The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-06-07
Put Yourself in His Place"
DEArH OF The MAN WHOSE Crimes GAVE CHARLES
REApE THE PLor OF a NOVEL.


William Broadhead. whose crimes inspired
Charles Reade's Put Yourself iH HIS Place, re-
Gently died in England at the age of 90, leaving
a wife and children. He was u saw-grinder by
trade, and, after lS49, Secretary Of that power
ful and bloody organization, the Saw-Grinders'
Union Of Sheffield. He was a clear headed and
re5Olute man, but wholly without scruple. In
der his management the system of terrorizing
masters and recalcitrant unionists was carried
TO its utmost lengths. The . Vengeance Com
mittee - was accustomed 10 blow their victims
up with gunpowder. Wherever the Sheffield
MARY Ann went she carried cannisters full of
that explosive, and down chimneys and through
doors and windows death and destruction were
dealt to those who had offended against the re-
g~ulations Of the trade, or who were in arrears
with their ''natty" money. Ii was always
shrewdly suspected that Broadhead was concern
ed in the crimes, but it was not until October,
1866, that matters came TO a crisis. y can of
gunpowder was exploded under the house of
man named Fearnyhough, and, although no harm
was done TO human life, much damage was done
to property. \ thousand pounds reward, offered
by the Sheffield manufacturers, and an additional
reward Of Gl00 promised by the Government,
failed TO bring to light the perpetrators of the
outrage, all completely in which was indignantly
repudiated by the Trades nions. In proof of
their sincerity they offered a supplemental El00
for the detection of the perpetratOr.
At last a commission was appointed TO inves-
tigate the whole system of trade outrages at Shelf
field, and absolute immunity was promised to all
witnesses who would tell the whole truth, how
ever deeply they might have been compromised
in the crimes committed. Two of the men exam
ined who had been Broadhead's hired braves
began to make appallingly damaging revelations
concerning him, and he, finding the tolls tighten
ing around him, at length fully confessed his
guilt. The narrative of Broadhead began with
1888, when he procured the ham-stringing of a
horse whose owner, one Parker, had been guilty of
nrLTn r-aEI n~- -.a-sN- NJ. a--,n -.
ing disregarded, Broadhead hired two men to
shoot Parker, and Parker was shot on Whit
Monday, 1854. In August, 1859, he caused his
braves to track one Linley from house TO house
to murder him. The victim was found at last
sitting In the room of n public house, and he was
shot from the yard and through n window by
means of an air-gun. He died some weeks after
ward from the effects of the wounds. Previously
Linley had been blown up once and shot once,
always by Broadhead's directions. 1t was de-
clared by Broadhead that he intended the man to
be shot, but not slain outright, and he added that
it was with ''very great pain" that he had con-
scented to the proposal for shooting him. at
came upon him." he remarked, ''as an I'M
pleasant subject" For the shooting of Linley
he had paid Els, and he took some e200 out of
the funds of the Union for the purpose of bribing
the rufians who executed his murderous behests.
Before having Linley killed Broadhead secured
the blowing up OF Samuel Baxter, of Loxley,
another impenitent and self-willed saw-grinder.
y couple OF months AFTER tue enOOllDS OF IlDley
one Helliwell, who had not been brought up as q
saw grinder, was, for the offense OF working at
that trade, blown up by gunpowder which was
ignited from sparks from his ''glazerH as he be-
gan to work. Broadhead had delivered three
cans of gunpowder to a man called Clark for the
destruction of the interloping saw-grinder, and
half a canful had been placed By Clark in Helli-
wells trough. The poor man was not killed but
only blinded. Broadhead drew up a plan for
shooting him, but relinquisbed it, and blew up
part of the factory of Messrs. Wheatman &
Smith, who had sinned greatly by introducing a
new mode of grinding saws. At the close of the
sitting of the commission. Broadhead received,
according to the pledge given to the guilty wit
nesses, a certificate of immunity, though by his
own admission a murderer and a suborner of
murderers. The Sheffield magistrates declined to
renew his license as a publican, and q subscrip-
ton having been raised for him, he emigrated to
America, but received so cold a reception here
that he soon returned to England and to Sheffield
to ~vegetate in obscurity as the keeper of a chand-
ler's shop, and to die at last, paralyzed and i'm
beetle. He was c~ontrite, it was reported, in his
latter days.