GENERAL CABLE NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14567, 2 January 1911, Page 5

GENERAL CABLE NEWS.

FROM THE AUSTRALIAN PAPERS.' -

CHRISTMAS CLEMENCY. . The doors of one of \ the Alabama; gaols, *• that in the capital, Montgomery, were thrown open on Christmas Day, and about 100 convicts turned loose. Their release was intended as an act of Christmas clemency. Among those who .thus secured' their freedom were 40 homicides, and nofewer than 20 other prisoners -who were : undergoing imprisonment for life.

; ;A.GALLANT.. AMERICAN, I ■ Richard Taylor, the * newly- appointed: chief of - the New - York secret; service,- is. the . man. who won the medal given ;by Congress for conspicuous gallantry -in. Samoa when the American and German-: warships were wrecked there in the. great' hurricane. As a result of Taylor's efforts on that occasion, the American sloop Nipsic and her crew were saved.

EXPLOSION... AT A DAIICE. , Hie Christmas holidays in America were responsible for the customary chapter of tragedies. In a Pennsylvania town during the progress of a dance at a miner's house, a keg of blasting powder, became ignited/ the resulting explosion! half demolishing the premises. ~ Three of the 25 guests were killed outright, the others all being more or less severely burned.. RIDDLED WITH , BULLETS. A sensational lynching is reported • from Hot Springs, in Texas. A man who had been arrested for the murder of the county sheriff was being transferred from ; one gaol to another, when 30, masked , men started after the culprit with the intention of dealing out. justice in their own fashion. The pursuers overtook 'the prisoner, ' and, having 'got him away from the guard, fairly riddled his body.. with bullets.