Weekly News. — 1889-12-05 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

TELE D.ALSTON TRAGEDY.  At Dalston, on 8 iturday, an inquiry was held into the circumstances attending the death of Ann Emma South, aged 38, wife of Mr. G. South, of Shrublandgrove, and their two daughters, Ada, aged 14, and Edith, aged 12. On Wednesday evening Mrs. South inuniered her children by beating their heads with a coke hammer, and also cutting their throats, and afterwards committed suicide by cutting her own throat. According to information gleaned by the police, on ti's Wednesday the two girls, who were very tall for their age, had taken part in the examination at the Shrubland-road lioard School, where the eldest daughter held a prominent place in the highest standard. On returning home it is supposed that the mother sent one on an errand, and in the meantime killed her sister. murdering Qs other child when she returned. The exaniinatllsn of the school was to be continued on Thur.day, but when it became known among the scholars that two of their number had been murdered, the excitement was so great that the Government inspector postponed the remainder of the examination for a week. The husband had to be assisted into the room to give his evidence, and he appeared to be utterly broken down.—The jury returned a verdiet, that the children died from the effects of fractures of the skull ; that the injuries were inflicted by the mother while temporarily in. sane; and that while in the same condition she cow ,ixitted suicide.  Mr. J. A. Fox, the author of "Why Irelam: Wants Home Rule," has written a new work, entitled "A Hey to the Irish Question," which is ou the eve of publication. An advance copy having ueen forwarded to Mr. Gladstone, the right hon. gentleman sent Mr. Fox the following acknowledg ment : "I have looked at various portions of your book, and so far as I can judge it appears to me likely to be very valuable. I hope you will providv it either with a good index, or at the least with v very full table of contents, otherwise the benefit oi your citations will in the main be lost." This sug ?tuition is being carried out and a full index added. which will obviously facilitate reference. The ketch Dart,of Jersey, bound from Runcorn to x French port, foundered 10 miles from the South Stack Lighthouse early on Saturday morning. - - .  In one of the suburbs of Vienna 'there has been much talk about a newly-discovered Raphael.. A gentleman who bought some cigars in a little tobacconist's shop noticed a Madonna and Child, before which a small lamp was burning. He asked the owner of the shop bow she had got possession ol the picture, and she told him that it had come from a noble Hungarian family now extinct. He offered her 100 florins for it, but she asked him time to consider. Next day two gentlemen came and tried to get the picture for 200 florins. Some artist: who have seen it declare it to be .6 most valnabl work, though certainly not a Raphael. It is no, being exhibited. . . . . - .  iaituais ease of out of the frying-pan into the fire recently occurred in Sydney. John Henry Varley, the well-known evangelist, was iddressing a crowded meeting in the Masonic when a panic arose among the audience. The :aretaker pioniptly threw open the escape doors, but iorgot there was an excavation 14ft. deep outside ale of them, made for a proposed enlargement of Me building. Into this pitfall the people tunililed is they rushed out, the majority fortunately recaphg with nothing more than a revere shaking.  Diverse are the methods of authors in dealing with their numerous correspondents. Tennyson, ays the Echo, ignores almost ail letters without dis•rtinination. Robert Louis Stevenson travels abaut io much that most of his letters never reach him. i3rowning and Lowell are neither very voluminous n their correspondence. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the other hand, answers nearly every letter that in& its way to his desk ; and both Henry James ind F. Marion Crawford are prompt and agreeable etter writers. Dumas and Jules Verne employ •  rutares to assist them in their enormous co.rre,l