The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-08 00:00:00

THE CHRISTY MINSTRELS IN COURT.

In the Court of Exchequer, on Tuesday, an action wa'
beard which created considerable interest. The action was
brought by Mr. Hunt, a photographer, carrying on business in
Piccadilly, against Mr. Frederick Burgess, the manager of
the C. C. C. Minstrels, to recover damages for assault and
slander. Mr. Bipton, in opening the case, said the plaintifi
was employed by the various members of the C. C. C.
Company to photograph them in the different characters
they assumed. About the 6th of October he
had taken a photograph of the daughter of Mr. Moore,
one of the Company, in what was called the Grecian Bend.
Mr. Hunt had, ever since th?, C. C. C's had carried on
their performances at St. James's Hall, enjoyed the
privilege of what was called a " face admis-
sion," which admitted him whenever he pre-
sented himself. On the 6th of October he
went to the ball as usual, and entered into conversation
with Mr. Moore about his daughter's photograph when the
check-taker came up and said he had been ordered not to
let him in. Mr. Burgess came up just after, and
called him a thief and a loafer, and said he
had robbed him of 3s. (the amount of entrance
money), and this was the slander complained of. He re-
monstrated with Mr. Burgess, who spat upon him, and
threw his arms round his (Mr. Hunt's) neck.

The plaintiff was called, and described the assault as
detailed by the learned counsel, adding that the defendant
throttled him until he became black in the face. In con-
sequence of the injury done to his throat and the shock to his
system ,he was obliged to obtain medical advice, and had been
incapacitated from work almost ever since. He estitnated
11i3 loss at about L'4o. His takings were about £5 per week.
The defendant pleaded that he only used the necessary
force to exclude the plaintiff from the hall ; which he had
no right to enter except upon payment. The jury found
for the plaintiff—Damages, one farthing.

SUSPE2YSION OF THE ERIE RAILWAY

31ANAGERS,

An important step has been taken in the long-pending
Erie Railway litigation. An order has been issued sus-
pending Gould, Fisk, Lane, and their associates from
taking any part in the business or management of the
line. This vigorous and somewhat unlooked-for measure
has been carried out by the transfer of the scene of action
from New York to Delaware county. The creditors,
stockholders, and others have long been endeavouring to
force the managers to give some account of their pro-
ceedings, but, thanks to the audacity of the offenders and
the secret and indirect influence exercised over the judges,
courts, and councillors of Now York, they had no
chance of success. The application which has procured
the order was made to Judge Murray, Delaware County
Senator James Ramsay being the plaintiff. The complaint
covers ninety pages, and the main allegations are that
Mr. Lane forced himself into the Board of Directors
by purchase of proxies ; that ho and Mr.
Eldridge who desired to change the management
of the company for purposes of speculation found " one
Joy Gould," and "one James Fisk," and took them into
their secrets ; that the four conspired together to obtain
control of the election of directors, and procured tha
election of themselves and some allies, the old directors being
1 ef t out; that Drew became treasurer, and Eldridge and Gould
got into the Executive Committee. The bye laws of the com-
Fany, according to this complaint, have been systematically
ignored, by uniting the offices of President and Treasurer
in Gould, and uniting the duties of auditor and commit-
tee on accounts in Fisk ; rendering the vice-presi-
dent's po,,ition nominal; omitting reports from Trea-
surer and auditor; usurping the powers of Execu-
tive Committee and directors; creating a floating
debt of five million dollars ; keeping directors and
stockholders in ignorance of the condition of the company,
and by unauthorised issues of bonds and stock. Gould
and Fisk are also charged with secretly issuing five millions
of stock in spite of a prohibitory injunction, and selling it
for four millions, $375,000 of which they never paid
the company. It is charged that the outstanding com-
mon stock of the company has been increased since Gould
and Fisk obtained full power, from $34,265,000 to~ the
enormous sum of $70,0)0,000, and that this startling in-
crease has not been attended with any material additions
to the earnings, any material extension of the line, or
the payment of a dollar of dividend. The applicant
therefore prayed the court to suspend the functions of the
defendants, and to protect what property was left. The
motion was granted, and an order issued which is precise
in stopping all operations of Gould and Co. in issuing or
selling stock, or in any way interfering with the books or
the business of the company.

Mn. IL W. BEECIIER.—We do not know, says an
evening contemporary, whether Mr. Henry Ward Beecher
was in the vicinity of the Blarney Stone when in this
country. Effects similar to those said to be produced by
kissing it have, particularly since the late Democratic
triumph in New York, been observable occasionally in his
discourses, in one of which he lately said :—" The Irish
tongue was made for eloquence. It rolls as easily along as
a rollicking brook through a meadow of flowers. It hums
as sweetly as a whole hive of bees, each ono with his thighs
laden with honey."

UNEXPECTEDLY Mann'ED.—The result of a recent
trial in the Supreme Court of New York seems to have
caused some surprise, though agreeable rather than other-
wise, on the other side of the Atlantic. The action was
brought by the guardian of Beatrice Bissell, an infant (in
law), against John B. Bissell for "a limited divorce on the
ground of abandonment." The defendant appears to be
one of those impetuous men who despise the old ways of
the world simply because they are old; and it occurred to
him that he could marry himself after an improved fashion
of his own. One day he took his " lady love," quite a girl,
out for a drive in Central Park, and while there he ven-
tured to inform her that " they might be married without
any ceremony as safely as if three clergymen performed
the service." He then slipped a ring on the young lady's
finger, saying, "This is your wedding ring; we are mar-
ried." They drove back to a boarding house, where they
lived for some months as man and wife, and then, in pros-
pect of future liabilities, the defendant deserted his too
confiding partner. Judge Barnard ruled, on the facts
that the marriage was a valid ono by the laws of the State.
All that is requisite," he observed, "is that the parties
should be capable of contracting, and that they should
actually contract to be man and wife."

THE WONDERS OF ELECTRICITY.—At the last
sitting of the Academy of Sciences a paper was received
from Dr. Scoutetten on a curious effect of electricity. The
house of a vine-grower at Digne (Basses-Alpes) was struck
by lightning a few months ago. Tho fluid penetrated into
the cellar and broke several casks, the wine of which flowed
into a small vat which was purposely sunk into the floor
to receive any liquid spilt by accident. The proprietor,
thinking his wine was spoilt, at first sold it at the rate
of ten centimes a litre ; but on tasting it some time after,
:ound it excellent, :.nd sold it at sixty centimes.
Struck with the curiosity of the occurrence, he asked Dr.
'=coutetten whether he could explain it, and was told that
could only to the result of electricity, a proposition
sl.ould Lo tested by direct experiment. This was
dune, and succeeded to such an extent that absolutely bad
qualities were transformed into valuable thinks. It so hap-
pened that a cask of inferior Moselle was subjected to the pro-
cess for a month and then forgotten. One day, however, the
cellarman was ordered to put it in bottles, being at the
same time informed that it was of indifferent quality.
The man, having tasted it, found it on the contrary so
;ttperior in flavour that, suspecting a mistake, he went and
told his cm:)loyer, who found his wine transformed into
an c---;zellent rancia. To perform the operation the wires
cf the vc.ltaie pile should be tipped with platinum, to
Ivhich must be attached electrodes of the same metal,
which both dip into the liauid to be improved.—
. ,
Galignani.