MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9017, 2 April 1888, Page 6

MAIL NEWS.

" / A FERRY BOAT DISASTER. Y • By the bursting of the boiler on the Vallejo ferry boat Julia, and burning of the Boat and docks immediately after, some 30 to 40 lives were lost. , Only 12 bodies have been recovered. Y..' ' ■> -J • V A TRAGEDY. ■ A special despatch to the New York Herald from Granada Bays that .Engineer Cartaya, of the Nicaraguan Canal Company!, shot Surgeon Birt, and then sprang from a balcony, breaking his neck. He died instantly. ' THE CROWN FRINGE. The Figaro of Paris says that the Crown Prince is afflicted with a dreadful disease, which is nob cancer. . GERMANY AND ITALY. : The treaty between Germany and Italy requires each Power to send an army of 300,000 men to the French frontier in case France attacks the other. . , . THE PANAMA CANAL. M. de Lesseps announced at -a meeting in Paris of the shareholders in the Panama Canal Company that a further sum of money would be raisod by the issue of bonds to the face value of 600,000,000 francs } that locks would bo used in the canal, and that it would be opened in 1890, one year later than he has heretofore claimed for its opening. The meeting approved his report. p THE BOULANGER REVIVAL. The Berlin North Gorman Gazette maintains that the Boulanger election intriguo is directly traceable to the Orleanists, whose interest it is to disturb the peace. It says that the new Boulanger worship is as dangerous in tendency as its origin is transparent. COERCION IN IRELAND. The English Government have decided to discontinue prosecutions of Irish newspapers for publishing reports of League meetings.

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. _ A despatch from. Paris to the Times says : —" Authentio information has been received from St. Petersburg that Lord Randolph Churchill, on his recent visit submitted to the Czar a proposal relative to England's policy as regards Russia. The proposition was that Russia should be left liberty of action in Europe on the condition that she do not further encroach upon Afghan territory. It iB stated that the Czar favours this policy and, if it should be adopted, would even not objeot to Afghanistan becoming an integral part of India." MR. SPURGEON AND THE BAPTIST UNION.

The Rev. Mr. Spurgeon, in a letter to the Wesleyan Reform Union, in reply to the resolution adopted by that ( body expressing approval of his course in withdrawing from the Baptist Union, says:— " I am unable to remain longer quiet when the war is for the authority of the Scriptures and the great doctrines of man's ruin, his redemption, and the finality of the Lord's judgment. Being zealous for the old evangelical faith, I may speak too sternly against the enemies of the truth, and my words may seem unnecessarily sharp swords. We will together fight for the Word and the Gospel. We will bear our outspoken witness against this modern purgatory,"

Till: FRINGE OF WALES AT THE PLAY. In the London Star a story is printed that the Prince of Wales disturbed the actors and the public by loud, talk during the performance of " Ariane." Search for persons who heard such noisy talk failed to find them. A TOWN LEVELLED BY A CYCLONE. , A tornado has destroyed Mount Vernon, Illinois, a flourishing town which stood 60 miles to the east of St. Louis, killing 30 persons and fatally injuring 19 more, while 100 were seriously wounded, and 500 buildings were, demolished in a few minutes. Mount Vernon was built on at flat prairie. The tornado came up from the south-west, with a rotary, whirling motion> sweeping a path 500 yards wide and several miles long, within which everything was., destroyed. The damage occasioned is estimated at 500,000 dollars. The ruins caught fire afterwards, and four men wore burnt to death.

SEVERE WEATHER IN ENGLAND.

. The' weather Has been extremely severe in many parts of the country, and railway traffic has been greatly impeded by snowdrifts. In the Rnondda Valley and other parts of Wales persons have been lost on the mountains, and have been found frozen to death. • " J

TERRIBLE DEATH. - An inquest was held at the Harrington Arms, on Lord Harrington's estate, Macclesfield, touching the death of Samuel Stubba, aged 50 years. The . deceased left the Harrington Arms to walk home to Bosley, a distanceof fourmiles, duringablindingsnowstorm on the 14th February. In attempting to scale a fence, he caught his foot between the top rail and a wire, and was suspended with his head in a ditch four feet deep in snow. He hung there for 18 hours, during which time he tore away the brushwood, turf, and a large part of the?ditch bank. He was (then accidentally discovered, but he subsequently succumbed to the effects of the exposure. A verdict to that effect was returned. MURDER OK A SISTER. At Taunton Ernest Wm. Vernon Hitohens, 21, was tried before Mr. Justice Field for the murder of his sister, Constance Mary Vernon Hitchens. There was no dispute as to the facts of the case, the only question being whether the prisoner was legally responsible for his acts. The facts of. the case are already before the public../ The Srisoner had had bad health, and had all his fe suffered from epileptic fits./ Before shooting his sister he had written on a piece of paper as follows " I leave everything that belongs to me to my dew mother. ' I have been treated go badly by, that beast, my sister Constance, that I rr-|st put an end to her life by shooting, and, knowing that I shall have to die for it, I also shoot myself. Good-bye to all; hoping you will all have a happy time of it. Good-bye, dear father and mother." The jury, after nearly three-quarters of an hour's deliberation, found the prisoner guilty, ' but they also found that at the time he was insane, so as not to be responsible, according to law, for his actions. His Lordship ordered the prisoner to be confined as a criminal lunatic in Shepton Mallet Gaol during Her Majesty's pleasure. FATAL FIRES. A sad spectacle was witnessed on February 19, at 121, Little Seymour-mews, Marylebone Road, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Hodges, who, oh returning from a place of worship, disoovered their two children on a burning bed. By the time the flames were extinguished both the children were dreadfully Durnt. One of them died, while the other is in a precarious condition.'. The elder of the children had been lighting a match, and this was the cause of the disaster. A fire broke out at about five o'clock the same day at the shop of Mr. Joseph Russell, boot and shoe manufacturer, High-street, Dudley. Almost immediately after it was discovered, three oi the inmates of the house were seen at an attic window crying for help. Before a fire-escape could be procured one of these had fallleh back into the room, apparently overcome by \ the and: when the escape arrived the rapid progress of the fire nad made it impossible to rescue the other two. In two hours the building was gutted, and the charred remains of the three victims were found among the ruins. They were—Joseph Russell, aged 45, the proprietor of the premises ; Eleanor Russell, aged 50; and Margaret Christman, 26, a domestic servant. v MURDER AND SUICIDE. On Saturday morning, February 18, a sad case of murder and suicide occurred at Weeden-street, Carbrook, within the borough of Sheffield. At No. 13 lived Richard Henry Richards, a labourer, his wife Harriet, and four children. At six o'clock Mrs. Richards called up her eldest son to go to bis work. He returned for breakfast at half-past eight, and not finding a * fire lighted or breakfast ready he went into his mother's room, and found her in bed with her throat cut, and by her side her little daughter, two years old, whose throat was alsocut. The father was away working on a night shift. Mrs. Richards lived only afew minutes after her son saw her. She'was unable to speak, but nodded her head when the constable asked," Have you done this !'' The child died on Saturday evening. No

reason could bo assigned for the act except that the woman had been in a low state of mind for some time. ME. GLADSTONE AND HOME RULE. ; Mr. Gladstone, in returning thanks to 250 clergymen of the Church of England for the memorial drawn up by them in favour of Home Rule, said he believed it would havo the effect of greatly widening the growing conviction : • that . neither honour ' nor advantage can be gained by the continued refusal to aooord the moderate and con-stitutionally-expressed demands of the Irish people. Y . . , ' - DISCOVERY OF VALUABLE DOCUMENTS. _ ' A great number of documents, ranging in time xrom the Elizabethan poriod to Queen Anne's time, have been discovered in a hidden chamber in the Stratford Guildhall, and they will be examined by the Shakespearean librarian at Stratford with the hope of securing some new light concerning the life of Shakespeare. *"

* ' A WHIST HAND. The following extract from an Indian paper has been sent to the London Times by a near relative of one of the players mentioned in it" Has any whist-player ever held the 13 trumps in one hand ? The phenomenon was seen at the United Service Club, Calcutta, on the evening of the 9th instant. The players— trust they will forgive us ' naming' them, but whist history must be above suspicion— Mr. Justice Norris, Dr. Harvey, Dr. Sanders, and Dr. Sleeves. Two new packs were opened, and were ' trayed' and shuffled in the usual way. Dr. Sanders had one of the packs cut to him, and proceeded to deal. He turned up the Knave of Clubs, andonsorting his hand found that he had the other 12 trumps. The other three suits were unevenly divided in the other hands, but in the excitement of , the moment no record was taken of them. The fact was duly recorded in writing, the six gentlemen signing their names to the document. The odds against this combination are, we believe, according to Dr. Pole, 158,750,000,000 to one ; the probability of a given player holding 13 - cards of a particular suit, named before the deal is concluded, is put by the same authority as' once in 635,000,000,000 deals."

' VAMPIRE SUPERSTITION IN SERVIA. The Pesther Lloyd reports from Belgrade what narrowly escaped being a fatal case of shameful superstition. The police found some nights ago, lying in the street, the body of a man apparently frozen to death. Efforts to revive him failed, and his identity having been ascertained, he was handed over to his family for interment. ' The cemetery was a considerable way distant; and, as it was being reached, the driver of the hearse told the pope, who attended for the reli§ious service, that he heard some noise in ie coffin. The clergyman and others drawing near also heard tne noise, and all ran away lest a vampire should issue from it and attack them. The driver, terrified at finding himself alone, turned about and drove the hearse to the nearest police station. By this time a knocking was distinctly audible. The coffin . was forced open, and the man was found alive and in a very exhausted state. He complained pathetically of the attempt to bury him despite his; remonstrances. He was taken to the hospital, and had nearly recovered. He had been spending the evening with some boon companions, and wandering in a, state of intoxication, fell and became insensible front the cold. Probably the jolting of the hearse revived him. It is a superstition in Servia and among many Slav people that when a man dies suddenly his spirit returns as a vampire and preys on his near relatives and friends.