The Express.
London, England, 1865-08-31 00:00:00

ATLASTIC TBLEGRAPH COMPANY.

The respective boards of the Atlantic Telegraph
Oonspsay and the Telegraph Constrnetion and Maintecanos
Conspeay, after the most careful investigation into and dm
tiberatioa upon all the cirournataame atteeding upon ttifi
meet expedition, and epos the widest which his port-
reed the success of the undertaking for the present semen,
hays oome to the unanimous resolution to prosecute the
undertaking with incremed vigour la the summer of amt
year. if supported to a very moderate *Meat by the existiag
shareholders and the pablia The Alhatie Telegraph Com-
piny has mooritingly entered into • coatraci with the
Telegraph Coositro.ctios Commer, whereby the Wks com-
pany will spin seed met the Greet Eastern during
therms/nes of 1886, having ea beard enlicient whip both
for the completion of the existing sable sad for the se.
leblishment of • mooed cable of the same perfect
construction between Ireland sad Newfoundland. The first
operation will be to lay this latter cable ; bowing dose
which the Chopp &Meru will Muni to the end of the
broke° cable and-coommisoos operations for its recovery. As
to the moans of these operations Captain Aaclersos, Mr.
Couples, and all the leeches of the late expedition, have
the most hopeful ooefideace, and all oseeerned now believe
in the eetablishmest of two working sables daring 1866.
To affect this desirable commnsioation, sad thus put them-
selves into possession of • property of isealonlable value,
all the sew capital which the shareholders of the Atlantic
Telegraph Company are required to subwirlbe is a tea
of
250,0004 The liberality and effective ficanciel ermage-
manta of the Telegraph Construction Company, who ere
deeply interested in the success of the undertaking, hays
'misled the directors of the Atlantis Company to effect
this advantageous arrangement, although the toed oast
of the new cable, of its submersion, and of the
repairs to the existing cable. win be 500,0001.
The profit upon the new sable, if sword al, but sot other-
wise, is to be 100,0001., sad if the maths( cable be realised,
the Telegraph Conetruotion Oompavy will also restive tie
profit provided for them under the old contract, namely,
137,1401. in old unguaranteed shares of the Atlaatic Tele-
graph Company. The Atlantis Telegraph Company have
sam mooed • meeting el their shareholders for Thursday, the
14th of September, for the purpose of cresting the seem-
eery capital, to which they propose to attach a preferential
dividend of 12 per mat., to enable them to carry oat the
foregoing arrengement, and they entertain so doubt that
the small earn required to be subscribed for will be readily
takes up by the shareholders, seeing that for this small ad-
diticati oetlay they are certain to obtain the fulfilment of
their moss sanguine expeetatioas, even though one cattle
only should be permaneetly established.

veyed to the nearest landieg place, scion
is given to the beadle of the parish, at I it is
At the eastern extremity of the churchyard of conveyed to the dead-house, or such .'her
St. Clement Danes—in close proximity to the shelter as be may appoint. The pt
Temple cab-rank, with its ceaseless poise, sadism see the body searched, take • full descripti•
bustle, and sleepless life— primed daily almost of dress and distinctive marks, publish and circulate
within touching distance by thousands upon thou- their description throughout every station in the
sands of rattling vehicles and busy absorbed pods.- nistropolitendistriet, and finally attend the inquest,
trians—stands a small unpretending edifice. Equally and give all necessary information to the coroner.
resembling • monster stone rabbit-hatch or dog- Dismal as the subject is, there is yet solid tads-
kennel, and a petrified bathing machine, shorn of faction to be derived from the knowledge that once
its whoa* there is nothing in the externals of this is the hands of the properly constituted authorities,
building to denote its use. It is the parochial the remains of the hapless suicide, or of the man
dead-house. The parish fireenOnes rest there too, or woman who has met with an untimely death, are
but while their tenancy is permanent, the passer-by duly cared for, and that no pains are spared to
can never know whether one or more corpses may apprim surviving friends of their fate. A .woad
not be quietly waiting the coroner's convenience and not infector satisfaction may be found in dis-
behied the peaceful-looking and unobtrusive walls. posing of the bogus stories current whenever ooto-
So, at the south-moat corner of the church-yard of dons murders are being talked over. The state-
St. ]Lary-I*-Eiirnadi and running up Nenolisalo• meets as to the number of people made awa with
street, it may be remarked that the lower half of in London whose deaths never come to light are
the palisades are covered in with sheet iron. A proved to be either grossly exaggerated or
doses inspection shows sir-boles, looking into • dark wholly untrue. It is rarely indeed that unknown
chamber; and here again it wine found that • smell are found bearing mysterious marks of
outhous—eime shrouded from view, and with lees vin roe,end the whole tenor of our system seems
architectural pretensions than the adjacent one of to be giving to every ease es much publicity as is
St. Oientent's—te devoted to the fire-engine of the peesible, without, es in Paris, making a rare, show
ilMsteno shoe may liermlled the casual deed. 4 the "Found Deed"'
his sheet is being penned the seeps of
boy of 17 is lying there.
So throughout Loudon the bodies found have,
in the absence of a regular Morgue,. in
Paris, a prescriptive right to shelter in various
*an set apart for the purpose. It by no means
follows, however, that special dead-houses are pro-
vided in every parish. The lack of uniformity of
treatment from which the pauper suffers when
living, is applied to the unfortunate when dead,and
accidental deaths are in some parishes blinked as
unpleasant, almost as unnecessary, fact& Thus,
there are owes in which one dead-house is made to
do duty for three or four parishes, and not long ago
a corpse picked up in the river was refused house-
room bye wealthy west-end parish, and had to be
left forsome hours at the water-side until the local
authorities could be prevailed on to take it in.
Frequently, however, publio-bouses are used
for the reception of dead bodies found, and
out of the four corpses which were lying within the
metropolitan police district two days ago until an
inquest could be held, the Coach and Horses at
Kew, the Brewery Tap beer-house at Hendon, and
the Belisha Tavern at Hampstead formed re-
spectively the resting places of three. As may
be au pposed, the river is the principal place
where stray bodies ere picked up. Suicides from
the various bridges, the accidental drowning oases,
and the comparatively rare instances in which
unfortunates have met with foul play, make up
tbe bulk of those discovered in the Thames.
Reeder* ofMr. Dickens's latest fiction will remember
the powerful description of the " bird of prey" with
which it opens, and will readily renal the night
scene on the river, when the boat is towing a
recently found corpse in its wake, and the boatman
peers eagerly into the darkness, in the hope of spying
out and recovering others. Gaffer Hexham is true
to life, and every night throughout the year
bade start on the same unholy mission as is
ascribed to him. Men live by fishing for corpses.
This ghastly trade is at least as profitable es regular
labour, and as it unites eomewhat of the excitement
of gambling with not • little of the savour of
larceny, it is perhaps not wonderful that to a cer-
tain class of mind its attractions should be irresist-
ible. First, there is the chance of • reward--
sometimes as much as 1001. having been offered
for the body by the friends or legal representatives
of the deceased ; secondly, there is the chance of
viluabler and money being in the dead person's
pockets; and in the event of both these contin-
gencies failing, there is still the six shillings paid
by the coroner, and this, as was pertinently re-
marked to no, "is a good day's work for the like
of them." When watch or purse is found on •
body, for which • reward has not been offered, they
are, as a rale, quietly pocketed, and their late
owner put back into the river that he may be picked
up either by the polio* or some brother profes-
sional. That the men following this loathsome
calling are callous, hardened, and brutal, is a matter
of coupe ; that they should long for a crop of well-
drawled, richly-appointed suicide% as eagerly se the
sportsman hopes fur • good bag is not wonderful ;
and that they are as unscrupulous in their dealings
with the deed as they are persevering in their
efforts to capture them may be taken as inevitable.
The se and repugnant calling once known
and reali, the character of its professors may be
easily conceived.
Of course, the Thames Police take prompt charge
of all the bodies they see, but, as was shown in a
recent article, the range of their duties is wide,
the number of boats and men told off to a pre-
scribed number of miles of river comparatively
small, and the result is a not unprofitable opening
for the lighterman who, half thief, half body-
snatcher, turns his attention and devotes his
nights to looking up and down the river for
corpses. A short time back one of the best known
of these fellows was seen about 2 a.m. pulling
stealthily in shore, with what seemed, in the dense
mist and darkness, to be a passenger or fellow
labourer sitting in the stern. Something in the
uncouth swinging to and fro of the latter excited the
suspicions of the police-boat on duty, and, fearing
that a helpless drunkard had fallen into evil hands,
and would be robbed and maltreated, the lighter-
man was hailed, and ordered to mill to. It was
then seen that the man supposed to be drunk
was dead. The gear ordinarily need for tow-
ing the subjects from where they are found to
the nearest wharf in the same parish, was out of
order, and the lightermao had in consequence
calmly reared the corpse up with its back to the
rudder, and in such an attitude that the faces of
the living and the dead maa all but touched each
time the former bent forward to big oar. "Only a
stiff 'un, master, I'm a' taking up to Rotbeehithe !"
was sulkily given in reply to the questions put ;
after which the speaker was permitted to pass on,
and to deposit his prey and claim his reward in due
0011ne.
how-
Suicides by jumping into the river are,
ever, lass frequent than is ordinarily supposed.
There is a regular law of averages in these mat-
ters, which would seem to be almost an closely ob-
served es the late Mr. Buckle taught his readers to
believe. The returns of one year have a striking
resemblance to those of its predecessors, and 1864
may be taken as a fair representative of the rest.
Out of the 141 suicides which took place in the
metropolitan police district in that year but 24
were from drowning, being four less than from
throat-cutting. In the same period seven were pre-
vented drowning themselves by the police and
the attempts of other six were otherwise abor-
tive. Forty-two people killed themselves by hanging,
17 by poison, 19 by fire-arms, and 11 by jumping
out of windows, in the same area in the same
twelvemonth. The curious and out of the way
eases of suicide and attempted suicide in 1864
were ;—A woman who, in the term uncompromis-
ing language of the police records, " ripped open
her abdomen ;" a man who attempted a similar
Japanese feat but was foiled ,• • man who threw
himself down • Thames Tunnel shaft ; and a man
who attempted self-destruction by beating in his
own head with a poker.
Reverting to the river we find that a large
proportion of the men drowned there are lighter-
men, and that many of these ere killed by the
river steamers. Sometimes run down by one of
them, sometimes losin their swell, it is to thiscanes
that • not inconsiderable portion of the Thames
accidental deaths are due. Four men wens killed
in this way a few weeks beck, sad only tria darn
ago the body of • youth was found floating in the
river who had slipped fronehis lighter sad met his
death in the same way. The duty of the polies
in all such cases is uniform. The body is con-