The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-04 00:00:00

DEATH OF A FORTUNE TELLER.

A coroner's inquest was held at the London Ale
[louse, in St. Mary Arches-street, before J. Warren,
Esq., Coroner, on the body of a woman named Sarah
(iribble, who had been found ded in her bed on Satur-
day afternoon. The deceased was well known as a
celebrated teller of fortunes. This must be our excuse
for trespassing upon our readers with some brief account
of her manner of living. She occupied a tenement in a
hack court in St. Mary Arches-street, consisting of
two rooms on the smallest conceivable dimensions, ene
on the ground floor and the other immediately over.
The former of these was little better than a cold dark
cell, as miserable and comfortless as can well be ima-
deed ; and it was here that the numerous visitors
who carne to seek for information of the good or evil
things in store for them were compelled to
wait until the prophetess was at leisure to attend to
them room above stairs was that in which the de-
ceased ate and slept, and in which she war accustomed
to deliver her oracles ; and here, in fact, the whole of
her time has been spent for several years past. To
convey anything like an accurate idea of the scene
ts i►ich presented itself on entering this apartm,nt would
be altogether impossible ; it was a scene, indeed, of
filth and wretchedness, which, altogether, defies descrip-

tion. In one corner of the room a space was path.
tioned off by a couple of deal planks, which served this
singular being for a bed, and here, with nothing but a
heap of filthy rags between her and the floor, and with
a miserable covering of the same description, she was,
accustomed to pass nearly every moment of her time.
Clothes, or linen upon her person, she had r.one, if we
except an old pair of stays, which she wore next
her sk'n, and a piece of coarse fustian cloth,
w‘tich was tied round her waist. A dirty
_brown
handkerchief was thrown :over her shoulders, and
tied in a knot upon her breast, and her head
was covered with a cap ;which she had never
been known to change during the time she had resded
in the house. She wore neither shoes nor stockings,
but dressed (if we may use the term) as we above
described, she used to sit continually in the place which
we hate called her bed, remaining constantly in the same
position, with (as one of the witnesses stated) " her
nose and knees toge..ltex." •In her bedplace were found
after her death a great qthntity articles of food,
which appeared to have accumulated for some time,
and which there is much reason to fear bad been pur-
loined by servant girls, who probably found it more con-
venient to satisfy their curiosity at their masters' ex-
expense than at their own. There was heaped together
is one heterogeneous mass potatoes, turnips, and vege-
tables of all kinds, fruit, butter, bacon, dripping, and
a variety of other articles of a similar description,
which the deceased was never known to have pur-
chased, and the possession of which by her can only
be accounted for in the way we have described.
The only articles of furniture which we ob-
served were two deal chairs, a small table, a tea-
kettle, and some trifling vessels of earthenware.
There were heaps of rags and dirt covering the
whole of the apartment, and upon the mantelpiece a bottle
which had contained rum. The window was corn-

pletely covered with cobwebs, and the odour exhaled
from so much filth was, as may well be believed, intol-
lerahle. Oae thing struck us as curious ; it was an
old tin candlestick with a deep bottom, which was en-
tirely filed with tho " snuffs" of candles, piled up
so as completely to hide the tube in which the candle
should have been placed. There was a fire•place in
the room, but she bad never been known to have a
fire in it, and her kettle was boiled for her by a
neighbour who was paid seven pence a week for her
trouble. About the loom were scattered several packs
of ea rds, in which she pretended to read the talcs with
which she used to gull the simple fair ones who resorted
to her dweiling.The room was never cleaned, and she her-
self bad never washed her skin while she had resided in
the house. And' yet, wretched as was her abode, Sall)
Gribble had numerous visitors, many from among the
more respectable classes of society ; and on a market-
day especially, her ante-room was thronged with cus-
tomers, anxious to obtain admittance. She always pre-
tended the greatest poverty, although, as will be seen,
a large quantity of money was found in her apartment,
and the necessaries of life were evidently supplied to her
in abundance.

The Jury having heard evidence, returned a verdict
of—Nitural death. _

While the old woman Eyed, she was not known to
have a relative in the world, but immediately on her
death, and the discovery of the money (941.) becoming
known, more than one person was found to claim
kindred with her.

The deceased was about sixty years of age, with large
masculine features.—Western Luminary.

RAILWAY TRAIN IN A SNOW

STORM.

The following lively eccount of a railway•passenger's
altentures between New York and Philadelphia is
taken from an American paper just received. It is the
more isteresting as, it describes a scene which, we be-
lieve, no one has yet had an opportunity of witnessing
in this country :
The snow-storm which commenced on Friday
even►ng and endured until Sunday night, accompanied
all the while with a fierce north-east wind, will be long
remembered by those who were travelling on Saturday
netween New York and Philadelphia. As the night
closed in, the storm increased ; nevertheless, the dis-
tance between Camden and Bordeutown was run over
in reasonable time, considering the obstructions of the
snow drifts ; but when the road between I3ordentown
and Trenton, which is a side-cut along the canal, and
laid with flat bars, came to be passed over, our troubles
began. In anticipation thereof, we were provided with
two engines—one to draw and the other to push.
" Soon the engines began to labour—now dashing
ith irresistible impetus through snow banks, and than
the wheels flying round without adhesion, owing to the
slipperiness of the rails—And ever and anon the strug-
gling giant that yet urged us onward would seem by
his deep drawn sighs to intimate that his powers were
elmost exhausted. Still we advanced gaily—for there is
excitement in difficulty—and though proceeding slowly
we yet believed we should get through. But suddenly,
while under great headway, we felt a sharp check, which
seemed, by the straining efforts of our fire steeds, to be
formidable indeed ; they laboured strenuously, but with
perceptibly-decreasing effect, till, after one long convul-
sive breathing, all became still. We then found our-
selves deeply imbedded in a snow-drift, and what was
not less uofavourable, we soon perceived a-head of
us, and also brought up in a snow-bank, the mail
train from New York. It was then about twelve
o'clock. Our only course now was, as there was no
turn out, to endeavour to get the train back to Barden-
town, and accordingly all hands and the engines were at
work to fire up and retrace our steps. But alas ! going
back was us much cut of the question as going for-
ward. We were stuck fast, and vain were the attempts
of the locomotives to stir us from the spot. After a
brief consultation, the engine in the rear was detached,
and ordered back to Borden-town, to bring up rein-
....

foreements. The interim of some two hours was no'
without its incidents or alternations of hope and disap
pointment, moodiness and merriment.
" While this was going on with our train, that from
New York, from which we now begun to hear,
was cot idle. In the first place, the train was
separated, and the ladies' car, with one other,
were dropped, and the engine with the baggage-
trucks and forward car tried to get on. It advanced
nearly a mile, and within a few hundred yards of ours,
when the engine gave out. Some of the passengers came
through the snow—no little undertaking, for it drifted
iu sums spots leg-deep—to our cars, and gave us the
first tidings that the bulks' car, in which were some
twenty ladies and children, was left a mile behind. This
redoubled the anxiety or all for the arrival of the en-
gines from 13Jrdentown, and at last their distant fires
were seen, one, two, three, and, with such a force, de-
liverance seemed at hand. Still their slow approach
indicated increased difficulties in forcing their way. 'rite
wind and snow were fiercely raging, and doubts of the
probability of extricating all the cars began to circulate.
Finally the nearest car was reached, two engines were
attached ahead, and with the aid of that which had
brought
repeated checks, we were re-conveyed to Bor.
d eafter
n to wn
, which was reached about three o'clock.
us on, and now aided to push us back, slowly,
and
" The engines were all then sent back to bring it
the Now York train, but the increasing violence o'.
the
indwi'ieh whirled the snow in eddies on the
road, rendered all efforts useless, and ono by one
tha t
the passengers of try
engines gave out without reaching the cars, and
Woe frozen-up on the track. The men succeeded in
scrambling back, exhausted, and almost perished with
cold,
c kto
then, about half-peat four
o
whole New York train, except the few who had suc-
ceeded in reaching the Philadelphia train, would be left
till morning in the cars. T
i,
itthbeeetaonwlne .
certain Thus,
It was a vain effort to obtain
sleighs, or any other mode of reaching them ; the canal
on one side, and morassy fields on the other side of the
road, precluded approach in the night, and the drifts
on the roads itself rendered a passage of sleighs ori it
impracticable—the only consolation was that of knowine
there was fuel enough to keep up good fires.
" Sunday rnwuiug came in _
dull, dreary, and beis-
terote#be st.ow and Kind still prevailing. All the
force tuat could be mustered was early at work with
snow-plough,' and scrapers, and spades-men, to extri-
cate engines and cars frozen up ; but as their progress
was s'ow some of the passengers determined to approach
the ladies' car as near as they could with sleighs, and
taking with them hot coffee and hot milk tor the chil-
dren, with wine and various eatables, they started, but
it was mid-day before any tidings were had of them.
Meantime, through great difficulties, and one by one,
the engines left on the road the night before were
brought back.
about one o'clock we were cheered by the return
of the sleighs, having the women and children, who
thus after 20 hours passed in the cars, were baouglit to
the hotel in safety, and without having suXered much.
The only
,mode of reaching the cars where they were
was by Pun through the fields."