The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-25 00:00:00

An Adventure in a Railway Carriage.

A reverend gentleman, living at Gloucester, has commu-
nicated the following extraordinary narrative to our corre-
spondent in that city :—Travelling from London to Glou-
cester on Thursday by the express train which left Padding.
ton at 11'45, a scene took place which shows (if additional
proof were required) the importance of establishing some
means of communication between the passengers and the
guard. I had a second class ticket, and anxious to avoid
the inconvenience of changing at Swindon, I took a seat in
the through carriage to Gloucester. My fellow travellers
were two ladies, who were going, I think, into
South Wales, and I had just settled snugly in a corner,
end prepared for a few hours' quiet reading, when my
attention was attracted by the entrance of a man in
a sailor's dress, whose bloodshot eyes and savage mien,
told of d; unkenness. I was on the point of seeking the
guard, when the fellow suddenly left the carriage, and, the
guard coming up at the moment, I requested that he would
not allow him to return. But to my surprise, almost at the
instant of starting, the fellow burst into the carriage, fol-
lowed by the guard, who waened him that if he did not be-
have properly ho would be left on the road. Now, this was
not a pleasant prospect. We were to run to Swindon with-
out stopping, and wore to be all this time caged with a
drunken ruffian. But there was no help for it. In the course
of some ten or twelve minutes the fellow vehemently
proclaimed himself "a Southern privateer and an enemy
to the English." Rising from his seat he staggered
over the feet of the ladies, and, confronting me, demanded
what I had to say, threatening to " smash my eky-
lights" if I did not tell him my opinion, and
mrishing his huge fist in my face by way of warning.
I quieted him for a few minutes by getting him to tell us
something of his early life. He said he was an English-
man, had run away from home when a boy, had gone to
South America, and that when the war broke out he had
taken service in a Southern privateer. His tale was mixed
up with such oaths and blasphemies that I was glad to
withdraw my attention, whereupon to my dismay he pro-
duced a bottle of strong drink of some kind, and swore he
would " treat the company." He put it to his mouth by
way of showing us how to do it, and took a pull so hearty
and, so long that he swallowed one-half the contents.
Declaring in words not to be repeated that the man or
woman who did not drink should "catch it," he pre-
sented the bottle to each of the ladies. Having spent about
ten minutes coaxing and threatening them, he turned
to me. I expected I was "in for it," but upon my
refusal he only expressed contempt for " old Jinnies," and
took the remainder himself at one gulp. This over, he
prepared for smoking, and seeing it alarm us, ho amused
himself for some time in throwing about half-burnt matches.
He had learnt the free and easy habits of American society,
and spat with an accuracy of aim that was undeniable, for
he made my face the target on two or three occasions. When
he had satisfied himself upon this head he grew }Navy, and,
stretching out his legs so as to take up one side of the
carriage, he fell, as we delightedly supposed, into a sleep
I settled down to read, and had been perhaps 10 minutes or
so employed, when I was startled by a shriek and a spring
from one of the ladies, and on looking up 1 saw, to my
terror, that the fellow had suddenly opened the window,
and had so far succeeded in getting out that but for the pre-
sence of mind and courage of the lady, who had seized him
by the hair, he would have been under the wheels in another
moment. By uniting our efforts we were able to drag him
in, but for full a quarter of an hour he fought and tore like
a savage, leaping at the window, and we restrained him, till
at last he was compelled to desist through sheer exhaustion.
What a situation to be fial H 3 then adopted a line of
retaliation which was so grossly indecent and outragious
that I dare not describe it. The poor ladies (whose conduct
exceeded all praise) huddled together into a corner, while I
stood in front guarding them with a stout umbrella. I con
fess if at this moment the scoundrel had attempted to get
out of the window again I think I should have allowed him
his own way. Providentially the engine-driver found it
necessary to stop at Wantage-road, and I succeeded in
obtaining aid, and had him removed. If we had been com-
pelled to run all the way to Swindon, Heaven, who pre-
served us, only knows what might have happened. The
writer adds :—" Now, I think you will agree with me when
I say that it was a shameful outrage to put such a ruffian
into our carriage, or into any carriage, with civilised people.
True it is we were only second-class passengers, but that is
not sufficient reason—at least to us—why we should have
been terrified almost cut of our lives, and disgusted to
loathing by the conduct of this drunken scoundrel. Never
did I feel so utterly helpless. It put my head out of the
window, and I called till I became hoarse, and although the
guard was within a few yards we might have been mur-
dered for any help he could have rendered ; and all this in
open day, and on the Great Western Railway I Perhaps

if some of the wives and daughters of some of the directors
had been in the carriage something might come of it, but
of course as they travel in the first class such a thing is not
likely to happen to them ; and yet poor Briggs's case shows
us that even there people are not always safe. How long
will the public bear this kind of thing ? Surely it is our
duty to call upon Government to compel the directors to
action."— Western Daily Tress.

A GREAT GUN—BUT NOT QUITE A TEN THOU-
SAND POUNDER !—A ridiculous paragraph has been
going the round of the press, stating that Mr Tennyson has
pocketed not less than XlO,OOO by the sale of his last volume
—" Enoch Arden." We do not pretend to be acquainted
with the Laureate's financial affairs, nor to know how
much money his publishers have paid him ; bat this we do
know—and from the best authority—that up to the present
time about 32,000 copies of the work in question have been
sold. On no other business matter is there usually dis-
played so much popular misconception and ignorance as
when the profits arising from the publications of eminent
authors are concerned. The habits, dress, and incomes of
great men will always be matter of lively interest to curious
readers end to " worshippers ;" but a little common sense
should at least guide those who construct one, and concoct
literary statistics. "Enoch Arden" is a six-shilling book ;
a part of this amount—say something less than two shillings
—will have to be deducted as the trade percentage or book-
sellers' allowance, the printer will takeanother portion. the
binuer anotner, aua We paper -merchant and tv.vertising
agent will also expect to be paid. Assuming that two
shillings per copy, or even three shillings, may be the
author's royalty, it is tokrably clear that the £lO,OOO said
to be Mr Tennyson's recent gain is simply one of those
pleasant fictions started and circulated for popular amuse-
ment. So few poetical publications ever pay for paper and
print that a great metrical success is not unlikely to mag-
nify itself—and this, we suppose, must be the excuse for
the paragraph in error recently circulated.
MANNING THE NAVIN—The continuous-service
men who entered the navy in considerable numbers in the
rear 1854 aro now rapidly claiming their discharge; and
although various ways are attempted by which they may be
attracted to remain in the service, yet few, if any, consent
to prolong their term. We deeply regret that such is the
fact, as we are all interested in maintaining the efficiency of
the navy; but it would not only be fruitless, but mischie-
vous to disguise the truth. We have been informed that
oily lately 70 seamen claimed their discharge from the
Marlborough at Malta. This, of course, could not bo re-
fused to them ; but when the question of a passage to Eng-
land was mooted, no one would come to their assistance
and the mea had to find their way home as best they could.'
This is not the best method to pursue if we desire to induce
sailors " to love their country and honour their Queen."—
Army and Navy Gazcite.
THE STONE RECORD.—Colonel Greenwood writes
as follows to the Athena= —" A creator without
a creation is scarcely more contradictory than a creation
without creatures. And reason and analogy teach us that
before the first strata were formed on this globe, its land,
air, and waters must have teemed with life. As strata re-
sult from slew aqueous erosion and denudation, thousands
of years, or thousands of ages must have passed during the
formation of the first strata; and it is as contrary to the
Mosaic account as it is to all reason and analogy, to suppose
that the Almighty Creator should have left his magnificent
work, this glorious globe, to swing through space tenantless
for ages. What evidence have we that land animals of
the highest order did not exist from the first ? Why, that
that we do not find fossils of land animals in sea strata.
This argument is, as I have said, as childishly absurd as if
Columbus had told us that America had no land animals on
it, because he had dredged the sea, and had found no re-
mains of them. Tarde magna proveniunt, but it is satisfac-
tory, at last, to find Sir Charles Lyell at Bath saying that
he agrees with Mr Darwin that the stone record is frag-
mentary and incomplete. But, on this fact, and on the rea-
sons of this fact, ie founded a main argument, which runs
through the whole of ' Rain and Rivers,' in which a chap-
ter is headed, ' Man may have existed in the Silurian
Period.' This was published in 1857, long before The
Origin of Species,' or the French river-terraces, or the
Danish shell-mounds, or the Swiss lake villages, or' The
Antiquity of Man' were heard of. The two great men,
however, have taken one step in the right direction. But
they will have to take a great many more. initiatos nos
credimus—in vestibulo Itteremus. And, I may add, veniet
tempus quo posteri nostri tam aperta nos nescisse mirentur,
, and that time is at hand.

DEATH BY LIGHTNING.—Dr Chretien, of Mont-
pellier, hcs sent an account to the French Aca-
demy of Sciences of a rer?rkablo instance of the terrible
tff,cts of lightning. On the 2d inst. ke was sent for to as-
certain the death of a youth of 16, killed instantaneously
by (he electric fluid in his bed, he being ill at the time. His
mother and three young men who had come to see him were in
the room when the catastrophe occurred. One of the young
men was seated at the foot of, the bed, another near the
bolster, and the third close to the door of the apartment,
which was on the first floor, contiguous to the roof of the
house ; the mother was between the second and third
visitors. The lightning penetrated into the house through
the wall of a large room adjoining the sick room ; it broke
all the window panes in the former before reaching the other
where the company were. The 37: ung man at the foot of
the bed had the legs of his trousers partially burnt oft ;
the second received a wound on one of his logs, and the
mother had her left leg cruelly bruised, the stocking was
partially burnt, and deep burns were perceptible on the
ash. 11cr son, as already stated, was killed, and the fluid
ultimatey escaped through the windows

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE—This Da'

NEWMARKET RACES—THIS DAY.
(Br ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
MATCH.
Finesse beat Olivia.
ALL•AGED STAKES.

Lord Burleth
Exchequer
Argonaut left at the post.
£5O PLATE.

Troubadour..
Orloff .
Six ran.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
- -

A.ckworth
Tomato
2
Thirty-eight ran.
Ran one hour and five minutes behind time.
LATEST BETTING.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
6 to 1 agst Stockinger (taken)
11 to 2 agst Gratitude (taken)
6to 1 agat Brick (taken)
9to 1 agst Columbia (taken)
100 to 8 agst Saccharometer (taken)
20 to 1 agst Prince Plausible (taken)
SCRlTCHlNG§..—Blithfield—Historian—Madcap--Blafr
Athol Caller Ou Johnny Armstrong Stockowner—.
Edward the Confessor—Mountain Flower—Adventurer.—
Morocco Orphelin—Blackdown—Lawyer—Copenhagen
—Queen Crystal Nocturne—Dormouse—Durham—The
Clown—Soumise—F ilibuster—Carisbrook— "Um pire—Tool
Tooi—Comme ga—Melrose—King George—Double X.--
Charlemagne Castle Hill Suspicion— Danaus—Castla
Espio Ethelred—Marygold—Merry Hart—Armagnac__
Tommy Jones—Baldwin—Peon—Charming Woman—
Crochet horse—Sigualman—Jessie—Raglan—ldler —Erin
go Bragh—Peignoir—Physician—Narbonne—Antoinette
—Wandering Minstrel—Hersey filly—brother to hubini—
Charmian, Trap, and Giant.
HANDICAP SWEEPSTAKES OP 10 Sow—Giant paid forfeit
HANDICAP SWEEPSTAKES OF 15 SOTS—Giant and Cam,
ball paid forfeit