The Sun. — 1855-09-07 (London, England)

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.—THE AFRICAN TWINS.—The twin neern children, who are joined together at the lower part of their backs by a ligament of flesh sixteen inches in circumference, were onWednesday shown to a number of medical gentlemen and persons connected with the press, in the saloon of Drury•lane Theatre. There can he no doubt of the genuineness of this rare physiological curiosity. The children, it must he avowed, do not seem at all the worse in health, intelligence, or happiness, for the extraordinary bondage in which they have been placed by the caprice of Nature at their birth. They ran to and fro, they talk, laugh, and sing, and are pleased with the notice of strangers. One of them exclaimed, in answer to a remark she overheard, " I don't look like a nigger." Their hair is woolly and complexion a dusky brown. They will be five years old next month, and are both girls, one being named " and the other " Bessy." We believe they manage to be unanimous, as it is desirable they should be, upon all their movements, and they will kies each other with much sisterly fondness, although it is not very easy for them to turn their faces so as to look at each other. Their pulses do not beat together, and all the internal organs are belived to be quite separate ; and it is satisfactory to learn that there may yet be a chance of releasing them, before they grow up, from the inconvenient situation in which they now are. It is said that their parents are nearoes in slavery, in one of the Southern States, and that the first profits of their exhibition in England will be devoted to purchase the liberation of the father and mother. DETERMINED SUICIDE IN A RAILWAY TRAlN.—Yesterday morning a mast determined act of self-destruction was committed in a railway carriage, between Nottingham and Derby, by a young gentleman named Payne, son of Dr. Payne, of the first-mentioned town. It appears that deceased left Nottingham by •the ordinary train at 8.40 a.m., travelling in a second-class carriage. In the same compartment were two gentlemen who proceeded as far as the Trent Junction, where they got out, and deceased was left alone. Trent Junction is equi-distaut between Nottingham and Derby, being about eight miles from either place. The train on leaving called at Sawley and Draycott, two small stations, and then stopped at Borrowash ; the station-master at which place was proceeding to open the door when he saw the body of Mr. Payne hanging close to the door. The deceased gentleman had taken a black silk neckerchief from his neck, and had suspended himself from the ventilator at the top of the carriage door. He had also taken off his shoes, and turned his trousers up to the knees. He was immediately cut down, and although life was apparently not extinct, he was beyend hope of recovery. The unfortunate gentleman was conveyed to Derby, and Mr. Gisborne, the company's surgeon, attended him, but life was extinct. To show how determined deceased was to commit the rash act, we may state that from the time the two gentlemen got out at Trent Junction until he was discovered at Borrowash not more than 10 minutes could have elapsed. No letters were found upon him to throw any light on the cause of the deed, but he had 21. in money, a band-box, slippers, &c., as if proceeding on a journey. His parents have been made acquainted by telegraph with the melancholy Circumstance, and the body awaits an inquest at the Derby station. On the same day an inquest was held upon the body by Mr. Wbiston, coroner, at the George Inn, near the railway station, Derby, when evidence was adduced as to the finding of the body, and an opinion was expressed that Mr. Payne had taken away his life whilst suffering from an attack of inflammation of the bowels, to which, it appeared, he was very subject, occasionally to such an extent as to deprive him of his senses for a time. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that "deceased had destroyed himself, being at the time in an unsound state of mind."