The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-11 00:00:00

Liverpool Cotton Market—This Day.

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Market opens steady. Sales probably 8,000 or
10,000 bales.

" FLINT JACK," THE CHARLATAN FOSSILIST.—
The forgery of coins and the manufacture of spurious
curiosities is as old as the existence of money and a taste
for the collection of antiquities. A curious illustration of
the successful exercise of this description of ingenious
roguery is detailed in the .3falton .Messenger, in which eight
columns are devoted to the " doings" in this line of a
man of the name of Simpson, better known as "Flint
Jack." Born at Whitby, he became a successful and well-
known collector of those lias fossils with which that
locality abounds. In due time he proceeded to make
" snake stones" and other things so successfully as to
deceive practised connoisseurs, mixing occasionally
genuine specimens with his clever counterfeits. The
success of his knavery in this line led him to attempt—
and with much success—most ambitious exploits ; and
from a Roman milestone to an imperial denarius he
tried his hand at deception. His grand sphere of
operation, however, was in the making and vending
as genuine admirable imitations of those " flint im-
plements" of which we have heard so much during the
last few years, and on the discovery of which such impor-
tant ethnological conclusions have been based. In the sale
of these pseudo "relics of pre-historic man," he rambled
over the United Kingdom, pausing wherever he found
flints to renew his stock of "ancient spearheads," in the
making of which ho was singularly expert. This may be
imagined when it is stated that for more than 20 years ho
pursued his dishonest trade; and, moreover, that there is
probably hardly a public museum or private collection in
the kingdom that did not become his dupe. He honoured
Sheffield with his visits more than once, complaining that
in the first instance ho "did no business, having no flints ;"
but afterwards, we are told that "at Sheffield, unlike his
first visit, ho was prepared with specimens, and this time
did' the curator of the museum and several others, pass-
ing all off as genuine." This is certainly not true as applied
to the Museum of the Philosophical Society, nor to the
only gentleman here whom we know as a possosser of flint
implements. But of course a follow who lived by cheating
was not within a lie; but, altogether, the career of this in-
genious charlatan, as described in the paper named, is one
of the most curious in the history of long-continued and
woll-austainedf rand of its class.—Sheffield Daily Telegraph.
Two MEN SUFFOCATED BY SULPHURETTED HY-
sDa Re
nO.
fiG
cEoNo
fA
tTw Bo 01 lvve.
occurred se ri o serious a3ciciddent,lainstvaotivtihnegltchee;
Ice-
land Chemical Works, Bow. Thne deocneaaseyd Am Trowel
and Matthew Clarke, were ordered by theforemandilil to
empty a tank containing sulphate of
ammonin,
e
engaged they were overpowered by the gas ' and
ng u
iTsi w sin
phuretted hydrogen—and perished. It is believedt—heat a
-
third workman was rescued by Trowel, who then,
in at
tempting to save Clarke, was himself overcome, and
fell into
the liquor. Only a month ago Clarke had rescued Trowel
from a tank under almost similar circumstances. No light
test was employed before Clarke went into the tank, The
deceased were accustomed to the work. The jury returned
a verdict, "That the deceased men were accidentally suf-
focated by sulphuretted hydrogen gas," and added that the
foreman was highly censurable for allowing the men to
descend into the tank without having properly tested its
condition.

CASES IN THE DIVORCE COURT.—There are 120
cases in the Divorce Court for hearing next term, com-
mencing to-morrow, of which 84 are to bo tried without
juries. In addition there are 80,pases standing over to be
restored to the list on notice.