The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-11 00:00:00

ALARMING FIRES.

Last Saturday night the family of Mr. Wood, patent
hook-and-eye manufacturer, of Newcastle-street, -Farring-
don-street, were thrown into the gieatest excitement in
consequence of a fire having been discovered in the work-
shop on the first floor. Mr. Wood and his family en-
deavoured by every means. in• their power to arrest the
progress of the fire, but they were unable to do so ; and,
information having been forwarded to the Farringdon-
street engine-station, the men 'were in immediate attend-
.ance. Fortunately, by their exertions they prevented that
extent of damage which for a time was considered inevi-
table. The fire was occasioned by the overheating of a
large stove used in the'tiroceSs of drying the lacquer: Mr.
Wood is amply insured in the Hand-in-Hand Fire-office...
At a late hour on Friday evening considerable , damage
was done by fire on the second floor of the Westmoreland
Arms public-house; City-road. • On the alarm being given
several persons hastened .Up stairs to render assistance,
and in a short time several of the. London
.Establishment
engines and firemen arrived, and, notwithstanding the fire
had reached an alarming ascendancy, they were 'enabled,
though with the utmost difficulty, to confine the damage,
to the floor on which it originated. The property is in-.
sured in the Scottish Union Fire-office. The London fire-
men are more fortunate in extinguishing fires than those be-
longing to the American Companies,
.notwithstanding their
professed cleverness on these occasions.
Between three and four o'clock on Saturday afternoon a
fire was discovered on the premises of Mr. Brate, of the
Mitre Tavern, Broadwall, Blackfriars-road. On the alarm
being first given, a large engine from the Waterloo-road,
belonging to the London Fire; Establishment,! was. quickly
on the spot,. and, with the assistance of 'the neighbours,
the flames were extinguished without doing much damage.
The accident originated through
.the overheating of the
kitchen flue, and the flooring igniting. Mr. Bratc is amply
insured in the Imperial Fire-office to the full extent of
his loss.

On Thursday morning, between the hours of 11
and 12 o'clock, a young woman named Mansford entered
the Rose public-house, London-street; Tottenham-court-
road, kept by Mr. Wright, and walking up to the bar ,re-
quested a gentleman who was in conversation with a ne-
phew of Mr. -Wright to be kind enough to treat her with a
small glass of brandy, which he immediately gave her, and .
observed her put some salts, as he supposed, . into another
glass. He observed two pieces of paper on the floor, which
he found were labelled " PoiSon-'--Oxalic Acid." The
alarm was immediately given, and a policeman accompanied
the gentleman in search of the unfortunate female. • After
a lapse of three quarters of an hour they discovered the poor
creature at the further end of Hay's Mews, Francis-street,
Tottenham-court-road. She was in a fainting condition,
and had been very sick, and was being supported by a sta-
bleman, who knew nothing of the real cause of her ailment.
Surgical assistance was promptly procured, and the stomach
pump was immediately applied by Mr. Henning, who suc-
ceeding in extracting the poison. After administering re-
storatives she was conveyed to her own residence, in Lisson
Grove North. She is a married woman, and it was ex-
torted from her that jealoasy and the liquor she had drank
was the cause of her committing the rash act. She has
twice attempted her life within the last six months.
A MODERN ROB Roy.----We are informed that a
persori, whose name we have not learned, but to whom this
is not inappropriate, has been of late roaming about various
parts of Stirlingshire, lifting cattle from parks, in single
cows at a time, and of selling them to individuals who are
imposed upon by the plausible story he tells. It has, IVe
understand, been already ascertained that ten or a, dozen
have, in this way, been stolen from farmers in the parishes
of Falkirk, Denny, St. Niuians; and Kilsyth, within these
few weeks, past. Although strict investigations have been
made by the Fiscal, &c., and a handsome reward offered by
the Society for the Protection of Property at Falkirk, the
depredator, who has the appearance of a drover, and speaks
'with a. Highland accent, has• hitherto eluded detection.
We hope, however, soon to hear of his apprehension
in the -meantime, wo think it right to warn cattle-dealers
and others not to purchase from a person in such suspicious
circumstances, but to do what they can to bring him to jus-
tice,—Edinburgh Observer of Tuesday. •

.. I had read so many harro:ying Accounts of the'burialw
p....ialnuadite:enwta,: at
orpel
des a, visit tbiat.t
clean,l AI:p• enanctoi
01.1dvuistin,haaainl :0 Americanwpeetlie.
dp atih,eed of my
iron
,ydtlo,aiotc.'rh,
long rolwneesnNetoef iron rings in the heavy slabs of the pavement.
ciri•!.hout asking a question, the old man walked across to
the farthe7st corner, where stood a moveable lever, and fas-
pit. lid. requested us to stand back for .a few
tening the chair' into the fixture, raised the massive .stone
cover of ' a
minutes, to
give the efi,:via time to
escape, and then shel-
tering our eyes with our ha.t.4, we looked in. You have
read, of course, that there are t►:_ree hundred and sixty-five
pits in this city, one of which is opened every day for
the dead of the-eity. They are thrown .in, without a shroud
or coffin; and the pit is sealed up at night •for a year.
They are thirty or forty feet deep, and each;would contain
perhaps two hundred bodies.- It was some time before we
could distinguish any •-thing• in the darkness of the abyss.
Fixing my eyes on the spot, however, the outlines of a
body became defined gradually, and. in a few minutes,
sheltering my eyes completely from the, sun above, I could
see all the horrors of the scene but too distinctly. Eight
corpses, all of grown.persons, lay in a confused heap together,
as they had be& throwi; in one after another in the course
of the day. The last was a i;owerful gray old man,vhe had
falleeflat on his back, with his t",fjht hand across, and half
covering the face of a woman. By bis full limbs and chest
and the dark colour of his legs below the knee, be was pro-
bably one of the •lazzaroni,. and had met with
death. His right heel- lay on.the forehead of a yoong man,
emaciated to the last degree, his chest thrown up as he
lay, and his ribs showing, like a skeleton covered with a
skit. The close black curls of the 'latter, as• his head
rested o:i.i another body, were in such strong relief that I
could, have Counted them. Off to the right, goite distinct
from the heap, izy, in a beautiful attitude, a girl, as well as
I could judge, of not more than nineteen or twenty. She
had fallen ,on the pile, and rolled or slid away: jier
hair was very long, and covered her left shoulder and
bosom ; her arm was across her • body, and if -her
mother had laid her down to sleep, she could not have
disposed her limbs more decently. The bead had fallen
a little way to the right, and the feet, whieh were small
even for a lady, were pressed one against the other, as
if she were about turning on her side. The sexton ,said
that a young man had come with the body, and was very ill
for some time after it was thrown in. We asked him if
respectable people were • brought here. ' Yes,' he said,
' many. None but the rich would go to the expense of a
separate grave for their relations. People were often
brought in handsome grave clothes; bUt they were always
stripped before they were left. The shroud, ivheneccr
there was one, was the perquisite of the undertakers.' And
thus are flung into this noisome pit, like beasts, the greater
part of the population of this vast city—the young and the
old, the vicious and the virtuous together, without the
decency even of a rag to keep up the distinctions of life!
Can human beings . thus be thrown away ?—men like our-
selves—women, children, like our sisters and brothers? I
never was so humiliated in my life as by this horrid spec-
tacle. I did not think a man--a felon even; 'or a leper—
what you will that is guilty or debased—l did not think.
any thing that had been human could he so recklessly aban-
doned. Pah ! It makes one sick at heart! God grant I
may never die at Naples !"—Penciffings by the Tray.