The Warwickshire Herald. — 1886-09-09 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

BUC. ceeded in weaving cork with various kinds of material used in the manufacture of coats and waistcoats. Several men who could not swim entered the water wearinc, these coats, and furnished ample evidence of the floating qualities of the fabric and of its utility to those engaged in seafaring occupations. At the close Lord Charles lieresford expressed his satisfaction with the experiments. The cost of a coat and vest—trousers are not necessary—is about £5, and the two together weigh a little over 6 lbs. The material looks very mach like an ordinary tweed, the only thing is that there is a slight lack of flexibility about it.  THE members of the Salvation Army have entered upon their week of self-denial, prescribed for them by General Booth, for the purpose of raising the sum of £5,000 to meet some of the most pressing liabilities of the organisation. The General set an example to his followers by giving up meat. This, he stated, he commenced ten days ago, and will not again eat until the 11th inst. A very "prominent officer" has secured 6d. towar Is the fund by cutting the hair of another "still more prominent officer." A family of nine will give up meat for this we k and anything else they can think of. Two ladies give the contents of their plate chest, containing twelve dessert spoons, five dessert forks, twelve tag spoons, a pair of sugar-tongs, salt spoons, a mustard pot, a toast-rack (all silver), a case of plated fruit knives and forks, and many other plated gooils, which General Booth says can be seen at the headquartecs of the Army in Queen Victoria-street, and for which he will be very glad to find a purchaser. A north. country Salvationist has undertaken to work an extra turn in the coal pit, and send the money thus earned to the fund. A foreigner has promised to give up meat, eggs, butter, and sugar. Another member has promised to deny himself a winter's , overcoat and his wife a jacket, and the £5 thus ' saved will go to enrich the fund. Colonel Tucker, who has just sailed for India. has sent some of his under garments to be sold for the benefit of the I fund. It is stated that thousands of members have filled up this" Self-Denial Coupon," and hundreds of officers have promised to give up their salaries. It is believed that £20,000 will be subscribed.  Ax exciting scene occurred at Faversham itailway Station on the arrival of several hundred hop. pickers, when it was found that upwards of fifty of them were without tickets. The station-muter immediately directed that they should be detained until they had paid their fares; but no sooner was this order given than the hop-pickers, in a body, made a rush for the doors, and some of them, by roughly treating the officials, managed to escape. The police were immediately communicated with, and as a large number of the district constables were in attendance at the petty sessions held close by. the superintendent was enabled to despatch half-a-dozen of his men to the railway station, where a scene of the wildest confusion was going on. The railway otEcials were utterly unable to cope with the "strangers," who were howling, hooting, and screeching at the top of their voices. Luggage was thrown about in all directions, and one brutal fellow savagely assaulted a ticket , collector, and then effected his escape. Even the arrival of the police did not quell the disturbance, but, if anything, it tended further to exasperate the hop-pickers. For an hour the station platform presented a most exciting scene. Many of those who had tickets helped others to get away by pushing them headlong through the waiting-room windows. The station-master declined to give any of them into custody, on the ground that such a course was useless, and ultimately they were allowed to go their way.  A LAD under 15 was allowed, not long ago, to witness the execution of a murderer at Versailles. The effect produced upon him was intense, and he was haunted by the lugubrious scene of which he bad been a spectator. He could talk of no other subject but the guillotine, and to all with whom he conversed, he described what he had witnessed. Horrible visions, he complained, pursued him of a night, preventing him from enjoying that repose so necessary for his unbalanced mind. Daring the daytime he was equally tortured, imagining himself to be an executioner, and declaring that he had a craving to see bloodshed. The unfortunate lad, who was apprenticed to a bootrnaker, ultimately gave up his employment, and for some days was lost sight of, it having since transpired that he had been seen wandering about the country. A dayor two ago the fugitive was discovered lying insensible by the roadside, whilst close to him was a doz, whose head he had severed with a butcher's knife. On recovering from the swoon into which he bad fallen, he was found to be raving mad, and had to be removed to a place of safety, pending his admission to a lunatic asylum. The doctors who have examined him fear that he will prove a case of incurable insanity.  THE Manchester police now believe that Mr. Lowe, who was found dead in a Midland Railway carriage, was not murdered, but committed suicide. No trace of the supposed debtor of £1,200 has yet been discovered.