The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-20 00:00:00

MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.

The other evening a large crowd assembled in the
vicinity of Mr. John Rostron's Perseverance Doubling
Mill, Bolton, to witness the primary operations of remov-
ing the cap and coping stones from the chimney stack
attached to the concern, which is 30 yards high, and
which, having become defective through being crooked,
is about being demolished in order that a new one
may be built. The stones, twenty-four in number, and
each weighing about 4 cwt., were successfully dislodged
by a " Steeple Jack," named Yates, of Bolton' assisted
by James Thornton, a labourer. When the two men
had accomplished the work allotted them, they
gave notice to those below of their desire . to
descend. The windlass was accordingly manned,
and Thornton got into the box depending by the
rope from a pulley overhead. Being somewhat inexpe-
rienced as regards the working of the apparatus on such
occasions, and the cord proper not having been made secure
by the men at the windlass, he forgot to seize hold of what
is termed the " slack-rope," which .would have enabled
him to control his speed, and he was consequently preci-
pitated a distance of 16 yards down the flue. On reaching
the point thus indicated the box struck against one of the
pudlocks or projections in the - interior of the chimney,
and he was thrown in a manner out of the box. His left
leg became impaled on one of the hooks with which the
sides of the box were furnished, and suspended in this
manner, with his head hanging downwards ; he was sub-
sequently lowered to the ground, having been thus most
providentially saved from a horrible death, as he would
undoubtedly have been killed had he fallen the entire dis-
tance. When extricated from his perilous position, and
•taken into the warehouse attached to the mill, his left leg
presented a sickening spectacle, the calf being literally
torn from the bone for a considerable length.

THE EMIGRATION OF PAUPER
CHILDREN.

A meeting has been held at the rooms of the National
Association for the promotion of Social Science for the
purpose of considering the proposal of Miss Rye, that
she should be allowed to take orphans and deserted pauper
girls of the age of from seven to twelve, from the London
workhouse schools and other workhouse schools through-
out the country to Canada, where they would
be placed (under proper legal protection) till
eighteen years of age in respectable families.
The Earl of Shaftesbury presided. Miss Rye read a
paper in which she stated that her proposal was to take
out children of the class in question to Cauada, and place
them, under due specific regulations, in the custody of
old and established families in that country, who would
train them up in a proper manner, and render them,
before they had comple-ted their term of apprenticeship,
at eighteen years of age, thoroughly competent in every
respect to make their way in the world. She had already
on her books 200 families in Canada who were ready
and willing to receive such children ; and when the
authorities atthe unions were willing to give them up in
that way, she would distribute them among those fami-
lies. The stipulation on which she parted with them
was that, whatever age the child who was bound might
be, the people receiving her should educate, clothe, and
feed her, and see that she attended a place of worship on
Sunday, and Sunday school, if possible, till she was 15
years of age ; from 15 to 17 the family taking the girl
covenanted to give her three dollars a month wages, with
a rise to four dollars during the last year of her
apprenticeship. Miss Rye said that of the children
she took out in October last fifty were orphans given
up to her care by the select vestry of Liverpool, and
that body had been so well satisfied with the manner
in which she had disposed of them that they had just
voted her a second party of fifty children to take out
in the same manner, together with the money for their
expenses at the rate of £lO a head, which was much
less than the rate at which they could be kept in this
country. A resolution in support of Miss Rye's pro-
posal was adopted by the meeting.