Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1870-07-08 (Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, England)

THE CONFESSION OF MURDER PKI STAFFORDSHIRE.— During the past week the police authorities of Cheadle, Staffordshire, have been continuing their inquiries into the particulars of the murder of on old knifegfinder at Dilhorn some years ago. Several vffiagers lve related what they remember of the affair, showing conclusively that a murder actually took place. The body, although carefully searched for in Callon Wood, where it was said to have been buried, has not been found. The explanation of some of the villagers as to why they never divulged the matter before is that the supposed murderers (Boulton and Thorley) and their companions had inspired the villagers with a feeling of terror, and had told more than one of them that if they "split" they should be served like the old grindder. UNPROVOKED ATTACK BY MILITIA AT DrltH A little after midnight on Saturday morning, two young men, named George Palmer and Valentine Rowe, were in Claypath, Durham, when they met two militiamen, who snatched off their caps and bolted off down a neighbouring entry. The two young men followed them, but on getting near them the latter attacked them with their belts. After attempting to close with their assailants, Palmer ran down towards the police station, and fortunately met P.C. Singleton, who had been attracted by the noise, and who hurried into the entry pointed out to him, and seized both the men, who were still striking Rowe with their belts when Singleton came up. Both were taken into custody. The belie were very much stained with blood, and the young man Rowe was much cut about the head. A Boy DECAPITATED BY A Weimees.—A most shocking accident occurred in Carlisle, on Saturday, resulting in the instantaneous death of a boy, between three and four years of age, named Macarty, the son Of it baker in the employment of Messrs. Carr andi;Co. It appears that the boy was crossing the Irish elate Brow, and at the same time a heavy grain-laden waggon, belonging to Messrs. Carr and Co., came up. Just at the same moment a cab was passing the spot, travelling in the opposite direction to that in which the waggon was going. By some means or other the boy got hemmed in between the two vehicles. There was just space enough for the boy to stand between the two and escape uninjured, but it would appear that the noise created by the two vehicles had frightened the poor little fellow, and he fell beneath the waggon, both of the wheels of which passed oNer his head, severing the greater portion of it from the body. Part of the skull was actually imbedded in the road, and the little fellow's brains were spread about the wheels and on the road. Of course when picked up the boy was quite dead, and presented a horrid and sickening spectacle. No blame whatever attaches to the driver of the waggon. OLD SHOES AND Wm:or:cos.—No parchment however elaborate, containing in its closely-written pages the result of great legal knowledge, the exercise of great natural acuteness and professional education, precise in language, every word of which has been weighed and thought over, with its many seals and signatures, and its array of witnesses, ever made rights more safe and property more secure than did that shoe which the kinsman gave and Boaz received, and laid up in his home as the title-deed of his wife's estate, and the deed off conveyance by which she was confirmed to be his wife. -In our own land shoes and weddings are closely connected; but the shower of old shoes, in the midst of which the bride and bridegroom drive off, though they mean good-will on the part of those who throw them, neither mean nor convey the practical actual possession which the single shoe conveyed from him that gave to him that took it, in those good old Hebrew times. If they did, what a concentration of wealth, and what a shower of lands and fields, would that shower of shoes convey! Doubtless that quaint custom had its meaning, but it could scarcely mean so much as this Hebrew custom did; and yet, such is the force of custom, and the hold it has over men's minds, that we doubt whether'lliere are many young brides strong-minded enough to-give up, in their own case, a custom the meaning of which, except as an expression of good-will, they do not understand. Several shoes, as well as several clergymen, have become almost essential to the due and proper celebration of marriage in our time.—Front the Story of RUTH, by the Dean of Lichfield, in OUR OWN FIRESIDE, July Number. A RO3IANCE