The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-10 00:00:00

THAMES.

. .
AN UNGRATEVUL TiLlEF.—Charles Major, aged 19, who
was described as
.having no home, was charged with steal-
ing .£1 in silver and five. rings, the property of John Hillier.
The prosecutor is a greengrocer and fruiteter, of No. 3,
Sidney-street, Commercial-road, and about three weeks ago
the prisoner, who was then in great distress, applied to Mr.
Hillier for employment, and said he was starving. The
prosecutor being. in want of assistance, and his business
taking him out of doors the greater part of the day, he took
the prisoner into his employ, assigned him a. room in his
house, and made him as comfortable as possible, intending,
if he behaved himself, to make him a partner in his business.
On Saturday, the-30th of April, Mrs. Hillier Sent the pri-
soner upstairs to fetch twenty shillings in silver from
a drawer in her: bedroom for the purpose of giving
change. Shortly, afterwards she handed the same amount
of silver to the prisoner,, and told him to put V. back again
in her drawer, and he went up stairs apparently for, that
purpose. At half-past 11 the same morning Mrs. Hillier
sent the prisoner out upon an errand. He did not return,
and, upon going to her drawer, Mrs. Hillier not only missed
the 20s. worth of silver which ought to have been placed
there, but also missed five gold rings, two with. stones, a
keeper, a wedding ring, and a mourning ring. They were
in the same drawer as the money, and nobody had access
to that drawer but the prosecutor and his wife and thc'pri-
soner. Circumstances afterwards transpired which left no
doubt that the prisoner had been robbing his kind bene-
factors of both money and. property. ..

Information of. the prisoner Slight was given to the
police, and yesterday afternoon, Copping, a police-con-
stable, No. 379 K; apprehended the prisoner in Clubb-row,
Bethnal-green. Copping said the prisoner was a thief be-
fore he entered thQ service of Mr. and Mrs. Hillier, and was
formerly in a marine-store shop, which was a nbted recep-
tacle for stolen property. ' .

The rings stolen:NVere valued at three guineas.

The prisoner in 4.efence said he could take a "hoath" he
never took anythink whatsomdever, and nothing was found

upon him.

The prisoner*as'comniitted for trial.

A NEW TEXTILE SUBSTANCE.—Certain German
manufactories have. been. for some time past engaged in
weaving a kind of. vegetable wool which they call forest
wool, and is prepared from the leaves of the pinus sylvestris
or Scotch fir. The process being kept secret by the inventor,
Professor Kittary, of the University of Kasan, prompted
by the reflection-that Russia abounds in fir trees,•and that
consequently such an invention would be highly valuable
in that couutry, has . turned his . attention to the subject,
and after a series of, experiments, succeeded in discovering
a process yielding a substance even superior to that of Ger-
many. It is the epidermis of the leaves which yields the
wool; hence the chief object is to eliminate all the other
parts. For this purpose, the fresh twigs are exposed to the
action of steam in au alembic, by which means a quantity of
essential oil is first obtained. After this operation, the leaves
are easily separated born the twigs ; they are then 'macerated
for the space of hours in about 2.5 times their weight of a
caustic lye marking from five to six degrees Beaume's
aerometer; after_which they are washed, and put into a
cylinder not unlike that which is used in the manufacture
of paper. The metallic blades of this machine, which are
provided with teeth Ake a saw, tear the leaves into shreds
at each extremity of the turning cylinder there is a vertical
sheet of wire-gauze through which the water and pulp of
the leaves escape_ during the rotary motion, the wool re-
maining behind. This operation is repeated in a second
cylinder having a large number of blades with finer teeth:
The wool obtained then.dried in a centrifugal machine
its primitive colour is• a greyish brown, but it may be ;
re-
duced to almost perfect whiteness _by chloride of lime.
le
Boutlerow, who has published this process in the Repertoire.M
de Chimie put e et- appliquee, adds that the essential oil of
the leaves has a peculiarly agreeable smell, differing
derably from that of turpentine, and is most probablyci
a
variety of camphine. (29 equivalents of carbon
nd 16 oi
hydrogen). :By the evaporation. of the alkaline lynea pecu-
liar extract is obtained which has some medicinal•proper-
ties.—Golignanes Messenger.
THE SUSPECTED WIFE POISONING AT NEW-
CASTLE.—The adjourned inquest on the body of Mary
Blakeborough, who,. it will be remembered, died*under
suspicious circumstances, .• at Newcastle, ;on Friday,
week, at the house -of her reputed husband, Richard
Barker, alias Samuel Wilkinson, was resumed on
Friday evening. The result of the post nzortem exami-
nation having been.. an opinion that death could not
be accounted: for by. natural causes,an analysis • of the
contents of the abdomen was being conducted, and
the inquest was fUrther adjourned to Thursday • next.
It appears from the evidence of the father of the deceased,
a farm labourer at Rardsey,.near Wetherby, that the de-
ceased woman formerly. lived in the family of .13r. Chorley,
of Leeds, and accompanied them to Scarborough, where she
met the man who is now in custody. In 18.58 he deserted
from the sth Dragoon, Guards, in which he was a private
soldier, and afterwards lived with the deceased at Woolwich
and Edinburgh. He appears to have enlisted in the Royal
Artillery, but to have again deserted. The couple after-
wards resided at Newcastle,—.3fanchester Guardian.