Widnes Examiner. — 1892-11-12 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

FEARFUL OUTRAGE AND MURDER OF A LITTLE GIRL.  A terrible crime was committed at Witton, Blackburn, on Tuesday, the victim being Alice Barnes, aged nine, daughter af a Witton farmer. At about one o'clock in the afternoon the child was sent to drive some cows to a field at Witten Park, and was not afterwards seen alive by her father. Within a short space of the time alter she left home the was found dead near Witton Park gates, with a handkerchief stuffed tigktiv into her mouth. The ground about the spot where the body was lying showed signs of a struggle having taken place, and there were evidences that the child had been subjected to the most brutal violence. Soon after the murder was discovered the police received from two sources description of a man who was loitering about near Witton Park gates at the time when the child was driving the cows, and for this man vigorous search was made, but up to a late hour on Tuesday it had not been successful.  Most important new evidence was obtained by the Blackburn police late on Tuesday evening. A lad named Riding, a son of General Feilden's gamekeeper, states that, as he was running down the lane, which is very steep, he came upon the murderer, carrying his victim through the park wicket-gate. He was so terrified at the sight that he ran back to another part entrance, where he gave the alarm. Another youth, named Riley, living in a house overlooking the lane, saw a man running away, looking over his sheulder as he went, and the lad remarked to his father, who was dining at the time, that he looked like a man who had committed a crime. Other witnesses saw the man cross the main road and pass through a back road into Vauxliall-st. Here he went into a passage and took off his muffler, with which he wiped his bleeding and muddy face. Finding that Vauxhall-st. was a cul-de-sac, he returned, and, passing down another passage, jumped over a wall and ran off across the fields. A remarkable circumstance is that when it was discovered that the child had been gagged, the finders of the body would not allow the handkerchief to be removed until the police arrived, although the body was quite warm. The police made two or three arrests on Tuesday night, but the prisoners were liberated after inquiry had been made respecting them. The inquest was opened on Wednesday afternoon, when evidence was given as to the finding of the body and as to a man having been seen loitering about and watching the child as she was driving cows into Witten Park shortly before the murder was discovered. The inquiry was adjourned until next Thursday. The police have not yet succeeded in gaining a clue to the whereabouts of the murderer of the child Alice Barnes. On Thursday two bloodhounds were taken to the scene of the crime, in the hope that they might, as in another notorious Blackburn case, assist in the capture of the murderer ; but, as might have been expected considering that two days had passed since the murder was committed and that the place had in the interval been visited by thousands ol people, the trial was a failure. There were two or three cases oa Tleursday of arrest on suspicion, but they came to nothing.  EVERY MAN interested in the subject of Debility. Decay, etc., should read Ihe NEW MEDICAL WORK by an EMINENT SURGEON, which gives full particulars how to SUCCESSFULLY treat the most obscure cases of