THE GATESHEAD MURDER.

Recent cablegrams' advised that, Noble, the Gateshead murderer,.- has been sentenced to death. The following is the story of the crime:— In the Co-operative Store at Windy Nook, a small Durham village, hear Gateshead, and about a mile above Felling, a desperate struggle took place early on November 1 between a. shopbreaker and forfr men on guard. One- of the latter , was shot dead, another was wounded, and the ishopbjeaker escaped. - v . Meat had been repeatedly stolen from the butchery department of^the {■.lore during the several weeks, and • 11. 2 i Committee of the Society "decided 'that a watch should be set inside the N shop nightly. Four men were selected for this purpose—John Patterson, .Christopher Carf, and George Ather, members of the Store Committee, and 1 John Joseph Cowell, an assistant in ,'the butchering •• department. * The ,\ watchers gathered at a quarter-past. - nine. * The night passed slowly. All the lights in the shop had been extinguished; They were incandescent gas , lamps, jetnd to-the bypass of, one of them a string had been attached so that it could be turned up in a' Moment. The men passed the, time talk- , ing in whispers and listening anxious-^ ly to every sound. About half-past four o'clock it was observed,that the gas-lamp immediately outside'1 the shop had been extinguished. The watchers ' grouped themselves at the door giving entrance from" the side room to /the shop, and (there waited. Almost im.piediately a key was heard to turn in the lock of the front door, and the ' door was'opened quietly. A. man with the appearance of a workman, wearing a false ,beard and carrying a bull's-« -eye lantern, entered, and it is^ believed that a second man was with him but waited at the door. The shopr bveaker passed down the length of the shop, scanning the meat carefully by the light of his lantern. He passed between the men waiting on each side, apparently not suspecting their presence, and went, into the slaughterhouse at the rear. He then.turned, 1 and went back into the shop. The four men —Patterson, Ather, and Cowell, from one side, and Carr from the other—rushed out upon the intruder. Cowell ran to the string attached to the gas and flooded the > : shop with light-; the other three closed upon and seized the shopbreaker, "and were joined by Cowell. Thus he was hel<l tightly, by all four. The' thief ' is described as a powerfully-built man, and a desperate struggle endued. Carr, it is: stated,, picked-..up a1 but-' « cher's steel;, and dealt the man several > -blows on the head ! in the hope of 1 stunning him. It is said that Carr was appealed to not to hurt* thi? man too much, and that the maji himself said they were '''using him ,badly." ', ■ Carr is a big, strong man. The in-" truder, however, managed^ at length ■ to.free his right arm, and, producing a revolver from his pocket,' fired ■it straight at Patterson, who was in front of him. The bullet struck Patx-'. terson in the forehead, just above the right eye, and he fell dying to the ground. The intruder immediately discharged his weapon a second time, and the bullet struck Carr in the leg. *,Carr staggered, and the thief, by a desperate effort, threw himself clear, and made ,a dash to the renderingroom. ■ * TKis was shut off from the shop by a sliding door, which had only recently been inserted. The man seemed familiar with the premises. He pulled the door aside without hesitation, and, mirsued still, ran into the room ■■' and jumped with one leg into the dripping cauldron. With the other foot he kicked the glass out of one of the lower panes of the window, and leapt through, leaving the impression of his right foot in the dripping. An alarm was raised in the neighbourhood by the shouting and ■ the noise of the shots, but the man ran towards the quarries, and got clear away. John Patterson, who was killed, was. a steady man. a good husband and. father. Just before he went out he had a look, at his greenhouse, and. ■ teifded his chrysanthemums, _. saying, .-jestingly, that it might be the last time he should see them.