The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-25 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, HOLBORN.

Tiffs EVENING, at 7, WAIT FOR AN ANSWER. After which,
PLAIN ENGLISH : Mr. Barry Sullivan, Mrs. Hermann Vezin,
&c. And THE WATER VAN.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress. Mrs. Swanboroneh.

THIS EVENING. at 7.30, AMONG TETE BREAKERS:
Clarke. THE TOODLES. And THE PILGRIM OF LOVE
Messrs. E. Temp, Bruce, fio ; Mesdames Richardson, Newton,
y6shroolze,

ROYAL AL HAM RA PALACE. THREE BALLETS
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. le. Box-office
o pen from 11 to 4.

CHRISTY MINSTRELS, St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ZOOLOGICAL &RDENS, Regent's-patk, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, is.; on Mondays, 6d. Children
under twelve. 61

itg

LONDON, SA7URDAY, SEPT. 25, 1869.

With the electric telegraph, with photography,
with the railway locomotive, with the übiquitous de-
tective system—that wonderful network of espionage
meshed all over France like an invisible cobweb of
nerves—it was hopeless for the two men suspected
of being the murderers of that poor mother and her
five children at Pantin to dream of escaping. It was
not surprising, therefore, though it was unquestion-
ably an immense relief, when the telegram arrived
yesterday afternoon announcing their capture at
Havre, evidently upon the eve of their depar-
ture from the shores of France. A desperate
attempt at suicide by drowning on the
part of the younger of the two prisoners
served to corroborate the statement that JEAN
KINCE had to do in some way with the stupendous
crime, the perpetation of which is imputed to him-
self and his father, and just possibly sowe as yet un-
discovered accomplice or accomplices. That these
two most miserable men are said to have acoom-

plices yet at large is a very general impression
among the French authorities. Possibly it is an
impression arising from a sense of the enor-
mous task which must, otherwise, have de-
volved upon the two men already in custody—
a task the commencement and completion of which,
in an incredibly short space of time, must have been
accomplished. The shovel and pickaxe were bought
by the younger prisoner at six o'clock on Sunday
evening. After nightfall the victims arrived in the
neighbourhocd of the place of their slaughter and
burial. The grave, or rather trench, in which they
were interred must, as we suggested yesterday, have
been dug before they were assassinated. Yet the deed

of blood was done, an] the six corps s hidden away in

the earth in sufficient time to enable JEAN KINCK to
proceed from Pantin to Paris, there to get rid of his
blood-stained and miry clothes in his apartment at

the Hotel du Chemin deter du Nord. The brutality
of the murder of these six helpless creatures—two
women and four boys, the two youngest of the boys
mere children—is complete in every particular, is an
atrocity of its kind altogether unparalleled. The
butchery took place in the darkness of the night, and
in the destruction of the half-dozen victims upwards
of one hundred (107) cowl, many of them appal-
lirg, wounds, were administered. Razor, knife,
and hatchet appear to have been used with a sort
of ferocious desperation by two, or possibly by three
or four, banded mur.lerers. Thu discovery of the
two prisoners—JosErit KINCR, husband and father
of the victims, 7e,-,z IC !WISC_ his eliest soa by a
form or m rri age—the capture of these two at

Haire tallies with the notion that had got abroad
as to the intention of the family to emigrate to Ame-
rica. Fortunately, the mangled remains of the
murdered mother and her five children were dragged
to the light of day with astounding rapidity,
after they had been apparently hidden away effec-
tually from the hazard of a discovery. But
for this, the inhuman husband and father, together
with that ferocious stepson and half-brother, who
scems to have been the principal actor throughout
in this ghastly drama, might both of them hays
escaped across the ocean More the blood-hounds
could have been put upon their track.

The particulars now obtained in regard to the
murdered victims enhance the general sense of the
atrocity of their destruction. They are all younger
than was at first imaginel. The mother, Madame
KINCE, of No. 22, Rue de Alouette, at Roubaix, was
ten years younger, for example, than was at first
reported, being 35 years of age only, and a fine,well-
looking woman in appearance. The five children,
again, consisted of two girls and three boys—
namely, E3IILE sixteen, HENRI fourteen, ALFRED

eight, ACIIILLE six, and MARIE three.

They

appear to have left their hoine at Roubaix
only on the morning of the very day (last Sunday,
the 19th inst.), before the close of which they were
barbarously murdered. The family is Alsatian. The
eldest son by the former marriage, the young man
going by the name of JEAN KINCK proves to be
really named G USTAVE— his father being JEAN KINGS,
by trade a turner of brush-handles. The suspicions
excited against these two appear at present to be
very damnatory.

THE American papers supply full details of the
terrible accident at the Avondale coal mines. The
worst • part of the affair is that on all sides the
event is attributed to carelessness or mismanage-
ment. The writers are strong in their denunciation
of the owners of the mine, and go so far as to say
that it is a mockery of justice to term the disaster an
accident. The mine was encumbered with wooden
fixtures, it had but one opening, and down at the
bottom of the shaft glowed a hazardous furnace used
for rarefying the air, and thereby ventilating the
mine. The designers thus secured the simplest
and cheapest method of ventilation, but they
also rendered the mine most dangerous. The shaft
was divided into two compartments by an immense
cribbing of wood and it required but a spark, or a moment
of inattention for the heated timber to catch
fire, and for the flames to rush along it up the shaft.
This is, in fact, what actually occurred ; and though
it will never be known exactly how the fire origi-
nated, it was evidently due to the faulty construction
of the mine. Had there been an air-hole distinct
from the shaft, this sad accident could not have taken
place ; for if the main shaft had become inaccessible,
the miners would have had a second avenue of
escape. The immense wooden structure called the
breaker was built up to the edge of the mouth of the
shaft ; in burning it filled it with debris, and thus
made the death of the men below certain. A
distinct air-hole would not have been under this
breaker; and thus it may be seen how the disaster
could have been averted. Perhaps the severest
censure that can be passed upon the owners of the
mine is to record the opinion that eight or ten thousand
dollars expended at the right time would have pre-
vented all the misery that has ensued. It is not sur-
prising to learn that the terrible calamity at Avondale
has stirred up the deepest indignation against the
owners of all mines which have single shafts only.
It is worthy of notice that the proprietors of the
Avondale mine, are by no means alone in their cul-
pability and the American journals are wisely pointing
a moral to this painful story, They call attention