The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-20 00:00:00

rnE BUN, LONDON, FRED" JANUARY 20, 1871.

FALL OF A HOUSE IN THAMES-STREET.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS.

Last night the Bridge Coffee-house, in Upper
Thames-street, where a number of persons lived as
lodgers, fell to the ground. Happily, the creaking timbers
gave a few minutes' warning, and the inmates, with
the exception of three or four, managed to escape
altogether free from injury, while of those who were
buried in the ruins or caught by the falling materials two
only were injured. The house was 193, Upper Thames-
street, and it was in the occupation of a coffee house
keeper named Hawkins, who at the time of
the accident was from home. Shortly before
two o'clock, a French tailor who lived on the
second floor heard a cracking in the woodwork,
to which he at first paid little attention. But the noise
increasing he warned those above him that the timbers
Were breaking. He at once seized his three children,
and taking charge of three other children, belonging
to a fellow-lodger, made haste out of the house,
followed by his wife. The door fell to as he got out,
and at that instant his wife was struck down. She
was at once rescued, but her shoulder was dislocated. At
the same time the action of the timbers had been observed
in the ground floor, where Mrs. Hawkinswas, for she called
in the watchman of the house next door, which was in
course of demolition, along with some adjoining houses in
Garlick-hill. The watchman saW the walls moving, and
saying that the house was falling darted out of the place.
The house fell into the street, the materials knocking
down and severely injuring a boy who was passing. In
the top floor of the house No. 193 were a man and wife
named Smith, both of whom were taken out without
serious injuries. The three persons injured—namely, Mrs.
Binder, Mrs. Hawkins, and the boy—were taken to St.
Bartholomew's. Hospital. The accident is attributed to
adjoining houses being taken down without supports being
put up in their place.

From Versailles, January 15, the special correspondent
of the Daily News at the head-quarters of the Crown
Prince of Prussia writes :—There is a strange feeling of
anxiety and regret in listening to the dull boom of the
guns which fall upon Paris. Many of 'them are aimed at
the hostile batteries, where brave and angry men are
ready to return as much mischief as possible ; but
some of them deal out chastisement to the city
itself ; and these last have a terrible mission. Their
shells may light on guilty politicians, or may
crush sometimes members of the crowd which shouted " h
Berlin !" If only we could be sure that they do not also
light on innocent persons the dull boom announcing each
discharge would be less painful to hear. War has many
stern necessities, and when a city will not surrender after
four months' notice, what is to be done? More than this,
there is not much mercy in starving rather than bombard-
ing one's foe. But the actual moment of the military
execution, if I may so call it, is a solemn moment for all
who are near enough to follow the course of events.
Steady and true is the German aim, and the German guns
are splendidly served. They fire fast when they have an
object to gain, when a fort is to be silenced, or an out-
work to be cleared of the French. But at ordinary times
their practice is a trifle slow. They hammer
on until they win by dint of hammering. This
is the plan, and this will account for the partial lull during
the last few days. From being an incessant roar along the
line, the German fire has sunk to a moderate volume of
sound, which comes at intervals in a dull boom of
some heavy siege gun, and which is taken up
and repeated by other successive discharges, so
that each separate shot can be distinguished. In
the cold misty night we have heard them hammer-
ing on ; heard them with anxious minds for the sake
of the city, but not with much interest, as part of the
artillery duel. The duel is decided against the French,
and it remains to the Germans either to sap up the forts
and take them in regular form, or to try a coup de main
against some point especially weak, or, profiting by
their past successes, to increase the weight of their
attack upon the inhabited districts. It seems that
King William will allow this last resource to be
tried, as yet, very feebly. His Majesty is known to have
been opposed from the beginning to the idea of destroying
Paris, and even now—though he has encouraged his troops
by letting them feel that their political enemies were not
out of reach—he has hesitated to do his worst to the
Parisians. What these luckless people have hitherto
suffered by the shell fire is nothing compared
with what could be achieved by the whole
energy of the German artillerists. I hear that they
feel confident of being able to batter down all the public
buildings south of the Seine, and to ruin thousands of
private houses so soon as the arrangements now making
shall be complete. And in face Of this awful danger we
find the Parisians bent on- further resistance. There is
Something of heroism in such an obstinate belief that
France can save them. The starved and battered
capital will have merited better of the country than
many a provincial fortress which has only too soon sur-
rendered.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury
in Downing-street. The Ministers present were—
The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, the Lord Chan-
cellor, Earl de Grey and Ripon, Viscount Halifax,
the Right Hon. H. A. Bruce, Earl Granville, the
Earl of Kimberley, the Right Hon. E. Cardwell, the
Duke of Argyll, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, the Marquis of Hartington
the Right Hon. C. Fortescue, and the Right Hon. W.
E. Forster.

The death is announced of Sir James Arnold
Knight, M.D.

A large peace meeting was held on Wednesday
at Preston. After a statement by Mr. Mottershead, of
London, a resolution was carried against all war inter-
ference in the Franco-German quarrel.

The statement, says the Pall Mall Gazette, which
appears in some of the papers, copied from a Natal jour-
nal, of Dr. Livingstone's death appears to be based upon
no sufficient authority. -
Lord Wolverton has presented the Rev. Henry
Gladwin Jebb, M.A., to the Rectory of Fontmell Magna,
near Shaftesbury, vacant by the preferment of the Rev.
J. Davidson, M.A., to the Rectory of Ashmore, near
Salisbury.

The correspondent of the Teegraph sends the following
by special despatch from Versailles, under date January
17 :—Silence has prevailed for the last twenty-four hours,
with the exception of an occasional boom from Mont
Val4rien. For the last three days the fire from the German
batteries has been very slack. All sorts of theories are
broached to account for the silence—which has now been
total for twenty-four hours, and which had been
partial for the twenty-fours preceding. The effect of the
bombardment on Paris is considerable ; but it has not
come up to the expectations of the German engineers,
who are disappointed at the ascertained results. It
is evident that the material effect on houses and life
within the city is not so great as was anticipated ;
but it is hoped that the moral effect has really been
greater than the Paris journals are willing to a3mit. The
range of the German batteries is now much greater than
at the commencement of the bombardment, and the
extended fire cannot fail to make the inhabitants of Paris
very uncomfortable. In all the Germans have 22batteries
in position against the city, and available for the bombard-
Ment. The bringing up of great guns has suffered
considerable interruption from the state of the weather.
As on the 15th, a parlementaire came out of Paris, and an
answer was sent back on the 16th, it is believed that the
Germans have agreed to a few days' armistice.
This is certainly the most plausible method of
accounting for the almost total cessation of the fire.
Our losses on the 15th were Lieutenant Lockey,
of the Bavarians, and one man killed ; one
officer and seven Men wounded. Fort Montrouge
was very active on the 15th, and there was a tremendous
fire on the 16th from the northern and north-eastern
German batteries, which have been re-armed. A great
general attack is said to have been organised for
to-morrow night. It is yet doubtful whether it
will come off. It will include St. Denis and
Mont Val4rien, and its results are expected to be of the
highest importance. General Trochu has decided on
making sorties on a great scale, commencing from the
20th inst. During the night of the 15th there were several
small sorties ; and thirty Moblots were found frozen in
the woods in front of Meudon, having been cut off by the
advance of the 6th Corps.

The diggers at the diamond fields on the Vali,
South Africa, witnessed a brilliant display of the Aurora
Australis on the nights of the 23rd and 24th of October.
It is stated that no one remembers such a spectacle so
far north.

On Wednesday the apprentice boys of Londonderry
carried out the supplementary proceedings in connection
with the December anniversary. The usual flags and ban-
, ners were raised to the top of Walker's pillar, from which,
during the evening, Roman candles were displayed, and
rockets discharged. Some of these fell in the bogside dis-
trict. There was little excitement, and no disturbance,
although large crowds assembled on the walls.
SHOCKING DEATH OF A HYPOCHONDRIAC.—AII
inquest has been held at Exeter, before Mr. Deputy-
coroner Barton, on the body of a gentleman named
John Sluman, aged about 45. The deceased was
a gentleman possessed of a considerable private income,
but was of very eccentric habits. He lived in a large
house at Exeter, handsomely furnished, but kept no ser-
vants, and would not even allow anyone inside his house
to do any domestic work, performing it himself. Some
few months ago he became enamoured of a young girl of
poor parentage, and made her a number of valuable pre-
sents, but after a little while he was jilted This seems
to have preyed upon his mind, and he became affected
with a morbid melancholy bordering on insanity. When
friends endeavoured to rouse him from his state of depres-
sion he used to say that at night he continually wrestled with
the devil, and that he generally overcame him by quoting
a passage of Scripture. He was last seen alive on Satur-
day morning, and a neighbour not seeing him after then
for several days communicated with the police, and on the
house being forced the unfortunate man was discovered in
his bed-room, lying on the floor, in a state of nudity, quite
dead. He was fearfully bruised on the shoulders, elbows,
and arms, and in fact his whole body was a mass of bruises.
Across his lower extremities there were marks of
burns, as if he had fallen against the fire-grate. There
could be no doubt that the poor fellow had been seized
with a fit, and that he had had an awful struggle with
death. The jury returned a verdict of found dead, but not
by violence.

THE PREJUDICE AGAINST FUNGI.—A correspon-
dent of the Engli.sh Mechanic says :—" it is really sad to
see how strongly ignorance and prejudice prevail with
regard to this useful yet neglected portion of the vegetable
kingdom. Our country abounds more than any other in
edible fungi, and yet nowhere are they so little appre-
ciated, and consequently so great a variety of good and
savoury food is yearly allowed to perish. As articles of
diet they are highly esteemed in France, Russia, Italy,
and other countries. The French peasants know their
value for their ever-simmering pot au feu, and during the
American War the Southern army found them by no
means despicable additions to their scanty commissa-
riat. In this country, however, we appear to be content
with the few kinds that find their way to our
markets, whilst we are told that there are upwards of
fifty varieties equally as wholesome and palatable, and
to be obtained without difficulty. It may, perhaps, be
said that many of the fungi are of a poisonous character.
Undoubtedly some there are that should be avoided,
though even in some instances it is just possible that their
noxious properties may have been exaggerated, for super-
stition and romance have had much to do in fostering the
suspicion which is attached to the so-called toadstools.
But this is no argument for neglecting the far greater pro-
portion which can be made to furnish wholesome and sub-
stantial food. As well might we exclude from our die-
taries potatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips, peas, and other
foods, because they belong to families some members of
which possess poisonous properties. Chemistry hasshewn
that besides starch, sugar.(mannite), fungic acid, and vari-
ous saline matters, they are rich in albumen, a nutriment
or flesh-forming principle. They also possess a great
variety of flavours, thereby commending themselves to the,
notice of the epicure."
IRISH RAILWAYS.—There were at the end of last
year 1,975 miles of railway in Ireland, 151 of which be-
longed to the Belfast and Northern Counties, 107 to the
Dublin. Wicklow, and Wexford, 195 to the Irish North-
Western, 437 to the Great Southern and Western of Ire-
land, 426 to the Midland Great Western of Ireland, and
122 to the Ulster Railway Company. The total
expenditure on all lines during the year for main-
tenance of way, works, &c., was £259,873 ; for
locomotive power, £279,092; for repairs and re-
newals of carriages and waggons, £68,491; and
for traffic expenses, £233,369. General charges amounted
to £58,829, rates and taxes to £53,337, compensation for
personal injury to £9,245, compensation for damage and
loss of goods to 28,938, legal and Parliamentary expenses
to £10,942, steamboat, canal, and harbour expenses to
£4,203, and miscellaneous working not included in the
foregoing to £43,299. The total working expenditure was
£1,029,618, and the total receipts, as given in the traffic
returns, £2,025,911, making a proportion of expenditure
to total receipts of 51 per cent. The rolling stock con-
sisted of 466 locomotives, 1,072 carriages for the con
veyance of passengers only, 971 other vehicles attached
to passenger trains, 6,835 waggons of all kinds used fo
the conveyance of live stock, minerals, or general mer-
chandize, and 341 carriages of other descriptions, making
a grand total of 9,685 vehicles, 1,639 -of which are owned
by the Midland Great Western of Ireland, 898 by the
Ulster, 578 by the Waterford and Limerick, 913 by the
Belfast and Northern Counties, and 2,445 by the Great
Southern and Western of Ireland Company. The
total authorised capital on Irish railways amounts
to £32,828,218, of which £25,113,610 may be
raised by shares, and £7,714,608 by loans. The
total stock and share capital received is £20,644,129,
£14,787,002 of which is ordinary, £206,825 guaranteed,
and £5,650,302 preferential stock. The capital raised
by loans and debenture stock amounts to £6,230,914,
and the subscriptions to other companies to £14,305,284.
An analysis of the passenger traffic shews that 13,308,677
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travelled 5,625,278 and the goods and mineral trains
.2,2f810.0n 7,408 miles,
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35.
01104