Weekly News. — 1889-12-26 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

NEXT-OF-KIN FRAUDS.  In the Recorder's Court, at the Old Bailey on Friday, Fraser Blexam, 58, described as an agent, was charged with obtaining from divers persons various sum* of money on false pretences.—Mr. Horace Avory, in opening the case for the prosecution, stated that he would be able to chew that the prisoner had for years carried on the business of a professional next-of-kin agent, without any means to carry out his promises. His 1710<ita Operandi was to watch the Treasury notices for the heirs of persons who had died intestate, and then himself to advertise, thus getting into communication with poor people of the same name as the deceased. For a fee they were told that they were the true heirs. In the particular case on which the prisoner was tried, he represented that there was an estate in Essex, value £lO,OOO, left by one Herrington. He got hosts of Herrington. for two or three generations to come forward, get certificates of their birth, and pay all round for the prisoner to make out the necessary forms. Then there were alleged searches at Somerset House, pretended interviews with the Treasury Solicitor, and equally fallacious consultations with important functionaries at the Bank of England. In the Herrington case he had got about £4O, while in others he was known to have received ,as much as £5O and upwards. The police ha.i beet) I able to trace something like £5OO to him within a I recent period. The Law List had been examined for 30 years, and no person such as he represented himself to be could be found there. Conclusive evidence was offered, and the prisoner was found guilty.—Tbe Recorder, in passing a sentence of five years' penal servitude, Paid the prisoner had acted in a most heartless manner in trading on the ignorance of poor people.  On Friday the coroner for Camberwell was ap. prised of the discovery of the dead body ef a respectably-dressed working man in the Surrey Canal. The throat was badly cut and the legs tied with a boot lace. No money or other property was found on the body, and no knife or clue to identification. Mr. Webster, the English manager of the Le Blanca Mine at Pachuca, Mexico, has been murdered by unknown persons on a public highway near Pachuca. It is believed that the crime wss committed for the sake of obtaining Mr. Webster's money and any other valuables he might have upon his person. The British Minister at Mexico is inquiring into the matter. A fire has occurred at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, • considerable part of the building being consumed. There were 80 patients in the wards, and these were removed by the nurses, doctors, and hospital attendants to other hospitals amid eoenesof excitement. In some instances it was possible to remove the sufferers in their beds. Others were carried in the arms of their rescuers. A few of the patients are prostrated by fright.  " British War Medals, Military and Naval; and How they were Won," by Mr. Thomas Carter, revised and brought down to date, is to be published in eight half-crown parts by Messrs. Groombridge and Sons, the first number appearing early in the New Year.  "The Life of Carmen Sylva" (Queen of Roumania), translated from the German by the Baroness Deichmann, and containing four portraits from phob,graphs, a view of Petsch Castle, and facsimile of handwriting, will be published immediately by Messrs. Kogan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co.