The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1890-02-22 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

NEWS NOTES.  A YOUNG mew of 23, who has dissipated a fortune of X 300,000 in two years, is still pursuing his chequered career. The latest variation is a sentence of three months implisonment for issuing drafts when there were no assets to meet them. Ernest Benzon, "Jubilee plunger" is in danger of becoming a knave. The magistrate who passed sentence was very lenient with the accused, and convicted him of a " conttavention of the law," and not of a crime. The only defence set up was that the Jubilee Juggins (a term which gave much concern to the French interpreter) was more fool than knave. It was surely a work of superogation to prove Benzon a fool. He insisted long ago on the world knowing the fact. This is what the Public Prosecutor said of him after the English witnesses had been called to prove that the accused was un imbecile :—.‘ He qualified Benzon as debauche—one who chose the path of vice in preference to leading a family life. Addressing Mr. Benzon he said: "A few da3 s ago you were an 'Elegant of London,' now you are nothing but a thief. Yost came to the end of your tether at Mentone and Monte Carlo, and then you came to exploit Nice. You pretend to be a fool. You are vicious, bat sane." There is a charming frankness in the address of the Public Prosecutor: let us hope that it will not be lost on the reckless spend-thrift and gambler.  THE latest London horror very nearly approaches the Whitechapel murders in the inter, sity of its ‘illaiuy. A girl of 15 named Jeffs, of West Ham, goes on an errand and is seen alive no more. Her body is subsequently found in the cupboard of an empty house. The girl had been outraged and murdered. The worst feature of the case is that West Ham has an unenviable notoriety in regard to the disappearances of young women. Have these girls really been decayed ahroad for the white slave trade, or is the case of Alice Amelia Jeffs the repetition of former undiscovered atrocities? In the seething population of the great metropolis a mysterious disappearance is a common occurrence, and it is only revelations like this which give a clue to the fate of the missing ones.  A BIG STRUGGLE is threatened in the coal trade. Within the last fortnight the masters have decided to resist the miners demand for a ten per cent advance in wages. The men have again met and resolved to abide by that demand. No doubt the recent rise in prices justifies the colliers in asking for more wages. The, mineowners on this occasion, however, show more signs of combined te,istance. Fortunately the prospective stlik,3 does not begin until the end of March when, we hope, the worst of winter will be over, and the necessity for coal for house consumption less than it now is. The inevitable result of the struggle must be to run up the price of coal, when no doubt the masters will make the concession which is now reasonably asked of chem. As usual the British public will pay the piper.  THE Unionist party are just reo,vering from the blow of the report of the Parnell Commission. The 7inteB gave the cue, and the Unicnist cry is to be that the charges formulated by the acousirs of the Irish National party have beea proved. The nionists decline to aitti that they have been beaten. The worit case of political  I