The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-04 00:00:00

ELOPEMENT AND ROBBERY.

A case was heard on Saturday before the Mayor
of Swansea, Mr. T. E. Thomas, and a full bench of
magistrates of that borough, which excited a very
unusual amount of interest. Elizabeth Thomas, a
respectably-dressed and good-looking female who
is the wife of Mr. D. Thomas, landlord of the Jersey
Arms Tavern, Orange-street, in that town, was
charged, in conjunction with Chas. Holloday, a pho-
tographic artist and concert singer, with having
stolen between £3O and £4O in gold and silver, a
a gold watch and guard-chain, gold Geneva watch
and chain, silver hunting watch, several silver
spoons, articles of jewellery, &c., the property of
the husband of the first-named prisoner, and they
werefurther charged with having forged and uttered
a certain order, purporting to be an order of the
said Daniel Thomas, whereby they had defrauded the
trustees of the Swansea Savings Bank of the sum
of £9O. It appeared from the evidence that Mr.
Thomas and his wife had been married for nine
years, and that nothing had occurred to mar their
domestic happiness until about Midsummer last,
when the male prisoner came to the town, having
been engaged to sing at a series of concerts given
at Mr. Buskins Music-hall. In some way he be-
came introduced to Mrs. Thomas, whose affections
he succeeded in estranging from her husband. It
happened that Holloday had some knowledge of
the - photographic art, and in order that he might
not have to leave the town he set up as a photo-
grapher, visiting Mrs. Thomas frequently, and re-
ceiving clandestine visits from her at his rooms.
In the early part of October they both absconded
from Swansea, and it was then found that the arti-
cles enumerated, together with several boxes of bed
linen, clothing, and a variety of other articles, had
been carried off by them from Mr. Thomas's house,
and that, moreover, they had presented two orders
professing to be signed by the husband, Daniel
Thomas, on the faith of which Mrs. Thomas was
paid two sums of £6O and £29 14s. Upon receiv-
ing intelligence of the flight of the guilty parties,
Mr. Superintendent Dunn, of the police force, in-
stituted inquiries ; and in consequence of informa-
tion he had been able to collect, he in the course of
last week went to London and put himself in com-
munication with Police-sergeant Lockyer, of the
Metropolitan Detective Force. In the course of their
investigation they were induced to go to Mrs.
King's coffee-house, Seymour-street, Euston-square,
where they succeeded in apprehending the male
prisoner, who almost immediately upon seeing the
Swansea superintendent said " I know very well
what you are come for," and immediately produced
to him a purse containing £l5 10s. in gold and Bs.
in silver.. The officers told him they must search
him, and Mr. Superintendent Dunn was about
to do so when he produced a silver pencil-case
and some other articles. In his pocket was found
the silver hunting watch which had been stolen
from the house, and a gold chain, to which was at-
tached a sovereign, gold seal, gold key, and gold
snap. At the request of the officers he agreed to
take them 'to where Mrs. Thomas was, and he then
conducted them to Gotha Cottage, Coburg-place,
Old Kent-road, telling them as he prOceeded with
them that 'Mrs. Thomas had given him all the things
which were found in his possession, and had bought
the gold chain for him whilst he was in Swansea, of
a jeweller named Kerry, carrying on business in
High-street in that town. On reaching the cottage
already named the constables went up to Mrs.
Thomas's bedroom, where seeing them she said,
" Ah ! I know what you are come for. I have been
expecting you." In the room they found the bed
linen, &c., and Mrs. Thomas handed them a gold
watch and chain. The prisoners were then taken by
rail to Swansea, and while on the road the man
Holloday said, " I'll make a clean breast of it. I
did get a man to sign the order to get the money
from the bank. I wish I had told you this last night,
for where you got the black box from is a purse
containing 50 guineas." In consequence of this
communication, the superintendent, after he had
deposited the wife at the Swansea lock-up, returned
to London with Holloday, and went with him to 3,
Cirencester-place, Marylebone. They saw a person
named Smith, to whom Holloday said, " This is the
superintendent of police from Swansea. lam come
to get the purse I left with you." Smith then
~ handed
them a purse with 50 sovereigns, and said, I used
the £2 10s. as you told me;" to which Holloday said
" Yes, it's all right." To support the charge of forgery,
Mr. J. W. Jones, actuary of the bank, produced the
forged orders, and identified Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas
as the person- to whom he made the payments of £6O
and £29 14s, and a man named John Brown, alias
Curtis, who was a singer at Buskin's Concert-hall,
clearly proved the complicity of the man Holloday.
He stated that the signatures both of Elizabeth
Thomas and Daniel Thomas were made by him at
the request of the male prisoner, who, having
induced him to stay with him at his lodgings,
asked him to write them on the order, stating
that he did not want to do it himself for a reason,
The magistrates considered that as one of the etocu-
ments was not completed the charge (It forgery
could not be sustained, but ultimatcly they corn.,
mitted both prisonera for trial,

CONSUMPTION 'NOV./UTILE ? Invalids labouring
under Consumptive Maladies, and families who have
.suflered from the ravages of Consumptio, (and what
family in the empire is there who has not to deplore a
loss caused by this scourge of the human race ?) will find
a satisfactory answer to the question, " Is Consumption In-
surable," in an original article by Dr. DENIM CRONIN,
31. D., 3.5, Bruton-street, Berkeley-square, W. Published in
the" Household Physician," in numbers, one penny each
by G. Berger, 19, Holywell-street, Strand. From Ito 9 now
ready,

!ALLEGED BRUTAL 111URD-ER ON THE

HIGH SEAS.

On Monday, at the Hull—Police-court, .William
Lorensen, a seaman, 18 years of age, attended be-
fore the stipendiary magistrate, Mr. Travis, and
made the following deposition upon oath :—" I am
a seaman on board the Dutch schooner Maria. She
arrived in Hull three or four weeks:ago, from Mar-
seilles. She sailed from that port to Hull ; she
sailed from Malta to Trieste, and thence to
Marseilles. They had on board one able seaman,
two ordinary seamen, the cook) the mate, and
master. The cook's name was Fritz Lausman,
and he was shipped at Hamburgh. His age was
16, and he had never been to sea before, and the
day after he left Hamburg he was sent aloft to furl
one of the sails. He was very much frightened,
and only partly did the work. When he came
down on the deckithe captain:and the :mate beat the
lad. On that occasion he got ten lashes with a
rope's
.end. Whenever Lausman could not work
he was beaten, and the captain and mate had a
violent hatred against him after the first beating.
He was beaten a day or two after the first time
because he could not remember the names of the
different ropes. On that occasion he got 20 lashes
with a cane. He called out terribly, and there were
marks all over him. The captain and mate beat
him many times afterwards. On the last day he
was beaten he got 80 lashes, but the captain
threatened to give him 160 lashes. The day before
he died he was not beaten ; but they tied his head
between his legs. Then they put a piece of wood
behind his neck, and another behind his knees,
then tied both pieces of wood together, having first
made the deceased bend double. In this
state they threw him about the deck, and
the mate threw chains upon him. On ton or
twelve different days he was treated in this way,
sometimes twice a day, remaining so tied for half
an hour, and sometimes for an hour. The captain
also made him drink urine ; but this the witness
did not see. The captain hungered the deceased.
When he was tied up, and the chains were upon
him, he cried out that he could not breathe, and
could endure it no longer. The day before
he died the chains were upon him for half an
hour—from the time he was tied up to the time
he was liberated. He was tied up at half-
past five, and at midnight he was ordered to
go to the pump. When he got hold of the pump
he fell down and never spoke again. He died
about ten o'clock the next morning: That was on
the 13th of August, and the vessel was off a small
island belonging to Sicily. In the evening, when
the sun went down, deceased was thrown over-
board in his sleeping clothes. There were marks all
aver the body, except the chest. There were also
many small holes and wounds. The body was
coloured red and blue. About four weeks before
deceased died on one day he got first ten lashes,
then twenty, then forty, and then eighty. The
face of deceased was so swollen with blows that he
could not be recognised. Sometimes he had to take
off his clothes and receive lashes on the bare skin."
The Danish consul and the collector of customs at
Hull were corresponded with by the magistrate,
and the case is to be further inquired into.