TELEGRAPHIC.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 2, Issue 119, 20 March 1895, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC.

Supreme Court. Auckland, "Wednesday.-The whole of the sitting of the Supreme Court yesterday was occupied with hearing the charge against three natives of stealing a gun case. The prosecution which occupied the whole of the previous day was not concluded until yesterday afternoon. The evidence for the defence had only concluded at six o'clock and as the Crown prosecutor decided to call rebutting evidence further hearing of the case was adjourned for a day. Lady Augusta BoylesAuckland, Wednesday.—Lady A. Boyle's condition shows a very marked improvement and the doctors attending her are much more hopeful of her pulling through without the loss or disablement of her foot, Accident. Tiiames, "Wednesday.—A lad named John Whelan who was admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening, suffering from n severe kick in the loin by a horse, is lying in a very critical condition, inflamation having set in. Fire. Napier, Monday.—A fire broke out in the Tomoana Freezing "Works, about three o'clock on Sunday morning, having originated in that portion of the building used as a carpenter's, blacksmith's and fitter's establishment which contained a large stock of machinery of all kinds. This building stood detached, but right in the centre of the works, and the flames were not mastered till about £IOOO damago had been done. The insurance on the building and machinery was £520, which is considerably under the estimated damage. Telephone Exchange appointmentsv "Wellington, "Wednesday.—Thore are seven hundred applications on hand from girls who want appointments in the Telephone Exchange.

MOT SO ROMANTIC AFTER ALL. "Do you notice how attentively that j&ntleman has been watching me tor the 'last half hour?" said one young lady to wother at an evening party. " Do you mean that man by the piar.o ?" " Vt" v'' "Well, now that yoti speak of it, he does seem somewhat interested in you." "He certainly does. Ido declare," continued the young lady, gaily, "I believe lie has fallen in love with me. Isn't it delightfully romantic A few minutes after she was tr.lking with her hostess, when, as an opportunity presented itself, she carelessly remarked : " My dear Mrs. 8., pray tell me who that [uiet but very dislingui: looking gentleman is near the piano. Ido nut remember ever seeing him before." " Probably not," replied the lady ; "but lie is quite well known. He is a detective." SURVIVED HIS OWN EXECUTION. A man who has attended his own execution and still survives to relate the details Is surely worthy of a short paragraph. The man in question, although at present serving in the humble capacity of waiter in me of the Paris cafes, was, twenty-one years ago, one of the historic characters of the world His name is Colonel Marteras, and in 1869, was on the point of being proclaimed President of Uruguay, when he was arrested, charged with treason, and sentenced to be shot. On Monday, June 30th of that year, he was taken by a platoon of soldiers out of the capital to a cleared spot in the heart of a forest and bound to a chair. At the word "Fire!" a nervous shock caused Marteras to fall to the ground. He did not hear the volley, but a labourer working near by did. The workman went to ascertain the cause: saw the soldiers marching away, and Marteras badly wounded, but not dead by any means, lying on the ground. The labourer took the would-be President home and cured his wounds, and he and Marteras both now often tell of the supposed execution of the "French Pretender." MY BABES IN THE WOOD. I know a story, fairer, dimmer, sadder, Than any story painted in your beoks. You are so glad ? I will not make you gladder; Yet ;isten, with your pretty restless looks. "Is ii a fairy story ?" Wei!, half fairy— At least it dates far back as fairies do, And seems to me as beautiful and airy ; Yet half, perhaps the fairy half; is true. You had a baby sister and a brother. Two very dainty people, rosy white, Sweeter than all things else except each other! Older yet younger—gone from human sight! And I, who loved them, and shall love them ever, And think with yearning tears how each light hand Crept toward bright bloom <ud berries—l shall never Know how I lost them. Do you understand? Poor slightly golden heads ! I think I missed them First in some dreamy, piteous, doubtful way ; But when and where with lingering lips I kissed them, My gradual parting, I ca.v never say. Sometimes I fancy that they may have perished In shadowy quiet of xtt rocks and moss, Near paths whose very pebbles I have cherished, For their small sakes, since my most bitter loss. 1 fancy, too, that they were softly covered By robins, out of apple flowers they knew, Whose nursing wings in far home sunshine hovered. Before the timid world had dropped the dew. Their names were—what yours are. At this you wonder, Their pictures are—your own, as you have seen; And my bird-buried darlings, hidden under Lost leaves—why, it is your dead selves I mean 1 BACK FROM THZ GRAVE. He was a young sergeant in the Hussars, ind in one of the numerous night attacks on the Russian fortifications in the Crime;., he had the misfortune to receive a dangerous bullet wound in the region of the heart, while bravely exhorting his men to action. He was immediately stricken to the ground with insensibility, and a period of perhaps two hours elapsed before the ambulance could be procured During this time, owing Ic the piercing east winds that only a Russian can stand with equanimity, the tergeant became perfectly pale and cold. Notwithstanding all precautions, and a fair share of nursing and attention—for in the Crimea this department was very badly managed—he was pronounced the next afternoon by three medical men to have met with instantaneous death. His body was accordingly handed over to the burial il his regiment. There were numerous burials to take place the same afternoon, so the bodies of the sergeant and three privates were handed aver to a big brawny Irishman for burial. This man, having dug the trenches, placed the four bodies in a line and proceeded to Dover them. He had covered three of them, when a frightful thunderstorm came on, and he was Dbliged to discontinue his operations for the night, leaving the remains of the sergeant txposed to the weather, wolves, and other evils. Night came on, and the men all turned into their beds, such as they were, ■nd soon were fast asleep. At three o'clock, the shrill cry of the tentry challenging a man might have been heard on the still night air, and to the usual query came the answer, " Friend." Making his way past the sentry, the man had to walk three hundred yards to reach Ihe encampment of his "squad." Calling with a feeble voice outside the tent of the sergeant-major, he asked for quarters for the night. Aghast with terror, the trembling officer led the man—who was no other than the dead and buried sergeant —to the colonel's quarters, and having nwakened the colonel, he narrated his strange story. Next day "ortunate " non-com." was reinstated as sergeant to his troop once more, and great was the merry-making when the company heard the good news. It appears that about 2 a.m.,.the Russians discharged some shells near the British encampment, and one of the shells dropping quite close to the burial lines awoke the sergeant from his trance. Cold, sore, ami stiff, but feeling little the worse for perilous adventure, he rose and made hi;, way as quickly as possible to the tents. An examination of the wound elicited the fact that the bullet entered the chest just below the second rib, curved off the edr;e 01 the third, and was found by one of the " clever trio" who pronounced the man dead, imbedded about half an inch below the surface cf the skin. This incident was related by tho sergeant btaiself to a Home rgpreieutativ*.