The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1888-08-22 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1838.  our member is, therefore, to be commended for having resisted it. If volunteering were to be made too onerous, the volunteer force would suffer through the joint action of the men themselves and their employers, for, after all, we are a nation of shopkeepers and cannot stand having our trading facilities interfered with to a serious extent. .  That the sports in connection with the Polo Club, at Spital, on Saturday, were very Successful, and reflected credit upon those responsible for their management, the more especially as there was a complete absence of the professional betting elemelh. The Mayor was there, looking .so happy and genial  , that no one would have etiliposed that a narrow-minded critic bad just called him " over the coals" about his theo logy, because he had dared to say openly, when laying the foundation stone of St. Matthew's Church, what nine out of ten Churchmen think privately of the Athanasian Creed, which does not appear to have ever been heard of until about a hundred years after the death of the great Athanasius. Besides his Worship, many of the representative men of Wirral were on the ground, and they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Mr. Hassall, whose splendid capacities as a horseman are so well known, was, of course, the hero of the day. That a cloud was cast over the proceedings by the, accident which befel Mr. Neilson when riding the clever  little Loiterer. It is not quite certain what caused the animal to fall, but it is  beyoni dispute that it rolled over its rider and broke his _collar bone. Yr.  Neilson is entitled to everyone's sympathy, but such accidents will happen even with the best-regulated polo ponies. Nor ought we to taboo polo on that account. Eugli9ll- do not care for sport about which there is no element of danger. There are victims to cricket, to football, to _  hunting, and to boating. Even lawn tennis sometimes leads to fatal results, for did not the late Mr. James, of Birken:  head Park, die from injuries received I while playing tennis two or three years ago? What happened on Saturday cannot, therefore, be allowed to ez.cite a prejudice against our local polo club. That even the innocent and seemingly harmless diversion of children digging in the sand is fraught with grave danger. This has just been demonstrated with startling and terrible vividness at West Kirby. On Thursday evening a number of children excavated a tunnel in front o" the Hydropathic Establish ment. By and by other sportive young ones came and played hide-andseek on the spot where the tunnel had been made. After that one of the latter was missing, and he was not found until Friday morning. He was then discovered under the ruins of the tunnel, quite dead. The poor little fellow was in a stooping popition, with one hand raised, as if to protect himself from the falling sand. That no blame can fairly be attached to anyone for this awful catastrophe, and the verdict of the coroner's jury of  accidental death must be endorsed by every one. But the case ought to be borne in mind, as a warning of what may occur, by parents who go to the seaside with their little ones. That Thomas Bevan, a good-looking boy, was charged before Mr. Preston on Monday morning with having attempted to commit suicide by banging himself in the main bridewoll. The case was in all its aspects a deplorable and extraordi. nary one. Had not the lad been promptly cut down by Inspector Parker be would undoubtedly have perished; the inspector resorted to the method of the St. John Ambulance Association for producing artificial respiration and this, I according to the evidence of Dr. Cornwall, the police-surgeon, saved the lad's life. As it was, the boy was insensible when the doctor appeared upon the scene. But his narrow escape does not appear to have warned him. He was taken to the Borough Hospital, and when he was brought back to the bridewell it was found that he had secreted a bandage which had been used about his neck. This induced the belief that he had intended to repeat his attempt to commit suicide. So Inspector Parker said to him, "Bevan, I hope you will not repeat the attempt to take your life whilst you are here 2" to which the obdurate youtii replied,"l won't promise you that. lam not going to be kept in prison here and the other boy off to America." How is a desperate young character like this to be brought to a sense of the fitness of things? That Bevan tried to commit suicide by tying a scarf to a ring on the wall in his cell. He then put the scarf round his neck and endeavoured to ha.ag him' self. Why are rings allowed on the walls of the bridewell cells? They are alleged to be used for the purpose of tying-up violent persons. But surely they are great sources of danger, and ought to be abolished forthwith. Disorderly prisoners may be secured by other means. If they are permitted to remain, and if a prisoner some day succeeds in hanging himself from one of them, who will be Feld responsible? They might safely be placed under lock and key, like taps, gas brackets, and other things are in a well-ordered lunatic  asylum. That the naval manceuvres have been concluded, but without the great fight in the English Channel to which the warstruck portion of the community were looking with interest. Already the critics are at work taking the whole affair to pieces and making mincemeat of Admiral Tryon's little escapade in the Mersey. According to report, the feat of devastating Liverpool as performed by this pillar of England's naval supremacy was utterly impossible, not owing as much to the strength of our defences as to the fact that H.M.S. Hercules, of which he was commander, had according to the rules of mimic warfare, been blown to pieces and left a wreck with all her crew in Bantry Bay. That apart from all this, the whole thing, so far as Glasgow, Liverpool, Birkenhead, and other places were concerned, was a complete farce. According to Mr. Holland, who is esteemed our greatest authority on international law, it is against all the rules of modern weefare to attack unfortified places or to bombard them after resistance has ceased, or to enforce a" fancy" ransom such as was claimed from Liverpool and Birkenhead. The Berlin Conference of 1874 laid this down very clearly. It is therefore evident that the whole was a and mistake—the famous missive from AdmiralTryon to the Mayor of Liver. pool included.