The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-25 00:00:00

DISTRESSING CASE.

About two months ago a poor Irishman, named
Bernard Connor, left his native village, near Elphin,
county Roscommon, with his wife and four children,
for the purpose of procuring employment at t4Scotch
harvest. They came by Donaghadee to Portpatrick,
and travelled by short stages to Strathavon, when the
wife, burdened with a delicate infant at her breast,
becoming unable to go on, except at a very slow
rate, it was agreed that the husband should push
forward to East Lothian in the hope of obtaining
immediate employment. The farm of Setonhill, in
the parish of Gladsmuir, was appointed as a rendezvous ;
and thither the poor woman, with her helpless family,
dodged on in the hope of finding her husband, and
obtaining from him such assistance as his means
could afford. On arriving at Setonhill, however, the
husband was not to be found; and as she had heard
of his intention to go to England, she wandered after
him till, when within a short distance of the English
border, she learned from an acquaintance whom she
accidentally met, that her husband was then at work
at Ballincrief, within three miles of Setonhill.
Thither she retraced her step-, and arrived at Bailin-
crieff just as he had been laid off work by an illness
which was believed to be fever. In the fear of that
grievous malady, no one would give him lodgings ; and
after a few days' delay, the whole family setoff to Had-
dington, a distance of not more than four miles. 'With
great difficuty, and assisted by his wife and
their eldest boy, he got to Haddington, where, on
waiting on a medical gentleman, he was told his com-
plaint, though not fever, was a fatal one ; and was
recommended to get home as fast as he could, as there
was no chance he would ever recover. The poor
family turned their faces westward, and after a weary
day got only a mile out of Haddington, and next
night no farther than Spittalrig, about three miles
from the former town, when, in utter exhaustion,
he lay down in an open shed, where he remained
from Monday till Thursday last, when Mr. Brash,
farmer at Spittalrig, kindly dispatched a cart with him
to Edinburgh, in the hope of setting him placed in
the Royal Infirmary. The fatigue of the journey,
however, was too much for him, and he breathed his
last just as the cart entered the Water Gate. The
body was brought to the Police-office, and the widow
and children were accommodated in the Night
Asylum. She was pointed out to the writer of
this on Friday, seated on a heap of stones at the
door of the police dead-house, rocking herself to and
fro after the manner of her countrywomen, with
her three clildren clinging about her—the whole
group in an agony of grief too deep and too bitter to
admit of comfort. Ever and anon she started from
her cold seat, and looked earnestly and anxiously
through the darkened window of the apartment where
her dead husband lay, in the vain hope of obtaining
another look at him ; and, after many tears, was pre-
vailed on to take a temporary shelter in the adjoining
night refuge. She and her children are in extreme,
nakedness, and in a state of the most utter helpless-
ness and misery, and is is hoped this notice will at-
tract the sympathy of some humane persons willing
to contribute a trifle to relieve the family front utter
destitution.—Caledonian Mercury.

THE WEATHER AND CROPS.—The weather was
fine till the afternoon of Friday last, when a drizzly rain
set in, which, with short intervals, continued till the
evening of Sunday. The Tay and Almond came down
in fuller stream than at any time since the spring ; and
as the rain has been quite general, it will prove very
seasonable to the country millers. Harvest operations
were of course stopped ; but, although Monday was a
remarkably fine day, Tuesday lowered with occasional
slight showers. Farmers will now require to be on the
alert ; as, although not much to cut, there is calculated
to be nearly half the crop still in the field, much of
which, it is alleged, might have been secured.
The first favourable accounts of the new crop
are confirmed by each succeeding week. Oats
are mealing well ; eighteen to twenty pecks to the boll.
Barley will average about 521bs. to the bushel ; this crop
is very unequal, some parcels so low as 4714, and others
up to 551bs. the bushel. The public here are not reaping
the benefit of the low markets, most bakers still con-
suming the foreign wheat, which was imported during
the summer at a considerably higher figure than the
present rates in the home market.—Perth Courier.
CLEVER CASE or SWINDLIIIG.—A respectable citi-
zen, in the oil and colour trade, was waited on last Thurs-
day, by an Englishman of venerable and genteel appear-
ance, who represented himself to be from the house of
Messrs. Macintosh and Co., of London, the eminent
waterproof manufacturers; and stated that he had a com-
mission to dispose of for the sale of a liquid capable of
rendering cloth of all kinds waterproof ! Having de-
scribed the articles, and mentioned the conditions
upon which the house was willing to deal with an
agent, he offered the gentleman the commission, and
furnished him with a printed note of the terms, which
were to the effect that Messrs. Macintosh and Co.
would allow one shilling of commission upon every
bottle sold. The gentleman thinking the agency not out
of the way, and satisfied with the respectability of the
house named, at once accepted the agency, which was
forthwith to be advertised in the principal Scottish news-
papers. On being requested, moreover, he rashly ad-
vanced a sum of money to the stranger to account for
future transactions, there being left with him an ample
specimen of the marvellous liquid. Soon after the Eng-
lishman had retired, the newly-appointed agent pro-
ceeded to test the virtue of the liquid, when, to his
amazement, he found it to contain nothing better than
coloured water, and himself to be minus the sum ad-
vanced the promised advertisements have
na3.et
a;popfearcoeudr,se,
while the clever swindler has, as might
have been expected, effectually disappeared.--Glasgow
Argus.
A few days since a cow belonging to a farmer at
Eyssartie, in the Correze, died of hydrophobia. 'rho
animal had been bitten by a mad dog four months pre-
viously, but showed no symptoms of hydrophobia until
within four days of its death. Three days after the
death of the cow its calf also died of the same disease,
although it had not been allowed to suck its mother's
milk from the moment the malady had made its appear-
tinceo—Frenclt paper,