News by the Mail.

Hastings Standard, Issue 191, 8 December 1896, Page 4

News by the Mail.

A violent storm prevailed on the South Coast of Ireland on October 5, and the next morning it was discovered that Daunt's Hock lightship, with a crew of eight men on board, was missing. Vigilant search was made around the coast, but no trace of the ship could be discovered. Shu was moored five miles south of Roche's Point, and was a great guide to shipping, particularly Atlantic liners, making the port. Whether she foundered at her moorings during the gale with her eight men, or whether she parted with her cables and was driven ashore on the rock-bound coast, remains to be ascertained.

A horrible story is brought by the mail just to hand from Havana, one of the many ugly accusations made from time to time against the Spanish authorities in Cuba. It is asserted that prisoner,-! are taken from the police quarters in Havana and drowned at the entrance to the harbor, their bodies being devoured by the numerous sharks that infest the coast. It is said (>:-{ imprisoned rebels were thus disposed of on September 20 last. The powder magazine at Bulawayo exploded the other night. Gunner IS. \Y. Downes and eight natives were killed and many seriously wounded. All the able-bodied population, headed by Lord Grey and Sir Frederick Carrington, assisted in caring for the wounded. The magazine contained 7H5 cases of dynamite and 83 cases of gelatine. The explosion is supposed to have been duo to the blowing-up of a small magazine close at hand by a bullet fired in the course of rifle practice by a trooper. All the explosives were to have been moved further away from the town on the day following the disaster. The magazine was built with solid stone walls, fragments of which were hurled in every direction, killing and wounding in a frightful manner. The police barracks and remount stables were wrecked, and many horses and mules were killed and injured. George P. Anderson, an aeronaut, 22 years old, ascended at the Miami County Fair on October 2. Attached to his balloon was a cannon. When the balloon had reached an altitude of 5000 ft, he climbed into the cannon with his parachute. The cannon was fired and lie was thrust out into the air. Just as his parachute opened, a small rope by which he was fastened to it broke, and he fell to the ground. He was crushed beyond recognition. M. Besancon, a prominent aeronaut, will shortly make an attempt to remain up in the air in a balloon for 21 hours. He proposes to make the attempt accompanied by one companion, between October 15 and 22, from the grounds of the Touring Club. The record has hitherto been held by M. Tissandier, who went up from Paris in 1875, and came down again in the Department of the Landes, after having been in the air 22 hours 40 minutes.