The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-03-28 00:00:00

glisttilancous
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

PANIC IN A THEATRE.-00 Sunday afternoon
the Rev. IL Stanton, an Independent minister,
delivered the last of a course of lectures to the working
classes in the Sheffield Theatre Royal. The subject
was the Todrnorden tragedy, and very nearly termi-
nated tragically to a great number of persons. The
place was crowded to excess. Just before four o'clock
a cry of "Fire !" was raised, and a scene of the wildest
confusion ensued. Doors were burst open in all direc-
tions, a omen and men screamed and shouted, and the
dense mass began to struggle fiercely to escape. Two
women precipitated themselves out of the boxes into
the pit, falling on to the heads of those below them.
Women and men scrambled out of the pit on to the
stage, smashing the chairs and music-stands in the
orchestra and the foot-lights on their way. Others
broke through a skylight at the back of the stage, and
dropped from thence into the yard. Others found
their way underneath the stage, and, pushing their
arms through the grating into the street, besought
those outside to smash the grating and let them out,
as the place was on tire. There was no loss of life.
The alarm of fire was groundless.
Q uItEN CHARLOTTE'S REMINISCENCES. —The
Queen once narrated the following anecdotes of herself
(as told by M. 168 Murray) :
'

The English people did not like me much, because I was
pot pretty but the King was fond of driving a phaeton in
those days, and once he overturned me in a turnip-deli], and
that fall broke my nose. I think I was not quite so ugly
after tat, Lady Menderland was one of niy tattles. She was
left to sit with mete the evening, when the King went to
business at nine o'clock. I sat, and the good lady sat, sod
we both got very tired. At last Lady Ilenderland nail,
" Perham; your Majesty is not aware that I must Watt until
you Majesty sliseitseos sic?" "iii, my gond lady!" I said ;
•• why Ili,' you not tell me dat before?" The King went on
one occasion Into Kent, to review the volunteers of Lord
ROUTIC,i's. Ile was accompanied by the Queen. "I was in
a tent," she said. "there WSJ a enntinni, hut I suppose be
was looking at something else ; scan old Kentish woman, in
a reit cloak, MAO her WHy to and she stool staring at me
with her arms akimbo. At last she saul, Well, she is not
so ugly an they told me she was !' " Well, my good woman,"
I replied, .1 am very glad of dat."

SINGULAR RECOVERY OF STOLEN AIONEY,-011
Friday, in Newcastle, a singular discovery of
£466 Is. 6d. was made by a person named Hogg, his
son, and another person, who were engaged in working
at the "slag heaps" to secure the metal which had
been left among the refuse of the ironworks. On
Friday evening, March 15, 1661, the sum of £1,240 50.
was deposited in the safe in the office ,of the Shotley
Bridge Iron and TM Works, being the amount of the
wages to be paid to the workmen on the following day,
and on the following morning it WWI discovered that
the whole of the money had been abstracted from the
safe during the night. Information was at once given
to the police authorities at Consett, and although they
had the assistance of several London detectives, and
a further inducement in the shape of a reward of £20()
for the discovery of the offenders, the thieves have not
up to this time been discovered. The amount found
was handed over to Mr. Thomas Richardson, jun., one
of the proprietors of the works whence the money was

BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF A CBILD.—A man
named Edward Vincent Smith, a musician at a
concert-room in Leicester, has been committed by the
magistrates of that town to gaol for two months with
hard labour for committing a most outrageous assault
upon his son, Eddy Smith, one year and eight months
old. The defendant, when frantic with drink at
various times, treated his child in a most inhuman
manner. He was in the habit of taking the child up
by the flesh of the cheek, hurling him to the far side of
the room, and belabouring him in a frightful way.
On appearing before the magistrates the poor child
Presented a most pitiable appearance. He had a
tearfully black eye, both sides of his face were very
much bruised, there was a severe bruise on his breast,
one on the thick of his arm, and another on the bottom
of his back. Therm cruelties were eventually com-
plained of by the neighbours, and hence the proceedings
against the defendant.

TRADES' UNION OUTRAGE.—.At an early hour
on Saturday morning the police.constable on duty in
that portion of Wigan known as Wholley heard the
noise of breaking glass, followed by a loud report.
Proceeding about 40 yards, he found that a diabolical
attempt had been made to injure the property or person
of a collier. A bottle containing gunpowder, with a
lighted fusee attached, had been thrown at the window
of the man's house, but the miscreant who threw the
missile fortunately did not notice that there was a
shutter within the window, and the bottle was conse-
quently thrown back into the road where it exploded
harmlessly. The man thus attacked is a non. unionist.
The perpetrators of the outrage have not been appre-
hended.

A LAD KILLED ON THE RAILWAY.—At the
Great Northern Railway Station, Doncaster, on
Saturday morning, a young lad, named Allied Slater,
met his death in a shocking manner. The deceased was
17 years of age, and wasemployed as an assistantnumber
taker. Re was taking the iramber of some departing
waggons in a siding at about one o'clock, and it wool l
appear that OS he was crossing, in a bending position,'
from one side of the train to the other, his head was
caught between the buffers of the trucks, and com-
pletely smashed to atoms. At the inquest it transpired
that the deceased was on what was called night dirty,
thus working thirteen hours, and without any stated
time for refreshments. 'I he jury returned a verdict of
Accidental Death. but appended an opinion that
thirteen hours' night work was too much for a lad I.f
17 years of age.

A NOBLE SEAMAN.—At a meeting of the
Newcastle.on-Tyne Local Marine Board, held last
week, the Mayor of the borough, on behalf of the
owners and underwriters of the ship Adm,ral Lyons,
presented to Mr. Alexander Reid Smith, master of
that veseel, a gold chronometer watch and 100 guineas,
in acknowledgment of his services in navigating his
vessel from Newfoundland to the Tyne under circum-
stances of great danger and difficulty. Mr. Harrison,

CRUELTY TO A GIRL—At Birmingham, on
Monday, Thomas Cook, chimneysweep, Bordesley, was
charged with violently assaulting his stepdaughter, a
little girl, six yearn of age, by beating her with a whip.
The child was shown to the Bench, and her arms were
covered with wheals and bruises, through which blood
was issuing. There were also lumps and bruises on
her head. When taken into custody prisoner said,
"Very well, I will go with you. I 'didn't beat her
more than was necessary. She is a very stubborn
girl, anti very impudent." The mother was called,
anti said she had been married to the prisoner six
years. Ile had beaten the child about once in six
months. Prisoner said he had been a good father to
the child, but it was very impudent, and had been
putting its tongue out at him. He was in a passion
when he beat her. Sergeant Mountford sail the real
fact of the matter was that the prisoner filled his pipe
with tobacco and asked the child to give him a light.
The girl was holding a piece of lighted paper, when it
burned her finger, and she dropped it, and for that
offence he had taken her upstairs and beaten her with
the horsewhip produced.—The Magistrate (to the
prisoner) What do you mean by beating the child in
this way ?—Prisoner : I never wished to beat her.—
Magistrate: Never wished to beat her! Do you sup-
pose a child six years of age can be illused in this way?
- Prisoner: I didn't wish to Muse the child.—
Magistrate: Well, you must be sent to prison for
six months.

STATISTICS OF PROS KENNESS.—The number of
persons proceeded against for drunkenness and dis-
°Melly conduct per each 1,000 of the population in
1866-67 was—At Cambridge, 2'09 ; at Colchester,
ISt; at Coventry, 317 ; at Derby, 904; at Great
Yarmouth, 3 79 ; at Ipswich, 2 70 ; at Lincoln, 291 ;
at Northampton, 243; at Shrewsbury, 917; at
240; at Worcester, 765 ; at Birmingham,
449; at Leicester, 462; at Norwich, V 25; at Not-
tingham, 213; and at Wolverhampton, 414. Norwich
would thus appear to have been of these 16 towns the
least disgraced in 1866-67 by outrageous drunkenness,
while the most unfavourable figures stand against
Shrewsbury.

THE HEALTH OF THE POPE.—There is probably
no European potentate whose health is an object of
such various and wide-spread interest as that of the
Pope, as there is none whose death would give rise to
greater or mu, sweeping changes in the politico.
religious world (remarks The Lancet). His Holiness is
well known to suffer from occasional epileptic fits, a
disease to which he Wah) subject in hisyouth, but which
he seemed to have thrown off after the development of
a varicose ulcer in the leg. The fits have now, how-
ever, reappeared ; and whether the exciting events of
the last few months, or the unusual exertion he has
just put forth in giving audiences and in assisting at
ceremonies, be the cause, he had a violent attack of his
old malady on Friday, the fith inst. His physician,
Dr. Viale Prelk, was instantly in attendance at the
Vatican, and his Holiness recovered. Complete
abstinence from administration of business and from
the more fatiguing occasiorgi of religious ceremonial has
been peremptorily enjoined on him by Dr. Viale Prel4
as the indispensable condition of his health.

CONVICTION FOR FORTUNE-TELLINO.—At Man-
chester, on Saturday, a woman with an infant in her
arms, named Harriet liibhvrt, was charged with
fortune-telling. Two women Were sent by the police
to the house for the purpose of having their fortunes
told. In an upper room they were introduced to the
defendant who gave each a pack of cards, requesting
one to cut them twice, and then read off the portents
she descried. The second witness was requested also
to throw the grounds from a tea-cup. When asked
what was her charge she said she did not make any,
but was usually paid threepence or fourpence. One of
the witnesses gave her threepence, and the other gave
her fourpence. There were other persons waiting,
and Superintendent Anderton said that from the com-
plaints he had received he believed scores visited her
every day. lie had received many complaints of
servants being induced to take bundles of clothing
there. The neighbours had complained to him. Upon
cross-examination for the defence it was elicited that
what the woman had told the witnesses was substan-
tially true, in so far as it related to the past or present,
and that they were in no way imposed upon, but
offered money in order to complete the case according
to tlp ir instructions. The defendant was committed
to prison for a month.

TIM CoNVICT KIDDER.—The Home Secretary
has fixed the 2nd of April for the execution of Frances
Kidder, who WAS sentenced to death at the recent
Maidstone Assizes for the murder of her husband's
illegitimate child. Since her condemnation the un-
happy woman has been sullen and morose, and at
tunes she remains silent for hours. She appears to
think she is ill-used by being placed in her present
position, but she has never denied her guilt. Since
the trial she has been visited by her husband and
some of her friends, and at the interview some ill-feel-
ing was shown on both sides. the convict upbraiding
her husband for not providing her with counseL Since
then, at her request, the husband has been asked to
visit her, but he has not taken any notice of the com-
munication. The mayor of Hythe and other gentle-
men in that town are interesting themselves in her
behalf, and a petition will shortly be sent to the Home
Office asking for a commutation of the sentence.

DREADFUL ATTACK UPON A CHILD BY RATS.
—A child is being attended to at the St. Mary's Hos-
pital, London, which has had but a narrow escape of
being eaten alive by rats. The child, Ellen Drum.
mond, aged only six months, was left in its cradle by
the parents, who went out for the purpose of earning
their livelihood. A short time after it had been left,
the brother came home, and heard it screaming vio-
lently. 'Upon pushing open the room door, a swarm
of excessively large rats leaped from the cradle, and
retreated by holes in the flooring, wainscot, and back
of the fireplace. Upon approaching the child he found
it had been bitten in a dreadful manner. Pieces had
been bitten init of the face, and the fingers were cut
through to the bon., the number of wounds altogether
being eighteen. The rata seemed to have bitten more
for the purtaise of drawing and sucking blood, as many
of the wounds were not completely torn open hut
allowed the incisions made by the teeth, from which
blood had flown freely. The child was taken to a
medical man, who, after attending to it temporarily,
ordered it to be conveyed to the hospital.

- r •
A DREADFUL DiscovEßY. —A horrihk discovery
was made the other day by a carpenter at work in the
house of an undertaker in the city of London. an the
emir, of his work the. man came upon a common flag-
stone in a cellar coeeri, g a hole containing the
Plc,ktonFt of several children, some hones of animals,
and the body of a male infant, with the lees tied and
the skull fractured. and but slightly decomosed. At
the inquest held on the body the undertaker declared
that he could not tell ho'v it came in his cellar, which,
it appears, wan open to all the numerous lodgers in the
house. The mother ..f the child, and the doctor who
attended her in ' Cr confin-ment last Saturday fort-
night, have been found, and the latter stated at the
inquest that the child died of convulsions a few hours

The particulars of one of those romantic sea adventures
which illustrate how much stranger truth is than fiction
have just licen made public Writes the correspondent of Tire
Tones, under date Wellington, Jan. 17 The Auckland
Islands, situate about four degrees due south of New Zealand;
have of late years obtained touch notoriety by reason of the
shelter they have afforded to shipwrecked crews. They
ought to be out of the course of vessels returning to
England from Australia, but occasionally ships are driven
into those stormy latitudes, anti four or five of them are
known to have been lost within as niany years. Eighteen
years ago the islands were made the depBt for the whaling
slugs of an English company, originated by the Messrs.
Enderby, and a relative of those gentlemen wan then created
Governor. After a few years' trial the company was
broken up, and with Governor Enderby's departure all at-
tempt at settlement was finally abandoned. Two or three
hundred M aeries had found a borne there for several years,
but the region was so inhospitable that they also were
eventually obliged to forsake it.
In 180 a shipwrecked crew was taken off by a homeward-
bound vessel, and the islands were thoroughly searched
In October and November of that year by the colonial
steamers l'ineoria and Southland, both of which left goats,
rabbits, poultry, and sowed the commoner vegetables In
various places. Three men, wrecked in the en:homier Grafton,
had, earlier in that year, succeeded in reaching New Zealand,
after having existed mu the Wands nearly eighteen months,
the boat beinig so small and leaky that the tiling man had to
be left behind. Besides rescuing tins veritable Cruse., traces
of other wrecks were discovered, but from that day to this,
although several homeward-bowel vessels have heen missing,
no further visits have been made to the islands either by tile!,-
of-war or others. The wreck of one of these missing vessels bas
just become known, old i to of her pas.engers and crew have
been taken off, after eighteen fie eiths of notch herdship. The
General Grant, ot Boston, a floe ship of 1,095 tons, Cap-
tain Loughlin, sailed from Melbourne, in the 4th of May,
1860, for London, with a crew and passengers slumbering
eighty-tines souls, and a cargo coneisting chiefly of wool,
and six boxes ot gold. liii the 13th, the weatber being
thick, the Auckland Islands were sighted close aheml, and
the ship was immediately hauled on the port tab. The wind
being light, and a strung intermit setting in shore, the ship
struck heavily meter some almost perpendicular cliffs,
I carrying away her plemem and rudder. A boiling surf pre-
' vented ally attempt at escape until the next eay, after the
I ship had been in the darkness drawn into a cave about 250 ft.
deep, but not sufficiently high to admit her all standing. The
I foremast went fine, and then the niaintopgallantnmet, both
bringing down huge pieces of rock, which stove hi the fore-
castle. When the uay broke the ship was still striking
heavily forward with twenty. flee fathoms under her stern.
The pinnace was first 1.111(111,i and three or four inen sent
in her hi lay out lines and a kedee, and then the gig
, was luwered from the stcra with the chief officer
I and four men. Up to this time the wind was light
' and the tide had been falling, but noes both setting strongly
into the cave, the vessel forged further up, and the
maintopmast coming into contact with the lessening
roof, censed the keel to start the ship's bottom, and she
began to MI. The women were hurried into the long boat,
, one of whom Mrs. Jewell, the etewardesis fell from the
whip into the sea, but was rescued by her husband jumping
after her and reaching the gig. Two other passengers fol-
lowed Jewell's example, and were also picked up. The
sea had now risen considerably and swept the poop. The
long boat nes seen to goat with about ft rip person's, but soon
getting into the breakers filled and seek The gig bid made
an ineffectual attempt to return to the ship, slut now, with
the pinnace, watched outside the breakers, in the hope of
rescuing such strung swimmers as inn their agony might
force themselves into smoother water. Three such were
picked up, and then the ship was seen to go down,
Captain Loughlin, with one man by his side, standing
in the mieentop waving a last farewell. After laying to
until all hope of rescuing any more lives was gone, the
two boats made for One of the islands, and next day
effected a lauding in BSarah's Bosom," which is, I be-
lieve, the original an.l still popular name of the harbour
marked on the charts as Port Rose. hero these sixteen
people appear to have remained until the 32nd of January,
1807, living principally on seals, limpets, mussels, anti aces,-
menially catchning a pig or ii emit. On that date the chief
officer, three of the crew, and a passedier left the island in
one of the boats for New Zeabend. 'lope of a successful
voyage (flea out in those left behind, after waiting in vain
from month to month for suecour, and they rightly con-
cluded that the chief officer and his companions, to whom
they bad already owed much, had periebeil in the attempt,
One of the shore passengers died from dysentery, from
which they all suffered severely, and this anipears to have
impressed them with many gloomy forebodings : all were,
however, fortunately obliged to exert themselves daily
in getting wood for signal fires, keepina a lookeint,
hunting for toed, and hireling the sealskins Into cloth-
ing. At length. ou the 2lsl of November, the whaling brig
A ntherd was attracted by the signals, and took the tenni
men and one woman on board, and landed them at the lilmtff
(Southland) on the 13th inst. Their names are :—Passeingers.
—James leer iSeerl, Patrick Conehey, Nieto!. Allan. David
Ashworth, Crew.— Mary Alin Jewell (stewardess). Joseph
Jewell, Cornelius Drew, William Ferguson, A. Bateman
Marino), and A. M. Saguilly (Pengelly). An official inquiry
has been held by the magistrate at the Bluff ; but the nar-
rative above given is wholly drawn from the telegrams
received by the I: ivernment mut the press. No mail has yet
reached Wellington from the Bluff since the Amherxt arrived
there. It is thought that some of the cargo of the General
Grant may be recovered, and sending a steamer to enemtvour
to de so is talked about. Ills to he hoped that the Govern-
ments of Australia and New Zealand will cause the islands to
he visited at stated intervals, sills a view to the speedier
removal of any future crews who may be unfortunate enough
to get cast away there.