The Warwickshire Herald. — 1899-03-09 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

TUE WRECKED LINER LABRADOR.  with a booming crash on the Mackenzie Rock,off tho Hebrides. Worst of all, it struck nearly amidships, and there was danger that it would break in two at any moment; and even at best there was little time to spare,as the vessel was filling with water. There was a heavy swell over the deck, which added to the difficulties of the situation, but the crew carried out their work as if on parade. There was not the slightest panic, and everybody was got into boats and landed safely.  Nothing that has been written in the gruesome kind of fiction could exceed in horror the story that comes from Little Wild-street—a squalid part of Drury-lane. Tne time was half-an-hour past midnight, when a woman heard a sickening thud on the ground below her bedroonr, followtd by a long, low moan. Holding the light outside her window, she saw the bent-up figure of a man, with only a shirt on, and a tint* red stream of blood issuing from his wounds. Her husband called the police, the rooms were ransacked, and the clothes of the man, who was being carried to die on his way to the hospital, were found mysteriously hidden away on the third landing. Then there was the interview between the police and the occupant of the bedroom on the third landing, whose window was  Immediately above the spot where the  man was disrovered.  The police swear to !narks of a struggle, and more especially  to bloodstain's, as if  of fingers convulsively clutching the window ledge in a last struggle for life.  That is the suggesPON but it would be grossly unfair to the  occupant of the room, who stands remanded  .... on a charge rd. murder, to presume that they will be able to prove their case. Dead men tell no tales, Mid Joseph Wootton, who met with his end in this way, was unconacidus from the moment of his fall. The pri,oner is a Covent Garden porter, Joseph Holland, aged thirty-two, end a curious part of the affair wan the amount of sympathy shewn foe him at the inquest by his wile, with whom he had not been living for some little time. Of course, a strong line of defence could be made, that Wootton attempted to commit suicide, and that the other man tried to save him, and that this was the end of a drunken bout, and explained the appearance of conflict.  The Stag Inn, Castle-street, Westminster, which Is associated with the memory of Dick Turpin, is about to yield to a modern public-house of more pretentious design. It is a pity, for this quaint old with a history dating back to the six. teeth century, has clustered round it any amount of tra,iiti•ms. When these are read in the story books. and have no substantial reference, they will  seem mere phantoms of the imagination. It was  • quite the home of a large circle of those who practised the highwayman's art; and it had a resource which the police did not realise. This was  • long tunnel, well built of stout bricks that led down to the banks of the Thames. It was called Turpin's Tunnel, and wis said to be his means of escape when he was threatened with capture. The house was also amply provided with neat littls trap doors and false ceilings fur the benefit of customers who wished to keep their presence strictly private. There is one dark reminiscence of those doughty days. A few days since the manager disc ,vered a grave at the fu end of the subter. rane-in passage, and found therein some human bones. Was it a secret burial. or was its tragedy?  The joint show of the Hunters' in fa. Society and the Royal Commim t.e Brim ling grows In interest every year. Hunters' Society was established thirte.ii ye,rq .2. One of its early actions was to give Roll and sirr medals to associated societi a. with the le..u--, that they will give other premium 4. Thu. in y t the lo al agricultural sociaria. bay.,