The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-28 00:00:00

A ROMAXCE.A_YD A TILIGEDY.

The Memphis Avalanche of the Eth inst. says : "At
some distance from Grand Gulf reside two respectable
families, those of Cushing and Andrews. Miss Andrews
was a lovely girl of 17, well accomplished, and 9f un-
usually fascinating manners. Mr. Cushing's son, a youth
of 20, had been attached to her from their early childhood,
and as he grew older his affection became an ardent
absorbing passion. A short time ago he made a formal
offer of his hand, when, to his intense disappointment and
mortification, his offer was firmly though courteously
refused. He brooded over his ill-rewarded passion ane
became a prey to jealousy, and at length left the
neighbourhood, vowing madly that he would come back
and take his revenge. On Sunday last he returned, and
riding up to Mr. Andrews's house he begged to see Miss
Andrews at the doer without alighting.
,She came out,
when lie suddenly produced a pistol, fired, shooting her
through the body, and she fell on her face and died
without a struggle. The murderer rode frantically away,
but Miss Andrews's brother, breathing fury toward the
murderer of his sister, sprang on a horse and followed.
He came up with Cushing as the latter was crossing a
creek and fired at him. Cushing jumped from his horse,
and took shelter in the bush. Andrews did the same.
A parley ensued, and theiwo yottng men agreed to fight
according to the code—to leave the cover, fire, advance,
and fire, and again advance, firing until one of them should
fall. At the first fire Gushing received a mortal wound in
the left shoulder, but the men continued to near each
other and fire until their revolvers were empty. When
assistance arrived Cushing lay dead, with four bullets in
his body. Andrews had received three shots in his breast.
Ile was able to tell how the fight had taken place, v:Len
Le also expired."

BENJAMIN HIGGS AND THE GREAT
CENTRAL GAS CO.IIPA NY.

In anticipation of the forthcoming meeting of share-
holders, the directors of the Great Central Gas Consumers'
Company have prepared a report, which, so far as it
relates to their absconding clerk, Benjamin Higgs, and
his misdeeds, bas considerable interest. The result of a
thorough investigation, they say, is that the large sum
of £71,214 odd has been stolen. That this could have been
effected is astounding to them. At their weekly meet-
ings the directors had the banker's pass-book and the
company's cash-book produced and carefully called over,
to see that all moneys paid to the company bad been
duly passed to their account at the bank. They had also
produced to them a weekly statement of the rental due,
with
.the sum collected and the amount of arrears, and
the collectors were constantly called before the board.
and examined as to their collections and the reasons of
accounts being in arrear. But it is now ascertained that
the cash-book was falsely made up ; that the system of
check, as described by the auditors, was not carried out
in the office ; that the collectors had from time to time
paid their money into the office instead of to the bankers ;
that the accountant the superior of Higgs whose
duty it was to check the payments into the cash-book
from the actual receipts, had contented himself with
copying the banker's book, in which a portion only of the
receipts of Higgs appeared, thus rendering the labours of
the directors futile. Higgs had obtained entire supervision
of the office, and being an able accountant and constant at
his work, from nine o'clock in the morning frequentlyuntil
late in the evening, had been allowed to control and con-
duct the whole business of the outer office. He had been in
the company's employment seventeen years, and had served
his articles with Mr. Jackson, an accountant in Guildhall-
buildings, coming to the company with the highest cha-
racter, " which he had apparently deserved up to the time
of his absconding." Ills salary was originally £lOO a
year, but was afterwards increased to its present amount.
21-15. The directors did not know, nor had they the
slightest suspicion that he was living otherwise than as
befitted his position, and the accounts they had since
received of his wicked extravagance had come upon them
with the utmost surprise. The fact of his absconding was
first notified to the chairman by the secretary on Sunday,
the ith of March, and it was then supposed that he had
appropriated a small sum received by him for gas pro-
ducts. The accounts were then thoroughly investigated
with the deplorable result stated in the report of the audi-
tors, and the directors regret to add that, notwithstand-
ing the efforts of the ablest detective officers, Higgs is
still at large, but every exertion is being made to bring
him to justice. The directors say, however, they are glad
to be able to point to the solid prosperity of the company,
and they propose in order to meet the defalcations, to
appropriate £lO,OOO a year out of money available for
dividend.

The report of the auditors (Mr. G. C. Begbie and Mr.
Henry Chatteris), which is appended, states that, in ac-
cordance with the instructions of the board, they had inves-
tigated the books and accounts with a view to ascertain the
amount of Higgs's defalcations, as well as the time when
the frauds commenced and the method by which they were
effected. The frauds, according to the auditors, appeared
to have been committed in three differents ways--namely,
by abstracting money brought to the office by collectors,
by abstracting part of the receipts for gas products, and by
applying to his own use checks given to him by the secretary
to pay to creditors of the company. Instead of complying
with the rule to pay all their receipts to the bankers, the
collectors appeared in very numerous instances to have
left both the money and lists at the company's office, and
thus Higgs, having got possession of both, was enabled
to, and did, appropriate to himself, in some instance;
the whole, and, in others, part of the amounts of such
lists. The auditors state that they are unable to suggest
any improvement in the system of the company's accounts,
and that the frauds could not by possibility have been
committed had the very excellent rule of paying all money
direct into the bank been strictly adhered to. If the
company's accountant bad received the original lists from
the collectors, and compared them with the rental or the
banker's pass-book, the frauds must have been at once dis-
covered. The debit side of the cash-book was merely a
transcript from the pass-book, and the object cf the weekly
examination of those books at each board was thus com-
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loss.
•

CRIME IN BIRMINGUAM.—The local papers corn-
' plain that crime in Birmingham is certainly and steadily
rising. Last week, for example, the daily average number
of prisoners in the gaol was 482, as compared with 369 in
the corresponding week of. 1868—an increase of 113, or
more than 33 per cent. The number of cells in the gaol
is only 467, so that it is no longer possible to maintain the
separate system in its integrity. The i
observe, extends to both sexes, and to
adult and juvenile
we
prisoners.
A STORY FROM AmtiticA.—The facility with
which the marriage tie_may be dissolved in some parts of
the United States is illustrated in the story of an Ohio woman, as related by the Cleveland Hevald, March 26.
This woman's married life began in 1861, when her husband
enlisted in the Union army and was killed at Bull's Run..
Within a week she married another man, who was killed
shortly afterwards in a street brawl. As she returned
home from the funeral, innel admir:rg her good fortune,
No. 3 proposed to her, and the next day they were married.
She did not like this one, and as he seemed to be rather
tardy in following the example of his predecessors, she
sued for a divorce and gained i';. A few months
passed and she married again, but once more
the courts were invelzed to dksolve the tie. Thie
brings the romance of love . down to May, lB7,
when No-5 married the experienced wife, but after two
months. slise disposed of him with the :I'd of the friendly
, Divorce COurt. She remarried, was aga:n divOrced, and
iin February 1838 iear.ied No. 7. This union lasted a
iyear; when the persev.ering wife aepiied for anetbei
divorce, " and she is now anxiously waiting for No. 8."
-Ai
better client than this no lauyer practising in the Divore,
Courts could desire. Her daughter by adoption is said to
be likely to eclipse the reputation of the mother. In 18;
she married a brother of her mother's husband, " thus,"
as the Cleveland paper truly says, "mixing up the relation
question fearfully.' But she was capricious in her tastes,
obtained a divorce, and married her second husband on
the day her mother married No. 7. By the last accounts
she had just been left a "grass widow" at the age of
seventeen. This interestiii.a family would be a credit.
mu taLClticago. • • -
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