The Blandford and Wimbourne Telegram. — 1884-08-22 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SINGULAR FATALITY.  A boy named John Tarpey, aged seven, WAR bathing on Sunday morning' in the river Medlock, at Ardwick, when he got out of his depth, but was at once rescued by another boy, not, however, before he had swallowed a quantity of water, which was peculiarly filthy, He expired at an adjoining surgery almost immediately, his death resulting not from drowning, but from poisoning.  stores. On June 6th Henry not only stole some of the shrimps for breakfast, but visited without permisdon the winter camp, ant stole certain sealskin reserved for food. Ito Was then ordered to be shot, but his execution was a dangerous affair, inasmuch as je, WM a strive-ler man thee any of the other survivorp, end Greely was exhausted, While Henry was a little distance from the camp three men, oneof whom carried a loaded tv, wren, strolle I near him; the others looked seaward while the murder wise ace aseplished. Lieutenant Greely never saw the body, and no formal report of the metter w. 6 made, the incident being tacitly ignored. The vie.ine'd bones were picked clean. The reactiere, eeekine to preserve secrecy, tird the bones to sticks the length of a man, and used abl ,ck of wood for the missing heat. This dummy deceived even the sailore, Dr. Pavy's body was in serna unexplained manner said to have arrived at St. .John',', but it was afterwards reported to have ipen washed away. It is remarked that all the bodies said to 1 awe been washed away were those of men who died in June, except Rico, who died on the same day as Lockwood, and the body of the latter has been brought beck to the States. Thus it in inferred that the earlier cannibalism was more frightful than it is possible to describe. Lieutenant Oreely was a rtainly ignorant of all these proceedings. He has reqeceted a ea 'rut rurrtisl ;f the facts stated in his reports ae still to be kept eed. et. Public opinion almest err-lefts the survivors, and the chief regret is that the attempted secrecy resulted possibly in r xagg• rated stories being eirculated. A telegram feen Rocheet-r (N.Y.) says that the body of Lieutenant Kislingbury, which was buried at that pace, has been exhumed and examined by physician', who testify that certain ra-ts of the skin and muscles had been removed, and that the flesh had been cut away by a sha instrument ; the bedy weighed about rralbse The telegram aide that this establishes beyond question that the survivors were compelled t resort to oannibalinn to sustain life. The charge of cannibalism, says the Pall Mall Ga:ette, which has been brought against the Greedy expedition must now be regarded as established. Iu view of the great interest naturally excited on the sulject, we sent our rep, e rentative to ask the opinion of Mr. Leigh Smith and other Arctic explorers. Mr. Leigh Smith was greed enough to give some information on the matter, which may be of interest as coming rem so eminent an authority. Of course, it should be remembered that he was speaking in ignorance of the fresh confirmations of the charge which are contained in the New York t degrams this moruing. " I scarcely care to pass any opinion as yet upon the credis hility of the story. So far as I can judge from what I have seen in the papas it certainly seems to me odd that the seven survivors should be in so terribly weak and prostrate a ceudition when they were rescued if they had really been living on human Leh for corns time. In my own expeditions no cases of cannibalism have ever occurred, nor, indeed, in the whole history of Arctic exploration have there ever been any authenticated instances. Personally, I have never been driven to extremities." "If I were in command of an expedition," Mr. lAA Smith continued, "which was reduced to such a strait, I should allow the men to do as they wished. There should be no drawing of lote, and no murder, of course, so long as I could prevent it; but lithe men liked to eat the bodies of their dead comrades, why, I should not interfere. Personally, I would rather die than eat human fish. I should say that human flash was as good as any other, and tot at all unwholesome. It is highly unfair to judge the actions of men who era starving. They are not responsible for their actions. In such cases the great difficulty is to rouse the men from their torpor and prevent them lying down to die. If I caught a man stealing provisions when an ounce might mean life or death, I would not hesitate to shoot him."