The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-07 00:00:00

ONE CHILD KILLED BY ANOTHER.

A singular fatality, arising out of a quarrel between
two children while at school, occurred in Solly-street,
Sheffield, last week. The death of a child four years
of age was caused by a blow from a school-fellow
little more than five years of age. The deceased,
Arthur Brown, was the son of William Brown, metal-
smith, of Solly-street, and attended a school taught by
Mrs. Castleton, a widow, residing in Wheeldon-lane.
On Wednesday forenoon, about half- past eleven o'clock,
Mrs. Castleton left the school-room for a few minutes,
and during her absence the deceased and a child
called Walter Standish quarrelled about an apple that
the latter wished to take from Brown. Not succeed-
ing in getting the apple, Standish spat in Brown's
face, and Brown did the same to Standish, when the
latter struck him with his fist once or twice in the pit
of the stomach. • The poor little fellow complained of
great pain, and he was sent home. Mr. J. Harmer Smith
surgeon, was sent for almost directly, but in spite of
the most active treatment he died on Saturday. On
Tuesday last an inquest was held on view of the body
of the deceased, before Mr. T. Badger, coroner, at the
house of Mr. Wragg, the White Horse Inn, Solly-
street, when the above facts were detailed in evidence.
Mr. Smith had a post mortent examination, and the
result proved that the child died from inflamma'
tion of the right pleura and lung. That inflammation
Mr. Smith said be had no doubt had been caused
by blows on the pit of the stomach. The coroner
then explained that withi❑ the age of seven years no
infant can be guilty of felony or be punished for any
capital offence, for within that age he cannot, by pre-
sumption of law, be endowed with any discretion,
against which presumption no averment shall be re-
ceived. The jury therefore returned the following
verdict :—" That the said Walter Standish being an
infant under the age of discretion, to wit, of the age
of five, not being capable of discerning good from evil,
did kill and slay Arthur Brown, but not feloniously."
The coroner then addressed a few words to the child
Standish, teaching him in the spirit of the lines by
Watts—

" But, children, you should never let
Such angry passions rise ;
Your little hands were never made
To tear each other's eyes."
The child, a ho is a strong, heavy lad of his age, replied,
"He struck me first." He appeared thoughtful, but
not sorrowful.

VIVIAN AT THE BLOOMER BALL.
(From the Leader.)
For a fiasco complete, extravagant, unredeemed
and unredeemable, for the perfect frustration of all
expectations, the Bloomer Ball given on Wed-
nesday at the Hanover-rooms, transcends all my
experience. Palmam qui meruit ferat : let merit
carry off the palm, and the greatest of failures
sinks abashed before this! The amount of excited
curiosity may be estimated by the fact that
quite early in the evening the rooms were
crowded with notabilities. Mixed up with a name-
less fashionable mob, there were a German Duke, one
of the editors of a great morning journal, a Par-
liamentary Poet, the " handsomest man in Europe."
an old beau of the peerage, a famous but fading
baronet, Punch, several artists, certain peers, many
blackguards, and such a tohu bohu as Kossuth him-
self could not gather together. But no women!
What came the crowd to see ? A Bloomer shaken in
the waltz ! Fifty Bloomers, a hundred Bloomers—
women young, daring, pleasure-loving, radient in
new and piquant costumes, saucy with the insolence
of fascination, delirious with excitement, civilized
Menads, not irreproachable in morals. That is what
the crowd come to see, thinking that the lights, the
music, the hum of voices, the bright glances of eyes
flashing up from their languor, and the very air
infected with gaiety, would form a fitting accom-
paniment to the New Costume, which was henceforth
to invest the person of the " emancipated mind."
That and nothing else. 'What did they see? A few,
very few women of that class which it makes the
heart ache to think of, in finery as poor and faded as
their own unhappy lives.
How shall I describe my disappointment? At an
hour when the bed candle is usually admitted, I
closed one of the wisest books that was ever writ-
ten, and left that study where the good and great
keep serene empire, to dress myself for this
Bloomer Ball, of which I had heard so much,
What visions of lovely women lured me forth! what
syren voices called to me from the deeps ! what made
me anxious to be there, I am ashamed to think of !
Enough, I went. A mob had collected in Hanover..
square ; and through this yelling mob, intolerant of
innovation, loving a riot, and not fastidious in the
selection of language, the cab made difficult way.
Many Bloomers were discouraged, and turned back
frightened. If it required some courage to adopt the
costume, it required heroism to run the gauntlet of
that mob's derision, which might at any moment end
in violence. Many, therefore, turned back. When I en-
tered the room there were not a dozen Bloomers pre-
sent ; and such Bloomers !—ye gods, such Guys
Two or three " emancipated minds," with persons
endowed, I am willing to believe, with great " beauty
oe
about,vf
iidnetnel
thll eyacrt," b
the
dhae
and
dut
t priestessesri otherwiseumphla onft
tnothl prepossessing—these
The new
oth
ers were oof creed—walked
that
class which no man can think of seriously without
ineffable sadness, and of them this pen shall write no
word
heaspprooazcehning
womento r
were scattered
scattered through the
rooms crowded with men, who jeered, leered, and
cheered them as they danced. I told you of the mob
outside. The mob inside was as brutal, only better
dressed, and wearing moustachios for the most part.
Had the Bloomers been monkeys exhibiting for
money, the men would have behaved more politely I
It was no doubt a painfully grotesque sight, that of
the Bloomer Quadrille : women aged in their youth,
with a look at once faded and bold, dressed like the
actress of a sttolling company, intensely conscious of