The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

THE PIKE DEAD WATER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIKES.

Sir,—l wish much that I could express mildly
my disapproval of the dead water from the Pike ;
nothing could be worse than such for wholesale
destruction of life. I feel satisfied that thousands
of families will emigrate, or get out of the town as
soon as possible, for the milk given by the cattle is
impregnated with the dead water. Every poor
man can test it for himself by washing his mouth
with it, and then, spirting it out at any of the
fountains, it leaves a dead taste on the tongue.
I am quite sure if our pure well water and it was
placed side by side the horses would not drink the
Pike water.

If we had had the Windermere water, and it had
run on the surface of the ground to this town, the
atmosphere might have purified it; rolling over
pebbles, sand, &c., would have taken away the am-
monical putrescent dead particles, and may have
given it the mineral qualities of the well water.
But, oh ! the wickedness of this foul Pike cannot
be calculated ; perhaps, if £l,OOO is given to our
M.D.'s and surgeons to discuss the matter in St.
George's Hall to the people, we shall obtain some
knowledge how it is that in Ceylon, and other
eastern places, reservoirs are still in existence dry,
seventy miles long, on high lands, that once sup-
plied greater cities than Ninevah, and city walls
are standing, with the names on them at the
corner of the streets, but no one can tell their
names, either of the city or the streets ; but where
are the people ? Was it the dead water that killed
them by disease ? In the year 1843, I was tra-
velling in Ireland, and rested four days at Killar-
ney ; the horse refused to drink the water at the
Kenmare Arms for two days ; the servant
was alarmed. I examined it as above described,
and found the water similar to this dead Pike
stuff. I obtained some water from another well,
not 100 yards distant, and the horse drank it
immediately, being impregnated with lime and
other mineral healthy properties so well known in
our Liverpool well water. I consider the Pike
water the natural sweepings of the hills—not such
as we are bound to obtain from the living rock.
Who is it that prevents us imitating the divine law
giver?
There are 284 surgeons and 67 physicians in the
town (see Gore's Directory). If our Town Council
wish to have " a decided opinion for protection of
health" they are the proper parties to appeal to
officially. A fee of one or two guineas each for a
certificate to be left at the Town Hall, will soon
show the common sense view of the case, and let a
vote of the Council pay for the certificates, as the
memorial of the town is not respected.—Yours
respectfully, WILLIAM DANSON,
A Memorialist, who Signed his Address.
Everton, 6, Shaw-street, May .21, 1857.
N.B.—We cannot expect the opinion of all the
profession in the town without the Corporation
paying for it. An advertisement in each newspaper
by the Health Committee could call for it without
much discussion. I consider it so important, no
`delay should arise, else in rapid succession we may
hear of silent death. ANDRE W SAVAGE.

" Let not the wells of salvation of pure water be
choked up," so says Dr. Mac Neill, &c.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF MURDER.

At Kingston, on Thursday, Mr. W. Carter held an
adjourned inquest on the body of Mary Ann Kebble, who
was alleged to have been murdered by a named James
Smith. Thomas Harrod, a lamplighter, deposed to
finding the body of deceased in the river Thames at
twenty minutes after five o'clock on Thursday morning.
Mr. W. Nichol], optician and jeweller, said that on yester-
day week, while he was at the White Horse public house,
Esher, he noticed a man carrying a bundle, and the woman
following him. The man was the prisoner, and the
woman the corpse upon which the inquest was being
held. They had something to drink, and the man desired
the woman to pay, which she refused to do, and he got
up and followed her as if to strike her. He heard the man
say, " Stop till I get you into Kingston ; it shall be the
last day you shall ever be with me." The witness said that
he saw them again in the weaning of tho namo day at the
Marquis of Granby, Long Ditton-marsh. Joseph Eagleton
ostler at Mr. Cox's, the Masons' Arms, Long Ditton, tes-
tified to having seen the deceased at that house about nine
o'clock on the evening of Wednesday week. She was
alone, and said that she had had a few words with her
husband. She left about ten o'clock, rather the worse for
liquor. Miss Susannah Eades, of Westfield-road, deposed
to having seen a man and woman pass by the Fox and
Hounds public-house about half-past eleven o'clock.
She (the witness), accompanied by a gentleman,
proceeded towards Kingston, when they heard
a shriek. This was about 12 o'clock. P. C.
Hughes also testified to haviug heard a " piercing
shriek ;" the next morning he heard of the finding of the
body, and at twenty minutes past six the prisoner came to
the stable where it was. The circumstance of the
prisoner having come at that early hour in the morning
induced him (the witness) to take him into custody. Mary
Dandy, servant at the Black Lion, Kingston, recognised
the prisoner as having taken a bed between nine and
ten o'clock on Wednesday week at that house: She
saw the prisoner in bed at a late hour, and he got up
about seven o'oclok the next morning. The house was
closed by a back door leading to a back lane, with
folding gates at the end, which are bolted into wool
in the ground, and fastened by an iron bar staple and lock.
When she came down in the morning, she found these
gates open, and the fastenings wrenched asunder. Thomas
Green, a stone sawyer, loging at the Black Lion, at
Kingston, said that the accused came to lodge in
the same house on Wednesday night week. He had seen
him before, and he had dressed two hats for him. About
ten o'clock he saw him upstairs when he undressed him-
self and went to bed. Witness awoke in the night, but
he did not miss any one. He got up at six o'clock, and
saw the prisoner in bed. Police constable Jay, V 146,
swore that he met the prisoner on the road to Ditton, at a
quarter or twenty minutes past eleven on the night in
question, and when ho was brought oat of the cell he at
once recognised him. Some other evidence of an equally
contradictory character having been given, the jury re-
turned an open verdict " That the deceased died from
immersion in the water, but how she got therein there was
not sufficient evidence to prove."

A pike weighing 3541bs was killed in the River Barrow
by a
.gentleman residing in this town on Saturday last.
This is the largest fish taken in the river fer several years.
Saunders' News Letter.

THE BURIAL PLACE OF A BALE.—As we were trudging
along on the high road to Youghal on a winter afternoon,
we overtook a funeral. The mourners were of the poorest
class of peasantry. There were a few women in tattered
cloaks, and men with sleeveless jackets and footless stock-
ings. The coffin had a pauper look ;we watched the pro-
cession for a while, and to our surprise saw it stop at the
entrance of a stately domain. There was a slight demur,
and then the gates opened wide, and the dead were carried
through, and as the train straggled on through avenues and
sloping glades, a wailing cry came upon the wind. We in-
quired the meaning of this, and heard that the last of the
lordly Geraldines, on selling the lands of his race, had
reserved the right of burial in their own ground to all his
descendants for ever. This right had been religiously
exacted, and whenever any one who could claim descent
from this line, however poor he might be, died, the body
claimed the privilege of this strange tenure, and the lordly
owner of the vast estates was compelled perforce to see the
funeral train pass beneath his castle windows, and hear the
ullagone cried over the grave.—Blackwood's Magazine for
May.
CRITICISM EXTRAORDINARY.—The Morning Herald,
the other day, contained a lengthy critique on the perform-
ance of 46 La Traviata," at the Royal Italian Opera, on the
previous evening. We extract one or two passages from
the notice, which begins by laying it down as the duty of
a " judicious critic" to be very cautious in his comparison
of vocalists, &c.: —" Perhaps Madame Bosio never sang
so admirably as she did last night. Her first aria !
fosce e lui,' was sung to perfection, the last movement
being as brilliant a display as we have heard for a long
time. Nothing could be more exquisite than the florid
passages at the cnd—especially the ascending scale—and
Mario's expressive singing of the andante outside. * *
Mario, though exquisite from first to last, almost surpassed
himself in the air, "Di mieibollenti,' in the second act and
in the last scene. The recalls for Madame Bosio and Mario
were numerous during the performance, and at the fall of
the curtain the usual ovation was paid to the lady and
gentleman." All this reads very smooth and correct to
the country reader ; but next day the Herald had to come
out with the following cruel announcement :—" The re-
port of the performance of La Traviata," which appeared
in a portion of our impression of yesterday, as some of our
readers are probably aware, was altogether incorrect, the
" Traviata" having been postponed, in consequence of the
illness of Signor Graziani. We are compelled to confide in
the honour of our reporter in all such matters, and there-
fore we have felt it our duty to at once dispense with the
further services of the writer of the pretended critique."