The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-08-26 00:00:00

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT GLASGOW.—On Wednesday
the extensive stores of Messrs. Charles Tennant and Co.,
of St. Rollox, near Glasgow, were totally consumed by fire.
The building, which is four stories in height, was stored
with turpentine, sulphur, and other inflammable materials.
Very soon nine engines were playing upon the flames,
but without effect. The flames ascending, floor after
floor fell with a terrible crash, and within an hour after
the arrival of the fire-engines the flames were bursting
out of the centre portion of the roof, when it also fell in,
During the progress of the fire the smoke was literally
suffocating. Vitriol jars were heard to crack in succes-
sion like shots fired from a rifle, while at more distant
intervals there was the heavy artillery of the oil pun-
cheons. About forty of these explosions took place,
which must have been heard at a great distance. Both
stock and premises were fully insured.—Glasgow Mail.
CHALLENGE OF THE AMERICAN CLIPPER ACCEPTED.
—The long unaccepted challenge, given by Mr. J. C.
Stevens, the commodore of the American yacht America,
to sail any vessel of England, for any amount, appears
not to have been given in vain ; for one gentleman,
rather than England should be thus publicly defied, has
come forward to accept the same, in the person of Mr.
Robert Stephenson, the eminent engineer. That gentle-
man has taken the preliminary step, and notified his
intention to the Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron,
the Earl of Wilton, to contest for the honour with the
great American wonder; and has agreed to sail his yacht
Titania against the America for £lOO each. The match
is expected to come off this week, the Earl of Wilton
being the umpire. The course is to be from the Nab to
a station twenty miles off. The Titania is 100 tons bur-
den, and is built on Mr. Scott Russell's wave principle.
which it is contended offers the least resistance to the
water.

DESTRUCTIVE COLLIERY EXPLOSION NEAR NEW-
CASTLE.—On Monday night, a disastrous explosion took
place at Washington colliery, about two miles from the
Washington station on the York, Newcastle, and Ber-
wick Railway, which we regret to say resulted in the
premature death of from 30 to 40 persons. Between four
and five o'clock in the afternoon, about sixty men went
down into the pit on the night shaft ; and everything
seemed to go on regularly until about half-past eleven
o'clock, when the inhabitants of the neighbourhood were
aroused by a loud explosion, upon the report of which
large masses of people rushed to the mouth of the pit to
render all the assistance that lay in their power. The
head-overman, in company with a few of the miners,
descended the pit, and found several dead bodies, very
much burned and mutilated, near the cross cut way.
They discovered that the explosion took place in the
" whole" workings, where about forty men were em-
ployed, and that the other twenty men, who had been
working in the " brokings," were uninjured. No lan-
guage can describe the intense grief and horror of those
who, on the first report being given, rushed to the spot,
and remained to witness the blackened and disfigured
corpses .of their husbands, children, and fathers. Three
hours passed away in the most painful suspense before
any of the bodies were brought to the bank. During the
night the crowd hourly increased, and a number of
viewers from neighbouring colleries also arrived, and
rendered very valuable assistance. Throughout the day,
from nine o'clock in the morning, corpses were at inter-
vals extricated, and up to seven o'clock from 28 to 30 had
been brought to bank, and identified by their relatives.
At seven o'clock in the evening there yet remained, it
was supposed, about ten bodies in the pit.
EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF HEARTLESS CRUELTY TO
A CHILD.—A. most shameful case of robbery and cruelty
to a child occurred in Sheffield, on Monday afternoon last.
Mrs. Pinder, the landlady of a public-house at the bottom
of Old-street, Park, bad her attention attracted to the
privy in the yard, by the faint cries of a child, apparently
in distress. She immediately ran to the place to as -ertain
the cause, and to her great horror discovered a child, be-
tween two and three years of age, with no other clothing
upon it than its shirt, buried up to the chin in the night
soil. She was so horrified at the discovery, that she
fainted on the spot. A neighbour was also attracted to the
place by the cries of the child, leaped over the wall of the
ashplace and rescued the child from the filth. The poor
little creature was found to have been stripped of the whole
of its clothes, with the exception of its shirt, shoes, and
stockings. A dirty-looking young woman was seen a short
time before carrying the child in her arms. Pursuit was,
in consequence, made after the female; but she escaped
undetected. The child was found to be a son of Mr.
Green's, of York-street, watch-glass maker. It seems
that it had wandered from home, on the afternoon in
question, and was playing in company with two other
children on the steps of Mr. Oldfield's sah room, at the
corner of the Corn Exchange, when the female took the
child in her arms, saying she knew its mother, and would
carry it home. Instead of doing so, however, she walked
off in the very opposite direction. The occurrence has
created a great sensation in the town, and a very general
impression prevails that the female, having stripped the
child of its clothes, had heartlessly thrown it into the soil,
with the intention of its being smothered by the filth. We
would fain, for the sake of our common nature, accept ex-
planation of the affair, rather than believe that any human
being could have conceived the intention to commit so
foul a murder against an innocent and unoffending
The police were early made acquainted with the facts, and
inquiries are being made, with a view to the discovery of
the perpetrator of the offence. The child was placed un-
der the care of a medical gentleman, and is now fully
recovered from the effects of the outrage.—Sheffield paper.
SUICIDE AND ATIEMPT TO MURDER.—The neighbour-
' hood of Tottenham, near London, has been in a state of
the most painful excitement since Wednesday evening, in
consequence of a desperate attempt to murder two respec-
table women, mother and daughter, by a German named
Carl Ragelaek, who afterwards destroyed himself. The
unfortunate deceased, who is stated to be of highly respec-
table connexions in his own country, came to England
some twelve months since with a recommendation to Mr.
Broad, clerk in a bank in Lombard-street, and has since
resided with that gentleman's family at Tottenham-hale.
He is said to have had an attachment for Miss Broad,
whose father, however, objected to their union, chiefly on
account of the disparity of their age, the deceased being
35 years old and the young lady 20; added to which the
deceased had on several occasions evinced symptoms of a
disordered mind. About three months back he disap-
peared from home in an extraordinary manner, and nothing
was heard of him for a considerable time, until at length
he wrote from Liverpool to Mr. Broad, who went to that
place and brought him back. On Wednesday, after having
been in London during the day, he returned about eight
o'clock in the evening to Tottenham, and had scarcely
entered the house when screams and cries of " Murder"
were heard, and immediately afterwards the two women,
who were alone in the house, ran out bleeding from various
wounds. Mr. Ryan, the railway station-master, having
entered the place, found Carl Raegelaek lying dead in the
parlour, and a dagger covered with blood lying beside him.
It appeared that he had attacked Miss Broad with the
dagger, inflicted a slight stab upon her body, and a more
serious wound upon her hand, with which she had endea-
voured to ward off the blow, and her mother on hastening
to her assistance, hearing her cry out, was attacked, and
received a rather severe stab in the chest. The two women
then ran out, as already stated, and fell fainting in the road,
and the deceased turning the weapon against himself
plunged it nearly to the hilt into his abdomen five or six
times, and terminated his existence in less than two
minutes. Mrs. Broad and her daughter were placed under
the care of Mr. May, a surgeon, who reported the next
evening that they were progressing favourably. The de-
ceased was conveyed to the White Hart, near the railway
station, to await the inquest, and on stripping the body
to place it in the coffin, a belt was found round the
waist containing upwards of £lOO in German money,
besides £7 17s. English in the pockets of his clothes.
The dagger with which he committed the crime is eight or
nine inches long, with black handle, apparently of foreign
make, and it is stated that he had another instrument of
the same kind, but more handsomely mounted, in his pos-
session

Loss OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP REYNARD.—lntelli-
gence has reached England by the overland mail of the
total loss of her Majesty's steam-sloop Reynard, Com-
mander Cracroft, on the Pratas Reefs, 160 miles south-east
of Hongkong. All hands were saved. The Reynard was
coaling, provisioning, and refitting previous to starting
" homeward bound," when, on Wednesday, the 28th of
May, the longboat of the Velocipede, a merchant brig,
arrived with intelligence that the Velocipede was ashore
on the Pratas, and that the crew were in a sad state for
want of water, &c. The Pilot, Commander Victor Hick-
ley, and the Reynard, Commander Cracroft, were imme-
diately ordered to the scene of the disaster, and, having
hastily provisioned, sailed in company, but parted on the
30th. Soon after 3 a.m. on the morning of the 31st the
watch below on board the Reynard were aroused from
their slumbers by the striking of the ship, and the cry of
" Heave all aback," " Full power astern." The ship
then struck with tremendous force ; all hands ruehed on
deck, and it too soon became apparent that all hope of
saving the Raynard was gone. The very calmness of the
night had proved her destruction. Had there been the
slightest wind the position of the rocks would have been
indicated by the " breakers" ahead being heard, if not
seen ; on the contrary, the sea was like glass, and the
water as blue as the sky. But this lasted but for a time.
As the tide fell up rose the sea, and the ship falling
" broadside on" had her side knocked completely in by
twelve at noon. From this time she became a total
wreck—masts being cut away, a raft was formed. One
can hardly picture to oneself the scene that existed as
night came on—the ship full of water on the starboard
side, lifted bodily 4 or 5 feet, and coming down with a
thump more easily felt than described, knocking every
one off their legs ; and the noise of the water inside
rushing from one part of the ship to another, as those
parts rose or fell, carrying away " bulkheads," &c., is
indescribable. All Saturday night the crew were seated
on the larboard side of the ship (the side out of water),
and on the following night, Sunday (all hope of saving the
ship having vanished), the crew took to the raft and
landed safely on the Prates Island. On Monday morning
tents were rigged out ; wells dug (being a sandy soil the
tide as it rose filtered through), and the water, although
salt and nasty, was drinkable. The captain of the Rey-
nard made up his mind to stick to the island till fine wea-
ther came, and then attempt to save the stores; but,
sickness beginning to show itself, he was compelled to
embark his crew on board the Pilot. which vessel hove in
sight the afternoon of the day the Reynard got on shore,
but could not approach on account of the heavy sea run-
ning. The Pilot kept sailing " off and on," sending her
boats in to help, &a., till everybody was safely landed.
Most providentially was it that two ships were sent on
this expedition, as by this means the Pilot had the satis-
faction of saving not only the crew of the merchant ship,
but likewise the crew of the Reynard, one of the last of
whom that boarded the Pilot was the commander's own
brother, a lieutenant of the Reynard.