The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-16 00:00:00

SHOCKING CASE OP MILD POISONING,

The greatest excitement has prevailed at Runcorn,
a small port above Liverpool, during the past few days,
owing to the mysterious proceedings attending the death
and burial of a female child aged nine days, daughter of
Elizabeth and Thomas Brennan, a pedlar living in Nei-
son-street, Runcorn. The child was in good health on
the afternoon of the let lost, was taken ill, and died
that night. The day after its death the patents and a
young man named Patrick Frain, who lodged with them,
bought an old soap box, with the ostensible purpose of
making a rabbit-box. The same night the father went
to the sexton, told him that his daughter bad died, and
requested permission to bury it without nny
The sexton consented on the man promising to bring the
registrar's certificate the next morning. The child was
buried in the old soap-box that night, and the father
having by subterfuge obtained the registrar's certificate
gave it to the sexton. The suspicious circumstances
came to the ears of the chief constable, the body was ex-
humed by order of the coroner, and the appearance of
the mouth, throat, and stomach suggesting the suspi
cion that death bad been caused by sulphuric acid, or
some other deadly poison, the three suspected persons
were taken into custody. An inquest was held,
which after adjournment terminated on Monday.
Elizabeth Reece stated that she nursed the child up
to the 30 h ult., returning it to its mother in perfect
health. On the afternoon of that day, having occasion
to go into Brennan's house, she saw the child struggling
and kicking on its mother's knee, blowing from its
mouth, and apparently scarcely able to breathe. Hearing
on the following day that the child was dead, she went
to inquire, but the mother said the child was asleep.
The mother locked the door of the room in which the
child was said to be sleeping, and, giving the key to a
boy, went out with her husband and Frain. In their
absence the boy unlocked the door, and witness went
into the room and found the child dead, and naked, with
a window-blind thrown across it and a cloth over its
mouth and chin. Dr. Edwards, of Birkenhead, pro-
fessor of chemistry, deposed that he made a post mortem
examination of the stomach, intestines, and soft organs
of the deceased. The ouophagus, or gullet, and upper
portions of the stomach were deeply furrowed by the
action of a corrosive liquid, which had destroyed the
mucous membrane, corroded the tissues, and entirely
di-solved a portion of the qamach. The smaller blood-
vessels were blackened and charred, and in the large
intestines black patches occurred, which, when placed
on test paper, gave strongly acid reaction. He analysed
the contents of the stomach and detected the presence of
sulphuric acid, which was consistent only with the ad-
ministration of the concentrated sulphuric acid known
as oil of vitriol. Mr. 11. Wilson, surgeon, Runcorn,
had made a post mortem examination, and from what
he had seen, and after the result of Dr. Edwards's ana-
lysis, he Wa. satisfied that death had been caused by the
administration of sulphuric acid. From the extensive
destruction of the stomach he imagined that as much as
40 drops had been given. The jury returned a verdict
of Wilful Murder against the three prisoners, who were
committed for trial.

HIGH TIDE AND DAMAGE TO

SJIIPI)ING.

Yesterday morning, at half past one o'clock, it blew a
gale on the river below bridge, and there was a strong
tide running. Four vessels, named the John and Eliza-
beth, Naples packet, Northumberland, and Lavinia and
Mary, lying at Irving and Cooper's coal wharf, Wapping,
broke from their moorings, and did considerable damage.
They drove up the river, breaking adrift, and bringing
with them the barges and platform composing the tun-
nel pier, and a great number of other craft, some laden
with valuable merchandise and some empty, and nearly
the whole of them drove athwart the Aberdeen steam
ship lying off the Thames police-station. There was a
tremendous crash, ai.d the ships and barges were forced
on shore. One of the protection piles at the Thames
PAce causeway was torn down, and a Thames Police
galley swamped and nearly destroyed. Croft of the res.
Sels was sunk, but was subsequently raised and will
have to go into dry dock for extensive repairs. Several
barges laden with valuable cargoes were sunk by the
violence of the collision with the steamer, and a lug-
boat belonging to Mr. C. Hinds, lighterman, of wap.
ping, was totally destroyed, with a cargo of guano valued
at 60 guineas. A man was crushed and killed, and a
boat containing barrels of beer, belonging to Mr. Rice,
disappeared under water, and has not been recovered.
Yesterday was the highest tide along the north shore
of Southampton Water that has been known for many
years. The wind bad been blowing bard for several
hours from the south west. The gardens at Blechynden-
terrace, inside the Dorchester Railway, were inundated,
and considerable damage done. At Redbridge, at the
ton of Southampton Water, the roads became flooded
arid impassable.
AtNurthain, a shipbuilding village on the river Itchin,
about a mile from Southampton, the high tide did con-
siderable damage. The shipbuilding yards,
meadows were oveill,wed. A ship was flostreet, and
floated oil the
stocks, and a man and woman iu a travelling caravan
were nearly drowned. Werktnen were obliged to walk
home up to their middles in water.

An American has taken it into biz head to number hiq
family instead of naming them. The 1.,^7:S he calls One
Stie!:ney, Two Stickney, Tbreo Stieknev, and SO, on.
The fzirls he denominates Firet S!icknev:Sceond Stick-
/,Cy

FT: MEN OF GENIUS AND ORDINARY WOllEN.—There is
an ordinance of nature which men of genius aro per-
petually fretting, but Which does more good than many
laws of the universe which they praise : it is, that ordi-
•
nary Women ordinarily prekr ordinary men. " Genius,"
as Ilazltt, would have said, `‘ puts them out." It is so
strange ; it does not come into the room as usual ; it
says`'such things : once forgot to brush its hair.
The common female mind prefers usual tastes, settled
manners, customary conversation, defined and practical
pursuits. And it is a great good that it should be so.
Nature has no wiser instinct. The average woman can
make happy the average mac.; good_ healtb, easy cheer-
fulness, common charms, sufhco,—National Remy.

The following narrative of a scene in the railway
cars in the State of Georgia, in the United States
of America, is from an eye-witness :
"We left Macon, Georgia, at 5 p.m. of the 28th of
August last, in the train for Augusta, Georgia. The train
was composed of two cars, the first for the mail and lug-
gage, with a few seats for smokers, the last for passengers ;
in this car there were about 25 persons (the narrator being
one), of whom three were women. Of these three one was
an elderly person, travelling alone: she went through to
Augusta, and never stirred or spoke all the way ; of the
other two, who were well-dressed and respectable-looking,
one appeared to be near 30 and the other about 20 years of
age. These two came in together, accompanied by a well-
dressed man, apparently between 25 and 30; he seated
them immediately behind me, and took his seat alongside
of me. From this proximity I could not avoid hearing their
conversation, and before the train left I was made aware of
some anticipated disturbance. There shortly entered
another man of about the same age as the one beside me,
who, after noticing and saying a few words to the two
female companions, paised on and took his seat on the op-
posite side of the car, two benches in advance of the one
I was seated on. He turned the back of the bench, so
that ho faced the two women and their companion. In
so doing he found himself seated face to face with a
tall, muscular, and hard-visaged man of about 50, of a
mien by no means repulsive or disagreeable. It soon became
known to me, by the conversation of the two women, that
the man who had thus passed on and seated himself was-the
person from whom, or with whom, they feared some dis-
turbance. Nothing occurred, however, until some time
after our departure, when the conductor came into the car
to call for the tickets; in so doing he came first to thisman
(or B as I will call him), who, being addressed by the con-
ductor, said to him twice in a loud voice, so that all the
persons in the car might hear him —" Tell those two ladies
opposite that I have their-tickets in my pocket," which
message was delivered aloud by the conductor. The diffi-
culty that existed, and the danger of some disturbance,
now became publicly known, and attracted the attention
of B's vis-a-vis (or C), who questioning B learnt from him,
as did every one in the cars who chose to listen, that he
had a quarrel with the man who had introduced the two
women (or A). Then ho related that he was a Frenchman,
a barber and hairdresser, keeping a shop in Macon, Sce.
From his conversation, and the conversation of the two
women behind me, I gathered that both A and B had been
meeting the younger woman at balls and parties, and had
bean paying attentions to her. The rest is the common
story of flirtation, the consequences of which are :shown
in this narrative to have been terrible. A had been
received and encouraged by the young woman, but had
been supplanted by B, owing, as she confessed to her
companion, to the superior attractions of a bag of gold
B had shown her and promised to spend for their
gratification; so that this pleasure trip, which had
been first proposed by A, was accepted from B, and A
getting to know of it determined to mar it. How he suc-
ceeded will be shown in the sequel. B having explained to
C and to every one in the car the cause of his quarrel with
A, C asked him if he intended to fight A, for, if so, he
ought to send A a challenge. B said this had already been
done, and that A had B's challenge in his pocket, but had not
answered it. A, being then questioned by C, answered that
he refused the challenge because B had chosen swords, a
weapon with which he was wholly unacquainted. He was
ready to fight B, and consented that C should settle the
terms with any other weapon ; then followed a discussion
about weapons, and finally C arranged the affair, so that
they both agreed to fight with guns loaded with ball, and,
having ascertained that there were two guns in the cars, C
proposed that they should fight it out at once, for that he
would get the conductor to stop for them at a con-
venient place. To this proposition neither of them
would listen, and would only agree to fight after their
arrival next morning. Here this matter rested. All
this was carried on in a loud voice. The arrangement of
this duel caused an animated conversation among three or
four groups about duelling and celebrated duels, and no
other conversation was carried on in the car. At length,
attracted by the high tone of voice, I heard one of the dis-
putants, a white headed man :past
.60 at least, but hale
looking, accuse his opponent of ignorance of duelling and
duels, and declare his belief that the other never saw a
duel and would be afraid to face a man. Upon this the
other, a respectable-looking man, of about 45. rose no and
challenged the old man to follow him out of the car. Than
the old man, telling his son, a fine little boy about 6 years
old, to wait till he came back, followed the other into the
smoking car, when, after arranging the preliminaries and
making some written dispositions that occupied a quarter
of an hour or so, the cars were stopped, and, after they
had descended with their witnesses, the cars moved on
again leaving them behind. We learnt on the way —by
telegraph—that the old man was killed. After this inter-
lade C returned to his proposition for the immediate set-
dement of the affair between A and B, and set before
them the proceeding of the two who had gone out as the
proper way to act ; but, being refused, he treated B con-
temptuously and bore so hard upon him that B quarrelled
with him,
.and
,finally challenged him, and his challenge
was immediately taken up by C.

The conversation did not flag for these incidents, but
was continued as loud and animated as ever on the same
subject ; at last another challenge was given in the cars,
but here the challenged refused unless the challenger
could give satisfaction as to his respectability; whereupon
the challenger declared that if the other did not fight he
would whip him whenever he got off the car, and told
him to prepare himself; and ho die .v out a pistol, which
he :paraded about and handed to :all who wished to exa-
mine it, as the one with which ho would shoot the Wig..
Some time afterwards the man challenged got out of the
car; the challenger, who had watched him, and who in
the meantime had got some one to accompany him as
witness of the fight or fray, got out after him. We soon
heard high words, oaths, and imprecations, but no report
of firearms reached us, nor did we receive any intelli-
gence of this encounter. Being again under way C be-
came impatient to have his own duel with B settled, and
insisted on B's finding a second, on pain of being treated
as a coward if ho did not; before this time, and after
his acceptance of B's Challenge, C had been joined by
another man, much younger than himself, and taller and
stouter; it was soon clear that they were intimately con-
nected, for on joining company C asked him if ho had the
pistols, and was answered "Yes." B then consented, and
found a second ; then the cars were stopped, and B and his
second and C and his companion got out. This time the
conductor waited the result of the duel. B was killed ; his
second and the two companions came back and got into the
cars, but whether the body of B was left behind or was put
in the luggage car I do not know. It most likely was put
in there, for B's father was with him. It appeared after-
wards that on coining back to the cars C had offered B's
father a chance of avenging his son's death if he chose, but
the old man accepted his affliction. Immediately on his
arrival in the cars C stood on the platform, and holding
the door of the passenger car open, addressed the passengers
collectively in a set speech, pleading his own justification,
and praising what he called the noble and honourable in-
stitution of duelling, and challenging any one or every one
who said aught against him. Ile then ended by saying, as
for that young woman, the blood that had been shed lay
on her head; that he had never seen her before, did not
know her or care to know her, that her conduct showed
her to be no better than a common strumpet, and that as
such he should denounce her whenever and wherever he
might afterwards meet her, and offered to fight any one
who had some pretensions to respectability who would
take her part and defend her character ; he then retired
into the smoking car, bat not before the young woman had
replied in most violent language, telling him she would not
rest until she found some one to kill him ; she then turned
to B's father (and now for the first time I perceived that
A was no longer in the car, but I could not account for
his absence except as one of the three mixed up with
the second encounter), and, by all manner of entreaties,
persuasions, representations, and even threats of public
sneers, prevailed upon him to take her part, though
he loudly declared to her that it was going to certain
death. He then stepped forward towards the platform
of the car, where C's companion, at his request, had been
constantly hurling out a defiance to this young woman,
and offered himself ; but C, on receiving this offer, sent
his companion back to refuse him, saying that he, the
father, was a coward, for that he had refused satisfaction
when it was offered to him in a better cause ; and that he
riltolpepicuogulopnalynifoonr tbhreeantict oonr-
might live and die a coward.
tinued to hurl C's defiance,
to take a little water to clear his throat of hoarseness ; the
defiance was in the following words : —" Let her bring
another man and he will kill him ;" this was varied by
change of emphasis, and now and then he added, " He
will not murder him ; he'll give him a fair chance." After
the refuse; 1 of C to accept B's father, the young women d
dressed her companion, and tried to pors.uade her to join in
an appeal to the passengers. This address was made so
audibly that it was plainly intended as a direct appeal to
us. Her companion refused, and prayed of her to desist ;
but, as she would not, her companion got out at the next
stopping place to return to Savannah, where she resided,
and left the young woman without saying " Good bye."
After this the young woman begged of B's father to appeal
to us, always so that we might bear her and anticipate a
direct appeal. He persuaded her, however, that the appeal
would come best from herself, and, as she declared that she
did not feel able to express herself, he wrote out an address
and handed it to her. He then brought her forward into
the middle of the car and stood beside her. She lifted up

the paper to read it, but, after two or three ineffectual at-
tempts to articulate, overcome by rage, pride, or shame,
she gave it up and sat down. The defiance was still cried
out, but at longer intervals. Shortly after this we arrived
at a station where there wore refreshments, and nearly all
the passengers got out. Here, before the train started
again, a young man of 25 or under, who all the way from
Macon had been seated in the smoking car, came into the
passenger car, and as he entered he recognised and accosted
the young woman ; and, after being made acquainted by
her with the insult and defiance to her, he at once offered
to take her part, and was joyfully accepted. This young
man's father was also in the Cars. No sooner, then, were
the cars fairly under way then she sent the young man
into the smoking car, and the duel between him and C was
speedily arranged; but as the train was much behind time
the conductor refused to stop, and it was therefore agreed
to fight in the smoking car. They fought with Monte
Christo pistols, or pistols that make no report, for, after a
few moments of breathless silence, nothing was heard but
the young man's death cry. Aboxt this time the little boy,
son of the old man who was first killed, awoke, and the
young woman took him with her into the Private room
that is in the corner of all passenger cars in that country
upon a line, and there she divulged to him the secret of
his father's death, and pointed out C as having killed him.
Being on the seat next the room, with my head against the
wooden partition, I heard enough of her story to know
what she told him. The cries and lamentations of the child
were most distressing, and in the midst of them he kept
calling C the murderer of his father, and aloe of his mother,
who, he said, would die, and declaring that he would de-
nounce him when he got to Augusta, and would tell his
Parents, who, he was sure, would avenge his father's death.
This continued so long that it roused the anger of C; who
sent his companion to undeceive and quiet the boy ; he
went, therefore, to the boy, and endeavoured to explain
to him that C had nothing to do with his father's death,
but that the woman herself was the cause of it. He told
his story fairly, but it did not pacify the child, who either
did not understand him or did not believe him, for he re-
doubled his cries and repeated his threats, whereupon the
man took the boy from the woman, and carried him upon
the platform of the oar, and there he threatened to kill him
if he did not hush and keep quiet. It was thought he did
this to frighten the boy, but the woman, who could see
them from her position, cried out in. a tone of alarm that
the man was in earnest, for the boy would not cease. At
length came a cry from the child of "Save me, save me,'
when a tall middle-aged man, who till this time had
remained still and had not spoken, rose up, and, throw-
ing off his cloak, saying, " I will save the child," stepped
forward to the platform, where, in an impressive tone and
speech, he expostulated with the man and prevailed upon
him to deliver up the boy. He then took the boy and car-
ried him back, and gave him to the woman in the small
room. For a short time there was silence, but soon the
cries and threats of the boy were recommenced, then C's
companion, who had retired into the smoking car, came
out, went into the small room, snatched the boy from the
woman, carried him on to the platform, deliberately mur-
dered him, and threw the body off from the car ; the sud-
den silence of the child, the sound of his body falling
down, had such an effect upon me that, so soon as mymind
could realise the murder as a fact, I became unconscious;
in which state I remained, perhaps, 10 minutes; for when
I returned to a clear perception of things I found the cars
wore stopped, and, on inquiry, I learnt that B's father
and the stranger who had saved the child at first had chal-
lenged and gone out to fight with C and his companion, and
that the conductor had stopped the train for that purpose,
and was waiting the result. C and his companion alone
came back; the other two were killed; but here an inci-
dent occurred; that, no doubt, saved further bloodshed.
As soon as C stepped into the car the conductor started the
train, and it went off so rapidly that his companion, who
was a little way behind, could not catch it, though he was
so near that I could hear his footsteps; when he found he
was being left he ceased running, and called out as loud as

he could to stop ; C also joined in the cry, but, seeing the
conductor paid no attention to these cries, he rushed for

ward with the intention of stopping the engine himself,

but now the conductor and his men interfered, and as he

was climbing over the tender they seized and secured him,

and shut him up in a room. It was now near 3 a.m., of
the 29th, and about half-an•hour afterwards we arrived in

Augusta.

I have thus given as plain a narrative, and as short, as I
possibly can. I know none of the parties by name, nor any
of my fellow-passengers, and this is not surprising, for
family names are seldom used when travellittg in that
uulau try- ageither have I seen any account of affair
in the Georgia papers, so that I am ignorant of what be-
came of C, who was secured, or of his companion who wa •
left behind ; but, if I may judge from the silence of the

papers, I should say they were not brought to justice.
In Augusta I heard a person say that these were not
uncommon incidents, and that scarcely a week passed with-
out some fatal encounter on that, road.