Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-06-27 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

GALLANT RESCUE OF A CREW.  The weaniship Sophie, from Cardiff, has arrived at New York, and reports having on the 9th inst. noountered a cyclone, during which she was swept fore and aft by heavy seas, while her port lifeboat as stove, and other damage was done to her. On the following day, at 7 o'clock a.m., she sighted the barque Exile, from St. John, N.B. The latter was in great distress; her mainmast hung over her side, and her foretop-gallant-mast, mizzen topmast, mizzen masthead, bulwarks, rails and stanchions had been swept away. Her deck was level with the water, her port quarter was smashed, and her boats had been carried away. Her crew were lashed to the poop deck, the port side rails of which had gone overbnard. The crew of the Sophie were called upon to volunteer for the rescue of the shipwrecked men, who were in imminent peril of being washed into the sea. The summons was promptly responded to by the officers of the steamer, who are Germans, but the crew,consisting of Italians, held back. The Sophie steamed as close as possible to the distressed vessel, but the sea was too rough to permit of anything being done. The captain, however, spoke to the Exile's crew, promising assistance as soon as the weather n.oderated. The storm continued during that day and the following night, and on the next morning the Exile was nowhere to be seen. Search was made, and she was at length sighted. As the crew of the Sophie still held back, the captain ordered the officers to man the starboard lifeboat, and in two trips they succeeded, with the greatest difficulty, in rescuing the 14 men comprising the Exile's crew. The latter were in a state of great exhaustion from hunger and thirst and exposure; while their captain had sustained severe cuts and bruises, and had been nearly drowned in trying to save the ship's papers.  It is deb-farm semi-otnciatly that Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland have notited their assent to the proposal made by the Italian Government for the opening of in gotiations for Commercial Treaties between those several States. The negotiations are ta be held at Berne, and will continence on July 20th. They will be carried on simultaneously, but independently, between the Plenipotentiaries of the four countries concerned. At New York a man named John Soften, a snakecharmer, has been bitten in the finger by a giant New Mexican lizard. Some authorities say that the bite of this lizard is fatally poisonous. Sonell had to be taken to the hospital, where his finger quickly welled to twice its natural size. He had to Le given ()prates in order to make him sleep. Wheim he awoke he seemed perfectly dazed, a result which it is thought may have arisen from fright. A discharged soldier named Deegan, has been arrested near the Knozkineeldown Mountains, county Waterford, on a charge of murdering a woman unknown near Cloheen, county Tipperary. The police state that there is evidence of a terrible struggle between the deceased and her murderer, and that the woman was subjected to brutal treatment, the body being shockingly mutilated. An :amt was held on Saturday, and a verdict murder returned.