The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-09-07 00:00:00

EXTRAORDIXARY FRAUD IN
—The Postmaster-General

to a considerable extent had
some official connected with the postof
John Ramsey, the I
sent down to Il
way any j detecting the guilty part

swich, on Monday last, for the I
Oa arriving at Ii

pad to make

PrOurc

o'clock on Tuesds

who was directed to h

She-lcirake t

by all respectable chemists, perfumers, and stationers

upon them by the clerk in the office. Mr. Ramsey also
gave the man 2s. 6d. marked, with instructions to
pay the postage out of that. Morphew accordingly deli-
vered the packets at the office to a clerk named Frederick
Jos. Sheldrake, who, having weighed them, demanded
ls. Bd. for the stamps required to be put upon them.
_ll
sum demanded was accordingly paid t

phew with the marked money, there being no other per-
son in the office, as alleged, but Sheldrake, at the time.
Morphew immediately returned to the Inspector-General,
who was in waiting at the police-station, to whom he gave
the change he had received from Sheldrake. About an
hour afterwards the Inspector-General went to the po,t-
office, and informed the parties in attendance who he was,

at the same time asking for the packets he bad sent by
Morphew. Mr. Fitch, the postmaster, producedthem, and
Mr. Rams-y at once saw that the stamps upon them had
been previously made use of. He then -"
drake, and upon being informed that he had left f

aired for Shel•
ar dinner

the Inspector-Generil, accompanied by Superintendent
Mason, of the borough police, left the office, and proceeded
to Sheldrake's house, and communicated to him the object
of their visit. Sheldrake, upon being told that he must be
searched, voluntarily produced from his pockets upwards of
200 penny and twopenny postage stamps, all of which bore
the obliterating mark. The police superintendent then
searched him, and found upon him money amounting to
£l5, among which was found one of the marked shillings.
Sheldrake was then given into custody on a charge of
having embezzled the shilling, the property of her Ma-
jesty, and he was at once removed to the station-house.
After a further minute examination of the money the
second marked shilling was found. A search was after-
wards made at Sheldrake's house, where, in a writing-
desk, were found a few more postage-stamps, all of which
bore the obliterating mark, showing that they had gone
through the post-office. In his office-coat more stamps
were found, and also a small quantity of paste folded in
brown paper. The prisoner was taken before the mayor
and borough magistrates on Thursday last, and the above
facts were deposed to in evidence, after which he was fully
committed for trial at the sessions. The prisoner, in
answer to the charge, said he was " not guilty." The
magistrates refused to accept bail, as it was intimated by
Mr. Ramsey that there was another charge of a similar
character against him. The prisoner, who is respectably
connected, has been in the Ipswich post-office for five
years, and Mr. Fitch, the postmaster, stated that he had
never had any reason to suspect his honesty till now.
The prisoner was married about three weeks since.

A FASTING WOMAN.—An account appears in the
Ipswich Express of a female emulator of Bernard Cava-
nagh, of fasting celebrity, which is however accompanied
by circumstances of an almost blasphemous character. In
June, 1850, it is stated that she left school (having been
when there of a very studious disposition), on account of
a spinal affection ; and was sent to the Suffolk Hospital,
where she remained for about six weeks, and was after-
wards taken home. When there she became worse, and
lock-jaw set in, depriving her, as alleged, of the power of
swallowing, and she lived for a considerable time upon milk,
which was poured down her throat. The account goes on
to state that" at Midsummer, 1851, she recovered from her
lock-jaw, but it was alleged that she had previously been
seized with blindness and deafness—faculties which she
did not regain. The way in which she had lived began to
be talked off, and some excitement was occasioned among
the gossips of the neighbouring villages. But at about
this time the writings and speeches of the child occasioned
considerable interest, which was heightened by the asser-
tion that she still ate no food. Persons living in the
locality came to visit her, and found the patient in a hum-
ble apartment, supported on her bed by pillows, with a
countenance which most of them called "angelic," but
which certainly was remarkable for its singularly devo-
tional cast, and from the great intelligence which beamed
from it. Although it was alleged she could not see, her
eyes remained open, and but little defect could be observed
in them- To her visitors who sympathised with her she
would say, when lamenting bur deafness and blindness,
that ' what she had learned during health were the tools
she had to make use of during her illness.' Every hour
that passed away added to the excitement, and spread her
fame wider and wider from her native village. At all
hours of the day parties wended their way to her cottage,
and, no sooner had they gazed on the child, than they
were interested in her—an interest that had a strange dash
of mystery in it when they were assured that for nearly
two years not a particle of solid food had passed her lips.
But the moment she began to speak she fairly enchained
the sympathies of her hearers. For the most part her re-
marks applied to religious subjects, on which she would
descant with a beauty of language, power of thought, and
devotion of mind to which old divines could make little
pretensions, and she became to be regarded as a being who
had some direct mission to accomplish on behalf of Deity."
Shortly afterwards, she began to assure her visitors that
she had seen a vision of angels, one of which number had
consented to be her constant guardian ; and she begged
that God would grant her an immediate manifestation,
and, after a while, as the credulous reporter of the Express
states:—" Her prayer was answered in this wise—while
her visitors were deeply engaged in devotional exercises,
a ringing noise was heard, as if proceeding from a small
tumbler glass that stood some distance from her. The
sound excited the attention of those who were present,
who listened in wonder to her statemeist that whenever it
sounded it was swept by the invisible wings of the angel
that attended her, and was a direct manifestation from
Heaven of the presence of God. Often and often did this
mysterious ringing occur, and always when they were
most devout ; but the visitors were unable to account for
it. She often, although deaf, expressed much anxiety
that it should ring, and after its peculiar sounds had been
beard she seemed bathed in a sort of ethereal inspiration,
during which her thoughts flowed from her lips, burdened
with devotion and religious zeal." The same reporter is
compelled to acknowledge that it was the general opinion
that she could see and hear, and that:—" Regarding the
ringing of the glass, we ought to add that she has in her
room a glass barmonicon, which frequently laid on her
bed, and on which she was very fond of playing, though
we cannot conceive what delight she could take in music
that she could net hear. The belief is that this is the
means by which the ringing is occasioned; that, in lieu of
the invisible angel's wings, she touched it under the bed-
clothes while her visitors were absorbed in their devo-
tions." By the last accounts, she had been fasting from
food altogether, and committees, partly composed of
learned doctors, had been watching her. But unfortunate
facts oozed out, of a nature which we cannot explain, but
which satisfy us that she is not only an imposter, but that
she has been indoctrinated into imposture by most igno-
rant parties. The fact is acknowledged—" That the girl
is undoubtedly an extraordinary character—that at the
beginning of her illness she certainly took but little to
sustain life—that reports of her abstinence from food
spread widely—that the cottage was besieged—that its
humble occupant was lionized—that the parents had their
vanity flattered and their pockets replenished, and that
the thing has gone on to the present moment, interspersed
with many extraordinary circumstances." Had certain
unfortunate discoveries not taken place, we should cer-
tainly have heard of her case being a miracle.

THE SUMMER RIDE OR PROMENADE.—The peculiar
virtues of C. and A. OLDRIDGE'S BALM OF COLUMBIA
completely remove the difficulty experienced by Ladies
in preserving their ringlets after exercise; its use so invi-
gorates the hair, that tresses, previously the straightest
and most destitute of curl, rapidly acquire a vigour which
maintains in permanent ringlets the head-dress of the
most persevering votary of the ball-room, the ride, or the
promenade. After the minerals and vegetables of the old
world have been compounded in all imaginable ways in
fruitless attempts to discover so important a desideratum,
we are indebted to the Western Hemisphere for furnishing
the basis of OLDRIDGE'S BALM ON COLUMBIA, the effi-
cacy of which in preserving, strengthening, and renewing
the hair has become a mattet of notoriety among all civi-
lized nations. Its restorative vir teriare indeed a proverb,
and the most sstisfaCtory a stations to its infallibility
in reproducing hair upo persons otherwise hopelessly
bald, have been public d from time to time by the pro-
prietors, 13, Wellin on-street North, Strand, London.
OLDRIDGE'S BAL causes eye-brews to grow, prevents

the hair from to ing grey, and the first application causes
it to curl beau ully, frees it from scurf, and stops it from
falling off. mndance of certificates of the first respec-
tability are town by the proprietors. 3s. 6d., 65., and
lls. per bottle; no other prices are genuine. When you
ask for " Oldridge's Balm" never let the sFi=l- -
suade you to buy any other article as a subititutt

piieepers per-
Snla