The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-29 00:00:00

THE FROST.

The temperature in London on Monday and Tuesday
ranged from 26 deg. to 30 deg. The wind was from the
N.E., and was accompanied during the day by a consider-
able fall of snow. About seven o'clock the snow began
to fall more heavily, and early yesterday morning it had
a depth of from six inches to a foot. About 60,000
persons went to the Parks on Tuesday for skating and
sliding. • The official reports of the icemen of the
Royal Humane Society state that on the Serpentine,
the Round Pcnd, and the Long Water there were about
17,000 skaters and sliders. A man, name unknown, fell
on the Serpentine about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and
broke his leg. He was attended by Dr. Rentzsch, of
Leader-street, Chelsea, who happened to be passing at the
time. A young lady fell and broke her collar bone while
skating. Both were sent to St. George's Hospital. In
St. James's Park there were about 11,000 skaters and
sliders. The ice is described as being dangerous in
many parts, and some persons fell in, but they were
rescued without much difficulty. Sixteen persons were also
attended at the tent for cut heads and other injuries. In
Regent'. Park, there were from 15,000 to 20,000 persons
on the ice. The most serious case of injury which occurred
during the day *as that of a young man who, in falling,
broke his wrist. He went to the Royal Humane Society's
tent at once, where his wrist was set by Dr. Norton, and
he was then able to go home. Ten persons were also
attended for cut heads. The ice is in good condition
there, and no one fell in during the day. In Battersea-
park• about 5,000 persons went on the ice on Tuesday.
A serious accident happened to a Mr. Steward,
residing at Wandsworth. He came in collision
with another person while skating, and falling
heavily broke his leg. A boy was severely cut by a skate,
and there were about a dozen cases of cut heads. In
Victoria Park about 7,000 persons went on the ice, and at
the Crystal Palace about 6,000. No accidents were reported.
The upper parts of the Thames are now frozen over.
The frost in Worcestershire is very severe. The Severn
is frozen over. On Christmas Day the thermometer stood
at 10 deg. at 8.30 a.m. On Monday the wind changed
to southward, and the thermometer rose to 31 deg. There
was a very slight thaw in the course of the day, but to-
wards evening the thermometer again fell, and on Tuesday
stood at fourteen degrees below freezing point. Thou-
sands of skaters and holiday people thronged the large
pools in the vicinity of Worcester throughout Monday
and Tuesday, but no accident occurred. The upper
tributaries of the Severn are blocked with ice, and the
Warwickshire Avon is frozen over almost throughout its
whole length, down to its confluence with the Severn at
Tewkesbury.

MORE RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
SEVERAL PERSONS INJURED.

On Tuesday morning, a collision between a passenger
train and a goods train occurred at the Horsefield Junc-
tion, on the London and North Western Railway. The
traffic of three companies (the Midland, Great Western,
and the London and North Western) is carried on near
this junction. and narrow escapes from similar accidents
have been frequent. At 8.55 a.m. a Great Western pas-
senger train of seven carriages was run into by a Midland
goods train, and four passengers, Mr. and Mrs. Kendrick,
Dudley; Thomas Morris, Stourbridge • and W. Taylor,
of the Lye—were seriously injured. All the passengers
were more or less shaken. The line was partially cleared
in two hours, but it was not till late in the afternoon
that both lines were passable. It is said that the goods
driver ran against the signals. The Great Western
engine is much damaged. Another account says :—A
collision took place on Tuesday at Horsfield Junction,
about eight miles from Birmingham, and between
the Great Bridge and Dudley stations of the
South Staffordshire line, between a Great Western
passenger train and a midland goods train. Four
persons are injured rather seriously, and many
passengers were bruised and shaken. Both engines were
damaged, and two passenger carriages smashed. The
cause of the accident is stated to be carelessness either on
the part of the driver of the goods train or of the signal-
man. One states that the signals were properly set, and
the other says that they were down, and that the driver
was thus induced to drive forward.
On the evening of the same day a very serious collision
occurred on the South Altrincham arid Cheshire Midland
Railway. Owing to bad time being kept by a train from
Boynley, the Knutsford and Northwich train had to be
kept waiting on the line outside the Altrincham station,
and whilst standinc, there the express train from Man-
chester to Altrincham came up at a rapid rate, dashed
into it, smashing two carriages, and seriously injuring
several passengers.
Two fatal accidents occurred on the Midland Railway
on Tuesday night. Thomas Dakin, a painter, forty-seven
years of age, has been on a visit from London to
Leicester for the Christmas holiday. He returned on
Tuesday evening. He got out of the train at Kebworth.
While still out, the train moved on ; he attempted to re-
gain it, but failed to reach his carriage, missed
his footing, and fell between the train and the platform.
One foot was crushed and the other taken right off. On
his road to the infirmary the man died.
On the same evening Joseph Dooley, colliery foreman,
was crossing the line at the Swannington Station, Leices-
ter, when he was knocked down by the engine of the
goods train. and instantaneously killed.

MILITARY DISPLAY IN ST. PET ERSBURG.—A
grand military parade took place before the Emperor of
Russia in the principal riding school of St. Petersburg
the other day. The building is 180 yards long, and its
interior presented a brilliant sight, as there were drawn
up in companies and sections the elite of the body guard
of the Czar. They were well mounted on magnificent
black and dark-bay horses. The bright and variegated
uniforms of the different regiments formed a most pic-
turesque military spectacle. The Emperor chews to great
advantage on horseback, and was enthusiastically
received by the soldiers. The marching past was
got through in a very creditable manner, taking
into account the state of the floor of the riding-house ;
various movements were afterwards performed, one of
which consisted in ten horsemen galloping past the Czar,
and blowing some sheets of paper on the ground to pieces
with their pistols as they passed. The Czar declared him-
self satisfied with the general performances, and ordered
fifty kopecks to be given to every soldier. The troops
reviewed were fine men, but did not come up to the
standard of the English Household Cavalry either in
height or symmetry.
FEMALE LECTURERS IN AMERICA. A New
York paper reports a lecture delivered to an audience
in that city by Miss Logan, one of the leading Wo-
men's Rights agitators. As usual, a considerable pro-
portion of the space is occupied with a description of
the lady and the audience. The latter " was the
sort that settles itself serenely in its chair
and twiddles its thumbs, saying benignantly with
Hamlet, ' We'll have a. speech straight ; come, give us
a taste of your quality.' It passed its gloves when
Miss Logan entered, jaunty, smiling, assured ; it chuckled
amiably when 'she joked, and was solemn when she
philosophised." Miss Logan is described as " a trim
bright-eyed little woman, prettily clad in violet." The
lecture was called "The Bright Side," and contained
nothing new, " barring a joke or two, which twinkled
forth
_in the dew of their youth." Though there
might be " more sorrow than joy in the world,
she believed that there was a way to introduce a
preponderance of joy. That way is to persist in
looking on the bright side." In her opinion, " the devil
is a humbug, and is laughed away a dozen times when
oe's scared by a ladsoemn face once." In the latter part
f her lecture she vocated with great warmth the
placing of women on exactly the same social and political
footing as the other sex. Another
,lecture in the
same city, by a Miss Field, on Dickens," is
also described. In this case, " a pleasant savour of
journalistic and literary salt was perceptible amid the
customary salads and sweets of the typical New York
audience."' Miss Field entered .` buoyant of step, self-
possessed, and a little reserveanner—exactly as if
she were entering a drawing-rod in
mpm. Beside her was a
little table with a pretty green library cover, and a basket
of pink roses." She was dressed " all in a rosy gown, in
her browntresses she wore a rose, and in her hand a crim-
son-coloured book.yr he lecture was so delightful that it
acted on the audience Ike Sam Weller's love letter,
making it " wish there was more of it."

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