Glasgow Courier. — 1857-06-18 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

MASONS' STRIKE.—The masons employed at the viaduct and the various bridges in course of erection On the Dernfries contract of the Castle-Douglas and Dumfries Railway have struck work for an advance of wages. Their present wages are 225. 6d. per week, and they demand an increase of 3s. 6d., making the weekly wage 265. This demand the contractors and sub-contractors have declined to comply with, and on Monday morning the men did not resume their work, the most of them going about the streets. The men employed by our local masons and buildera also demanded an increase of wages. The masters have agreed to give 245. when employed in town, or 265. when engaged in the country ; these terms having been agreed to on Saturday, no interruption of work took place among the local builders on Monday.—Dumfries Courier.  The excitement was greatly increased on Thursday by the sudden sickening of several other families living in the same row of houses as the unfortunate Armstrongs. Besides the death of the labourer mentioned above, another family named Murray was attacked with sickness early on Thursday morning, and during the afternoon a child, about five or six years of age, died. The symptoms in all the cases were similar, though much more marked in some than ethers. Several other families were taken ill on Thursday morning. Altogether there were sixteen or eighteen persons seriously attacked, and up to eleven o'clock on Thursday night five had died. So great had been the excitement among the people during the day that many of the workpeople had asked for payment of their wages for the purpose of leaving the neighbourhood. The miners are a superstitious body of people, and the calamity, falling upon the district within a day or two of the date fixed for the comet striking the earth, has had the effect of inducing not a few to believe that the world is at an end. An impression Is gaining ground among reasonable people that no criminality attaches to any one. The houses are built about three hundred yards from the blast furnaces of the Whitehaven Hermatite Iron Company, on Cleator Moor. Altogether there are about sixty cottages, of four small rooms each. The largest of the sleeping rooms is not more than eight or nine feet square, and in some of these dwellings reside from seven to ten or eleven persons. The place where the houses are built was formerly a large excavation in which for years the iron company deposited the refuse from their works, some of which is largely impregnated with sulphur. About eighteen of the cottages, all erected during the last twelve months, are built upon a bed of from four to eight feet thick of this refuse, and immediately behind them the company still continue to deposit all that is made by the works. The newly_ accumulated parts of the bank thus formed continually emit much smoke, highly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen ; and on Thursday night the edge of the bank was on fire, burning with a greenish flame. For some days previous to the first outbreak of the sickness very heavy rains had prevailed, and portions of the bank were observed to emit steam or vapour, which is now known to be highly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen, six per cent, of which in the air of a sleeping room Professor Taylor pronounces to be sufficient to destroy life. The houses to which sickness has been entirely confined are built upon this bank, and the cause of the sad calamity is said to be the accumulation of sulphuretted hydrogen in the sleeping rooms.  and who is thought to be the deceased. Mr. Press, county coroner, has commenced an inquiry, which has been adjourned for the present. In the meantime the police are sedulously endeavouring to collect more evidence on the subject. It is believed that a foul murder has been committed. Steps have been taken to secure, if possible, an identification of the body of the deceased.—Globe.