npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Widnes Examiner. — 1915-01-16 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

SAVED BY HIS BANDOLIER. Warrington Trooper Tells of a Close  Call.  • Trooper Fred Kershaw, 3rd Dragoon Guards, who, before joining the colours, was in the office of Messrs. Rylands riros.' has sent a stirring letter to his mother, 66, Willis-street. In it he says that a comrade going on leave would post it upon his arrival in England, slid goes on to llescribe his experiences in the trenches ift the vicinity of Ypres. "We went to the trenches at night," he writes, and, as soon as we got in them, the Germans started. It was murder! Shrapnel bullets and 'Jack Johnsons were flying about, and next day their snipers got on the go and killed a few more of our men. We had two Maxims at work, seven men serving with each.  Only One of a Gun's Crew Escapes. 1 "The officer on my 'gun' was killed, and the men at the other 'gun' fared worse than we did, .only one escaping scot free, three of the others being killed and three wounded. My party went back, weary and worn, for rest the second night, and the next time we were sent to the trenches. I am glad to say we did not lose so many men; in fact, we 'went up about six times and only lost half a dozen men. Then we were sent to :the other side of Ypres —or 'what was left of Ypres, for the Germans had largely blown the place away. At this time everywhere was about a couple of feet in snow When we had got established in our new position the Germans charged our trenches. The Maxim gun was in the rear. The 'C' 'Squadron called for assistance, and the officer in charge of us asked for volunteers. About three dozen of us went. We had to run through a ditch about three hundred yards long and knee-deep in water. The end opened out into a turnip field. I was doubling along, when, all at once, I felt something splash in my face and, looking down, I saw that a pocket in n.bandolier had been shattered by a bullet, the ten rinds in it saving my life, as. the pod; in question was just.over the heart.  An 111-starred German Charge. "I lay still for a minute and thanked God for saving ray life, and then I crawled along on my stomach for about threkt hundred yards. All the While the Germans were 'sweeping with shrapnel,' pieces flytng all round ime. When reventually got to'C' Squadron's trenches the Germans were making a final charge. We let them get to within fifty .yards—right up to the barbed wire entanglements—and then we, and the Irish Guards, who were with us, let drive, mowing them down like hay. They retped pell mell, and all around us lay dead and Wounded. After we had buried the dead we were relieved."  "I might remark," the writer concludes, "that I helped to bury young Smith. He had been shot through the head by a sniper; whilst poor Sid Taylor was killed by shrapnel. . . . I have just had a look at the leave roll, and I am not due to come home till March sth. It won't be long now !" _ _  The deaths- of Messrs. Smith and Taylor, Warrington men, mentioned by the writer, have been recorded in "The Examiner."
Widnes Examiner. — 1915-05-15 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

WOMAN'S GREAT OPPORTUNITY. How She May Repay_The_Soldiers For Their  Great Sacrifices.  Dr. Sheaveyn then addressed the meeting, being accorded a splendid reception. The women of England knew now, she said, something of what their men were suffering on their behalf. And they knew, too, that that .suffering was endured in order to save them from the even worse suffering that women in Belgium and in France had had to undergo. They had read in the papers how brave English lads had had almost unbelievable tortures inflicted upon them—deliberate, calculated cold-blooded tortures—and they had during the previous day or so read of the cowardly murder of nearly 1.500 absolutely defenceless men, women and children. The women of England had safety— bought for them by their mankind at a terrible price--,and the question they had to'. put to themselves was what were they going to 'pay for that safety?. Were they going to accept it as something to which they were entitled and go on their way without doing their share? She thought not! She had heard of lots of men who said "I wish I could go; but I cannot, for my work must go on." And that was true.  Work Must Go On And Women Must Do Their Share.  The work, must go on, for what was the good of defending a • nation if that nation was starving or was :not carrying on its lifThere must be food, there must be clothillW, and there must be ammunition. And if the women did not come forward and help to carry on the .necessary industries of the country, it meant that men who might be at the Front, helping to bring the war to as speedy and successful a conclusion as possible, would have to stay at home. Another point that should be borne in mind was that every extra man sent to the Front *helped in the saving of the lives of some of the other men there. The work which women were now being asked to take up had, perhaps, little of the glamour of glory or romance about it and, therefore, all the more honour was due to the women who undertook it. (hear, hear.) What Will The Answer Be?  It meant discipline; it meant drudgery; it meant routine; it meant, in all probability, the leaving of home and the going to unfamiliar places; it meant the giving up of a life, in which, mayhaps, there was much leisure for a life that was a long round of hard work. But were any of those considerations going to deter the women of England from doing their plain duty? Not likely In France and Russia nearly all th 4 able-bodied men were bearing arms, with the result that the women were managing the shops, working in the factories and carrying on the farms; indeed, they were doing nearly all the work. The Women of England had a marvellous chance of showing the stuff they are made of. They had their opportunity now. What were they going to do with it? She thought she knew what the answer would be.
Widnes Examiner. — 1915-10-16 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

FOY.  Describes Irresistible British Advance. Writing to a friend, from a convalescent camp in France, Lance-Corporal T. Foy, of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, and son of Mr. and Mrs. John Foy, 4, Winwick-road, Warrington, gives a vivid account of the fighting during the recent advance made•by the Allied Troops. He  says : "All the time I have been out here I wanted to be in a charge. My wish has been gratified. My word, it was great to see our lads taking the trenches and advancing beyond them. When the story of that advance is told you will know what part the 'Jocks' took in it. They were ,pimply irresistible. The Germans tried all they knew and used all their murderous weapons of modern warfare; but it was no use. Our line advanced just as if it was on parade; it was wonderful—smoking cigarettes and laughing and joking while the Hun's were pouring a murderous fire with their machine guns and shrapnel. "The officers took my eye. They were always ' first, leading the way and cheering us up. No wonder there is such a heavy casualty list of them! We would go anywhere with them; it is a pleasure to have such leaders. There is no turning back with them.. If the Huns had the same fighting spirit, what a different tale would be told of that advance! To give you •an instance, we were advancing in front of a deadly machine gun fire of the IlunS. "They Got Mercy."  "They were mowing us down, but as soon as we got in touch with them, after doing what they had done, they put up their hands, shouting Mercy, Camarade,' and offering watches And money, in fact, anything to take them prisoners. They got mercy! One of our lads is worth six of them. They are all right behind machine guns and gas and everything like that, but when it comes to close quarters their number is up! They have a practice of leaving men in their dug-outs and snipers Up trees to get. At us when we pass.-- There were four of us a few yards behind our front line waiting for a chance to rush forward, when the other three got shot in the back, and I got one in the heel of.„,my shoe. It was a sniper up a tree on our left, just behind us. He never sniped any mote. Hit in the Thigh, • "It was three hours after that they got me in the thigh with a bullet. I made my way back as• best I could to get the wound dressed, but when I got to the dressing-station they were very busy with more serious cases than mine, so I toddled with a lot more to the next place. When we got there it was only 8 miles from where we started. I shall never forget what a sight that battlefield was when we were on our way to hospital. I am not going to describe it; it was so horrible. Well, I eventually landed in hospital. I must say a word in praise of the doctors and nurses. They are absolutely it.' What a pleasure it was to wake up in the morning on a snow-white bed and hear the nurses
The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-01-08 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

DREADFUL SCENE AT AN EXECUTION. A shocking scene took place on the 17th December at the Tombs prison, New York, where three negroes were hanged for the murder of a pedler. The New York Herohrs report says :—Tbe sudden leap into the air made every one shrink, and a few of those who were before so anxious to see the progress of the execution turned away their beads, afraid to look upon the death struggles of those three black men who had between them murdered a poor old man in the lonely Lydig's Woods. Weston being of slender build and so nonchalant in his actions, died the easiest of the three. He had quietly submitted to the adjust went of the noose and had just raised the crucifix to his muffled lips as the weight fell. Being so passive, he struggled very little, and although his neck was unbroken, he did not appear to suffer any pain. Thompson also died comparatively easy, but, being very muscular in the neck, his struggles were more prolonged. Ellis, however, met a dreadful death. Just as the weights fell he was noticed to quickly raise his left hand and clutch the knot, and he also moved his head to the left with a sudden jerk. These two movements caused the knot to slip under his chin, and as his body sprang involuntarily in the air he dangled in awful torture, for consciousness continued. He thus remained for perhaps half a minute, presenting a most horrible spectacle to the shuddering spectators. Then there was a struggle. One of his hands rose and fell in spasmodic emotion as if to seize the rope, and next the unfortunate creature swung round until his feet touched the board screen. As they did so Ellis began actually to walk up the screen, using his head as a lever, thus relieving the strain upon his neck, and, to the horror of all, he uttered a terrible moan, and cried out in anguished accents Save me! save me!" As the words were uttered his feet fell, only to rise again and encircle the body of Thompson. As if by instinct Ellis clambered up upon his fellow-convict, his hand clutching the cord. The scene was a most dreadful one, and for a moment no one seemed tts know how to act. Just at this juncture, Undersheriff Cuming passed through the executioner's door to order EMI; to be lowered. but as he disappeared the half-hanged wretch struck the fatal  knot with his hand, and caused it to slip to the side of the neck. In an instant of time Ellis's legs fell, and he began to die slowly of strangulation. The unhappy man suffered greatly even then, for his limbs moved rapidly to and fro until death relieved him. When the knot became adjusted, the relaxation of the body was so sudden that the handkerchief in the hand that had clutched the rope was caught in the tightened noose, and remained dangling in the air. Thus died the three murderers.
The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-07-22 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

BREACH OF PROMISE.  At the Manchester Assizes, on Monday, an action was brought by a widow, named Watts, aged 48, to recover damages from a beerseller. named Greenhalgh. for an alleged breach of promise of marriage. The plaintiff stated that she had been acquainted with the defendant about twenty years. She had two children by her first marriage. one 22 years old, and the other 19. In January, 1874, the defendant went to a mutual friend's house, a Mr. Jones, at Little Hulton, and asked Mr. Jones to send for the plaintiff. On her arrival, the ;defendant said to her," Come and sit thee down. IM m want of a wife, thee are the woman I've fixed my miud I on. If thou'll have me, I'll have thee." She then owe sented to marry him. He said, "I'll put thee £2o ' thy hand the day as thee's married, and I'll never AA thee what's thee done with it." After this for nearly two years they went to various parties together as al engaged couple, and on one occasion he took her and a friend to the bestsellers' hall in Farnworth, he pati•le for the tickets, and, as she said," introduced her to the place and looked after her." In consequent* of tne defendant coming on Christmas eve, 1875, drunk to her house, she shut the door in his face, and for some time they did not meet. On the 28th of March in this yeer the defendant again sent for the plaintiff to co e to Mr. Jones's house, and appeared to make up the quarrel, saying, '' Come here and set thee down : smoke thy pipe, I'll give thee • bit of baccy." She got clown and smoked, and she mentioned to him rumo she had heard of his approaching marriage to a Mrs. Entwistle. He then said if he got married the plaintiff should too. Within • week after this oonversation ilie defendant married Mrs. Entwistle.—The Judge there upon said to the pltintiff Ile you not think you a e well out of it?—She said " Well, I think I am. If he had not again spoken to me on the 28th of March, I should have said nothing about it."—The defendant VHIA called, and categorically denied all the facts spoken to by the plaintiff's witnesses, and denied that he ever promised to marry her—The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff, damages £1.50.  The Venerable Archdeacon Moore, of Stafford, died on Tuesday morning. Lord Penzance on Tuesday gave judgment again 4 the Rev. Thomas Pelham Dale, rector of St. Vedion, London, for Ritualistic practices. The Rev. James Anderson, Presbyterian minister, Whitehaven, has resigned his charge, and will shortly take orders in the Church Rugland. Dornht Muhnett,--Leonard Culbin, chargod with having committed a doable murder at Sevres, 13-Igiullt was on Tuesday apprehended by Liverpool Police. Mr. J. H. Puleston, M.P., has been ordered abroad e,n account of ill-health, and will not be able to atterd lurther to his Parliamentary duties this session.
The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-09-02 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

THE SOUTH SEA MASSACRES. Although it is many years since the imaginative humour of Sydney Smith ran riot over a groteeps enumeration of the festive dishes at a South Sea banquet —succulent baby in the oentre of the table, with oold missionary on the sideboard —cannibalism still survives, a flourishing institution. The latest intelli. gence from the South Seas brings the fact into horribly prominent relief. The antipathy to white men whkh the atrocious doings of the slave-hunters for Peruvian labour markets have excited to the highest pitch has again broken out, and to the murder of two ships' Grew., one of which was eaten. A schooner named the Dancing Wave celled, it is stated, at an island in the Solomon group for labourers. The captain and sailors were suddenly set upon by a number of natives, and all murdered but one. The vessel was thsi plundered and abandoned, and afterwards brought ,to Sydney. The Solomon Islands lie due east of I New Guinea, and a little to the north-west of Santa Cruz, where the lamented Commodore Goodenough met his death, and it is probable that the massacres 'in bath cases arose from the same cause—a Tilt. I (helve hatred of all civilised vessels and crews, stimulated by the exploits of the American and English kidnappers, whose out rages excited so much horrer When revealed here a year or two ago, The other tragedy app.-ars to have been further south, ' in the Loyalty group, and the victims belonged to another "labour vessel," called the May Queen, which ran ashore on an island named Loins. The crew fired on the natives, who returned the attack, killed and ate them, and burned the vessel. This awful piece of news was brought over to the Fiji Islands by a missionary—Mr. Inglis—in the mission vessel Dayspring, and communicated by him to Captain Lind, owner of a trading vessel, who, in his turn, t.ld it to Consul Lapsed. at Nannies. Let us hope that the story got bigger in the telling, and that what reached the Consul's cars was an exaggeration of a much simpler incident. Yet there is nothing improbable in it, and it has to be noted that the sufferers in both eases were crews of vessels that went to pick up labourers. Thus do the detestable doings of the man. hunters, who a few years ago catered for the oupply of the Chincha Islands, recoil on the heads of the entire race of eivilised Patopeens or Americans, and breed a long and pitiless vendetta. Bishop Patteson was the first and must illustrious, as well as innocent, vietim, and Commodore Goodenough was another. The usual way of retaliating for these massacres is to send a oruiser which fires broadsides into defenceless villages, burns them, shoots a few women, children, and old men, and indulges in other Bashi-Bazouk modes of warfare. It would be more to the put pose to put a peremptory stop to the hunt for labourers. Cannot the Australians and South Americans get a supply by the legitimate mode of voluntary immigration?— London Telfgraph.
The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-11-25 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

LATEST PARTICULARS.  The mystery overhanging the case of robbery and , suspected murder in Wolverhampton is in a for way of being cleared up. There is now CO doubt that the cattle dealer who was robbed, and who it was feared had been murdered, is yet alive. At about eleven on I the night of Friday, the kith of October, the landlord ot an inn in 1.41,4t0n-street, which is much frequented by dealers who attend the Wolverhampton markets, admitted to his house a dealer who had long been a customer, but who than appeared for the first time that I day- The dealer was in a Awl Might. He was only partially sensible, and seemed to have narrowly escaped drowning. Evidently he had been in the canal or some I such place, for lie was not only wet through, but was covered with the filthy mud and slime which is , plentiful in the canal about Wolverhampton. By and bye the dealer was able to explain that he had that day sold iu Birmingham, to a well-knos dealer of that town, for about ZIOO, a herd of mitt • which he had brought from Ireland. That he hail lost the money he now for the first time discovered. How this bad come about was clear enough. He had come to Wolverhampton iii the afternoon with the money in his possession, and in Berry-street mot with some woolen' with whom he drank ins public-house. Afterwards he accompanied them to their dwelling, in " Cat Yard:. where he had more drink. What subsequently took place till he found himself led into the inn yard in Bilstou-street was all a blank. He inferred that he had been robbed, and had then been thrust or had fallen into the canal. In either and any case he wished his adventure to be kept a profound secret, and imposed seen's), upon the publican. That condition the dealer had afresh imposed in a letter received by the publican this week. Seeing, however, the trouble to which the police were going, and the nature of the confession made by the W 488,111 Waldron, the publican deemed it his duty as a citizen to report this much to the police. The name of the dealer is for the present withheld, but he is described as "a respectable man, accustomed to large transactions." Under these circumstances. the further dragging of the canal has been stopped, for there is now no room for doubt that the two cases are identical, and that the ugly business will by-and-bye be wholly known. The facts now , ascertained having been substantiated in evidence, : the charge of murder as wellas of robbery upon which, on Waldren's confession, she and the man Thompson have been arrested, will be reduced to a charge of robbery and attempted murder in their case, and ' of robbery in the case of the third prisoner, the woman Edge. The police believe that the cattle dealer was drugged, and that after having been pushed into the canal, he got out and had regained eouseionsness enough to ask the way to hi stopping place, in • Bilstou-street, whither he was then conducted. All bhe three prisoners will be brought up to-day (Saturday).
The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-11-25 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

WRIGHT'S REPLY TO MR PRATT.  Sir,—What strange contradictions there are in men ! When writing under the nom de plume of "Amused Burgess" Mr. A. C. Pratt was all himself, and no one was deceived, but knew it was Esau's handiwork; whereas when he signs his own name there is so much water in his milk that it has sot strength to get sour, and the customary jeer becomes a whine. The letters I replied to were Mr. A. C. Pratt's, in spite of the absence of the name, but the attempt to be virtuously indignant, in your last issue, is so unlike our Richard that he is not himself, and I think, Mr. Editor, that someone has been taking his name in vain and has imposed upon your credulity. Now, if it really be Mr. A. C. Pratt's I have achieved one thing at least. When he condescended to notice me first I was "a" Mr. S. M. Wright, but now that small article is dropped and the "Mr." too, and I am put nakedly before your readers as "S. M. Wright." I suppose I owe this to Mr. Pratt's artistic instincts that Wright, like "beauty, when unadorned in adorned the most. lam mneli obliged to him. Mr. Pratt takes us into his confidence. Be tells Rs that since he gave up his connection with the Parliamentary Borough Association, as he calls it, he " has stood aloof from all political, Nonconformist, and other electioneering action; being convinced by the experience of my own departure from it, that a journalist can discharge his duties the more faithfully and impartially in proportion to his practice of such abstinence." We have here an opportunity of learning what, in Mr. Pratt's philosophy, is the true meaning of discharging journalistic duties "faithfully and impartially." It simply means writing unfair personal and splenetic letters behind the shelter of an anonyntouti signature ! Of a piece with Mr. Pratt's impartiality is his fairness in quoting those whom he is assailing. I said that he "had rnn from sect to sect in Wolverhampton," a statement at least justified by his own admission; but he deals with these words as an assertion that he had been "a murder of every sect in the town." As I intimated in my last, few people care what Mr. Pratt is or has been, further than to show the injustice and inconsistency of his attack upon others. And so I do not care to troni.le myself about Mr. Pratt's "transformation ticene.." except to say that the water the Baptists who brdicve in complete immersion use, mast be drawn from Lethe's stream of forgetfulness, if he does rot remember that he has had a connection with other sects besides the Wesleyan and New Connexion Methodists.  I can, in conclusion, assuro Ar. Pratt that I have no animosity against him. I have simply done what I conceived to be my duty to myself and others. lie was an "Amused Burgess," an' 1 if he has been the cause of some little amusement to some of his fellow burgesses, his merriment ought to "grow by what it fed on."