The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1869-09-11 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

EXHIBITION OF FAT MEN.—OUT American cousins are not satisfied with having established baby shows, but, according to the Tribune, we find that an exhibition of fat men has been introduced as a custom in the country. At Gregory's Point, Corm, on the 19th of August, 180 of the fattest men in the States appeared to strive with each other in the scales. 'The judges began weighing them about ten o'clock in the morning, and it was three o'clock before the arduous task was concluded. After business, pleasure set in, and consisted of games of leap-frog and other athletic sports. In leap-frog the Daniel Lamberts were so agile as to astound the spectators. " Their agility was wonderful," writes the reporter of the Tribune. "When Donnelly made a back for Sherwood, who lightly and ,tsaeefullv cleared it ; and when Sherwood bent his portly form to the apology Hubbard, who left it beneath and behind him at one and the same time, there was such a clapping of hands and such a waving of handkerchiefs as might have raised all the spirits whom Glendower failed to bring to terms at his magic call." Boxing bouts followed the leap-frog between a couple of daughty champions, who weighed respectively 2561 b. and 235 b. The affair was wound up by the election of a president, who was chosen simply on the score of his wonderful pre-eminence in fat. He had accumulated 3581 b.; the other officers of the association were all taken rateably. We are informed that the Herald correspondent fainted from the heat, which the fat men bore like heroes.  At Sheffield, Thomas Liversedge, labourer; Albert Parkin, collier; Charles Tudor, moulder; and John Smith, roller, have been committed for trial on the charge of being concerned in the recent colliery riots at Sheffield.__  Mr. Toole has paid Mr. Byron £650 as the minimum price of a three-act domestic drama, written expressly for him by the latter gentleman— the author being entitled to still further sums in the event of a long run. The part which Mr. Toole so prizes—of course the hero of the drama—is a kind of travelling mountebank of the Dr. Marigold order. The piece as may be inferred, is of a serio-comic character—the pathetic element largely prevailing. It is stated that in consequence of the reports of recent frauds carried out in a certain department of Woolwich Arsenal, it has been determined to employ a number of detectives throughout the establishment, and the utmost vigilance is to be exercised by the police in searching all carts, parcels, sent out..  The :Wonting Herald alludes to dissensions at the board of the Great Eastern Railway Company, and says it is rumoured that the deputy-chairman has retired, and that Mr. J. Simpson has been called upon to fulfil his duties The recent bankruptcy of the Leeds carriers is said to have some connection with these matters.  Mr. F. B. Vaughan, of Newport, county Mayor writes to deny that he was shot at on the sane night that Mr. Hunter was murdered. He states that when he was returning home at midnight a shot was fired on the road some 300 yards off, but he has no reason to suppose it was fired at him. The young man Clement Harwood, who has been remanded several times on a charge of stealim.,^ bills of exchange to the amount of £15,000, and who is also charged with forgery, was again brought up in London on Tuesday. The prosecutor asked to be allowed to withdraw the charge, which the Lord Mayor granted. A. man, aged about 45, committed suicide last week in a shooting gallery on the Grand Jatte Island, at Neuilly, near Paris. He had already fired a pistol 23 times at a mark, and then discharged the next shot in his mouth, blowing away a part of his head. He left a written paper stating that he was a drummer in the Ist battalion of the National Guard, but giving neither name nor address.  The Leeds Carpenters' and Joiners' Board of Arbitration held its first quarterly meeting on Monday evening. The business in hand was soon transacted, and was got through in a quiet con dilatory manner. It was reported that 90 of the employers in-L-redir hettallowed the rules of the board to be posted in their respective workshops, and that 30 had declined permission. Of these 30, however, it was stated that only live employed a large number of men. The charred remains of two boys were tound on Monday afternoon on the top of a limekiln in tipper Holloway, London. The workmen say *at for several weeks they had noticed the boys wandering about, apparently without home or friends, and in livery destitute condition. It is most likely that they laid themselves down on Sunday evening on the top of the kiln for the sake of the warmth, and that while they were sound asleep they met with this sad end.