The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-31 00:00:00

EXPLOSION OF A LOCOMOTIVE.

A locomotive, standing at NOrth Allerton station on the
North Eastern Railway, exploded on Wednesday. The
boiler was blown to fragments. Some pieces of great weight
were carried above a quarter of a mile. The station roof
was brokeri, the windows blown out, and a gmworki and
the engine shed were damaged. One of the large driving
wheels was blown through a roof twenty yards off. The
driver and the firemen who were standing on the front of
the engine at the time, escaped without serious injury.
A youth, named Broadbent, a telegraph clerk, had his
right leg broken. An express train coming up was barely
stopped in time to avoid the wreck, and the line was
blocked some hours.

The People's Magazine will, with the new year,
be reproduced under the superintendence of a new, editor.
So far as the whole evidence before us goes, from
75 to 100 British subjects in India die every 24 hours
from snake bite.—Pioneer.- - .

The Duke of Cambridge, we are sorry to hear, is
still unable to attend at the Horse Guards through an
attack of gout.
It is now believed that the " Stourbridge railway
frauds," as they are familiarly called, will, if possible, he
dealt with by an amicable arrangement. Mr. Adcock, the
ex-secretary, has been declared a bankrupt.
The Rev. Charles Waldegrave Sandford, M.A.,
student of Christ Church and commissary and chaplain
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been appointed by
his Grace rector of Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury. Mr.
Sandford will still act as the Archbishop's commissary.
The living is of the value of £7OO per annum.
RAILWAY CARRIAGES.—Referring to the recent
fatal accident through the fracture of the tyre of a wheel
on the Great Northern line, a writer in the Tines says :--
" Will you allow me to ask the Great Northern Railway
officials if the carriage which caused the accident had six
wheels or four, and whether, if it had only four wheels,
the accident would hare been averted by the use of a six-
wheeled carriage ? I ask this question because of late
years I habe noticed that railway carriages are now con-
structed with only four wheels, and it is worth knowing
whether it is possible for a similar accident to occur to a
carriage of six wheels when either axle, tyre, or one wheel
is broken, when there would be four wheels left for the
carriage to run upon."
FROZEN TO DEATH.—A. youth about 17 Or 18
years of age, named Isaac Mowbray, who was employed
at Consett Ironworks, and who resided with his parents at
Consett, was. found lying upon the snow, frozen to death,
in a field near Tod Hills Farm, about two miles from Con-
sett, on Wednesday. Deceased had been missing since
Saturday night, and a diligent search
.had been kept up
since Sunday, The unfortunate young man had gone
with a band of Christmas dancers to Greenhead, a village
over four miles from his house on Saturday night, where
he got drunk. A farm servant, who had also been there,-
brought him as far as Consett Park, and desired hini to
stay over the night, but he refused, and had afterwards
missed his way, strayed into the fieldg, fallen asleep
on
the snow, and perished with the cold. When found„ his
face was much scratched, his hands swollen, and his
finger-nails very much worn. A medical man was called
in, who stated that in his opinion the young man had been
dead since Sunday.

AN EFFECTIVE SHELL.—I now came to a little
clearing in the wood. Just as I stepped into the open a
gust of wind blew out my lantern. I had no matches. I
crept cautiously along, but it was pitch dark, and I could
not see an inch before me. I had not gone many yards
when I stumbled over a body ; I spoke, there was no
answer ; I put my hand over the face, it was cold ; I got
up, and again I stumbled over a second body. I felt for
matches in a dead man's pocket ; to my delight I found a
pipe, and of course matches. I lighted my candle in the
lantern, and then holding it above my head I surveyed
the scene before me. To my dying day I shall never
forget it ; stretched out like a fan, with their feet towards
a common centre, lay eight men near the middle of the
clearing ; between them and the side of the wood I had
just emerged from were the two corpses I had stumbled
over, an* in this little space five others lay dead also. I
was horrified ; 15 dead men, and I the only living person
near them. Oh ! how dreadful was that silence ! I
shivered from head to foot. Just as I was lowerino• my
lantern, after viewing this ghastly spectacle, one of the
supposed dead in the centre moved ' • it brought my scat-
tered senses back again. I went to the wounded man ; he.
had received a frightful scalp wound, and looked from his
face being covered with blood, almost unearthly ; his eyes
rolled in their sockets. I felt for a fracture, but could
find none. I spoke to him; he answered. I asked him
why he did not go away ;he pointed to his knee. I ripped
the trouser open ; his knee-cap had been completely
blown away. I dressed his wounds, took the greatcoat
from the knapsack of a dead man lying near, and wrapped
him in it, for he was shivering with the cold. As I was
leaving he said, " Ah, that was a fearful bad shell ; we
are only half of what it hurt ; the rest have' crawled
away." Of the seven others six were stone dead. The
Mont Valerien shell had indeed done its work ; the other
still lived, but how? I will not harrow your feelings by
answering the question. •His lips were blue. He mur-
mured "Nasser, wasser." I handed him my flask. I
knew nothing could be done for him.—DiCkens's "All the
Year Round."