Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1876-12-01 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

FIGHT WITH A MADMAN IN A RAILWAY CARRIAG E. _ _  The passen7g;r7l;y -the 10.45 express train in Friday night from Lime-street, Liverpool, to Chester, to catch the Irish mail, were alarmed, as they were slowly roundiug the sharp carve just outside Frodsham Station, by hearing the driver blow the three sharp shrill whistles, intimating danger, and the hasty stoppage of the train in a short tunnel On the Liverpool side of Frodsham. Among the passengers was Mr. Unwin, a commercial traveller, who, on looking out of the carriage to ascertain what was the matter, saw a man without a hat hurpiedly rush through a carriage whitlow, scattering the glass in all directions (followed by another, who ran down the footboard), and endeavoured to get into a different carriage, just as the guord came up and pulled him back. He eluded the grasp of the guard, and got ',round on the other side of the carria;e, and threw himself on the metals, but the tram came to a stand. still at that moment, and he lay across the rails. The guard endeavoured to raise him unassisted, but the fellow grasped the Tails so tenaciously that it was found absolutely impossible to pull him away without the aid of three other men. He screamed and ! shouted like a madman), and then the passengers were horror-stricken to observe an elderly well-dressed gentleman, having the whole of his face, hands, and breast covered with blood, gesticulating violently out of the same wincow through which the other had escaped. When :-,they went up to him, and he was liberated, he immediately swooned, and was carried off to Dr. Robiuson's surgery, at Frodsham, where. his left thumb was amputated. In the meantime the man who had endeavoured to commit suicide was detained in thee.ustody of the station-master at Prodsham, .and it then transpired that the two men in the compartment were Thos. Holmes, of No. 3, Schofieldstreet, Wigan, and his son, Thos. Holmes, of No. 3, Vulcan-street, Garston. When the gentleman got better he said he was Mr. A. J. Ellis, lithographer, 27, Ratcliffe-street, Liverpool, and gave the following particulars :—" I got in at Lime-street Station with two men, and we proceeded all right till we were just- entering Frodsham Station, when the younger man jumped on his feet with an open knife in bis hand, and called out to me, ' You —,.1 will put this into you.' He seized me by the coat, and made a desperate lunge at my throat with the knife. I thought his object was robbery, so I handed him my purse, containing £5 10s. in gold, which he immediately pitched through the carriage window. I then knew that I was struggling with a madman. He continued to attempt to cut my throat with the knife. I was underneath him at full length on the seat. He knelt on my breast, and as he was thrusting at my throat I laid hold of his hand that contained the knife, and I kept him at bay for a minute, and then his father got behind him and held his hand, and it was at that time within an inch of my throat, as he stood over me. I then got up and struck the knife out of his hand, and he turned and struggled with his father, whom he forced into a corner of the carriage. He then went to a window, smashed it all to pieces, caught me by the middle, and attempted to pitch me through. He carried me to the window, but he failed to do more, and then he got my left-hand thumb into his mouth, bit it right through the glove, and nearly severed my thumb from tne hand. He then leaped through the carriage wind nv, and I caught him by the heels and held him hanging out of the door for about a mile, till I fainted -from loss of blood, just as the train came to a standstill outside Frodsham Station. Ido not recollect any more after that." The prisoner, who is evidently a lunatic, was detained at Frodeham, in company with his father. He recently lost his wife, and has been drinking hard ever since.