HOME AND FOREIGN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1649, 7 October 1903, Page 12

HOME AND FOREIGN.

CONVICTS REBEL IN A MINE Telegrams from Chattanooga state that the convicts working in. the mines at Cole City, Georgia, broke ont into open revolt against the officials* The ■wardens used their rifles, and two of the .convicts were fatally shot. A body of the rebels, 125 strong, refused to emerge from the mine, erected barricades in the interior, and defied the officers. They are still below ground, and unless they scon give m it is probably they will he starved out. PRIEST POISONED IN CHURCH. At Avellino', a town in the vicinity of Naples, Dr Joseph Preziosi, a priest, remarkable for his inventions in mechanical science, suddenly fell backwards while celebrating Mass the other day in his parish church; and it soon became plain that the punliappy clergyman had! been victimised by a poisoned; chalice l , the deadly fluid having been poured into the Mass cruets by a spiteful lay server whilst preparing the wine and water for the service. The reverend gentleman, who is widely known and loved, lies in a critical condition. TEN WEDDING GUESTS DROWNED. A party of 80 persons returning to Jamiea, near Lemberg, after a wedding, had (says a Vienna correspondent) to cross a river in a ferry boat built to hold only fifteen persons. On the first trip twenty persons crowded into the boat and reached the other side safely, but on the second occasion, when there were nineteen in the boat, the craft overturned in the middle of the stream, and <all on hoard were thrown into the "rater. The ferryman and nine passengers succeeded in getting ashore, but J'O remaining ten, chiefly women and rls, were drowned, A £2OOO ROBBERY. Georgio Epthimio', waiter, of Finch street, Westminster Bridge road, and Georgia Argeradis, of Church street, Soho, were brought up at Marlborough street, the former charged with stealing and the lather with being concerned in the theft of a collection of coins worth £2OOO from Constantin Christadoulosn, a Greek. Prisoners, dark-complexioned young men of respectable appearance, were described as Turkish subjects. Ephthimio speaks little or no English, and Mr Pcmbo acted as his interpreter, his translation of the proceedings being Greek—both to the prisoners and the Court. It is alleged that the prisoners made the acquaintance of the prosecutor aft a Greek restaurant in Soho, and induced . him to change his lodgings, toi an address in Old Compton street. Whilst he was dining out, the coins were stolen from his rooms. Prisoners were remanded for a week. HORRIBLE AFFAIR IN RUSSIA. According to reports received from the Russian Province of the Don, thirtythree young girls have been burned' to death in a barn at the village of Shalaievka, which they used as a sleepingplace. It appears the girls asked the watchman to lock them in for the night, so thalfc they might escape from the attentions of some young peasants, and that the fire, which is supposed to have been caused by the young men in question, broke out half an hour after the door had been locked. A FARMER’S LUCKY FIND. A farmer named Han-trick, in Kennebec, Quebec, while digging a cellar for a new house oil his farm, came across some rock which necessitated blasting. He was struck by the peculiar appearance of the rock, and on having it examined found it rich in gold, silver and copper. It assays at 30dol. to' the ton, and land in the neighbourhood has advanced to a premium. LYNCHING NEGROES. Xn the course of an argument between a white and a negro at Danville, Illinois, the latter shot the white dead. The mob proceeded to the police station where the murderer was imprisoned and) Remanded that he should be handed over to he lynched, and on their demand not being complied with -they smashed in the doors. The negro was seized, and after being shot was knocked down, and trampled to death. The lifeless body was then dragged some distance and burned after the ears had been chopped off. The legs, which protruded from the fire, were also* hacked to pieces. The mob subsequently returned to the gaol and attempted to secure and lynch another 'negro who had been imprisoned on a charge of assaulting a white woman. The police -officers fired and wounded BeveraJ of the rioters, some of whom are Hot expected to live. Five negroes were beaten by the mob before order was reBtored.

EXTRAORDINARY CREDULITY. Details of an extraordinary fraud on a Denton man were laid before the Ashton. County Magistrates rencently, when John Samuel Wilde was charged with obtaining money by false pretences from Alfred Wilson, a retired halt manufacturer, who had got a considerable sum of money as a retiring allowance. Wilde told Mr Wilson that he would be able t-o find a good investment for his money in a syndicate of a racing character, and his modus operandi was to go to prosecutor and obtain various sums, which he appropriated! to his own use. At different times he had got amounts ranging from £25 to as much* as £2OO, an ( d the total amount obtained was £1221 10s. Then the whole thing turned out a fraud, and a most cruel fraud inasmuch as it left the prosecutor in a financial condition which made him absolutely dependent on the charity of his friends. The chairman, in delivering sentence of six months’ imprisonment, said it was a low contemptible kind of theft, and prisoner deserved a good horse-whipping once a week for a month. (Hear, hear in Court.) He could not find words strong enough to express his feelings. FIGHT WITH A BURGLAR. The story of a woman’s courageous struggle with a burglar was told at Worship street, London, recently, when Richard James, said to be an ex-con-vict, was charged with burglary. Mrs Clarke, a portly middle-aged woman, deposed that her husband kept the Cambridge Arms beer and wine house, Cambridge road. Shortly after eleven o’clock one Saturday night, when she was in the. bar, she heard a noise upstairs. As she was going up the second flight of stairs she saw the prisoner. She called to him, “What are you doing “there?” and itho prisoner said, “Oh, I’ve made a mistake.” Witness replied, “Yes, you have a, great, mistake. Are you coining down, or shall I come and fetch you?” Prisoner replied, “I’ll come down,” and descended the stairs to the first landing, where he said he was sorry, and had made a mistake. She then laid hold of the xarisoner and called cue to the Boy to blow the whistle. The prisoner then made an attempt to get. out of the staircase window —the way he had gok in and she had a struggle with him, he aiming a blow at her head with a piece' of iron lie had up his sleeve. Witness pushed him downstairs anfl handed him over to a police-sergeant. After the prisoner had been removed she examined the house and founds his cap in her bedroom. She missed a small gold brooch from a drawer. DOG’S DETERMINED SUICIDE. Signor Antonelli, of Afestre, Italy, had a. splendid setter dlog which had been for some time very melancholy. The other day he threw himself on the line before an approaching goods train. The train was stopped 1 , and the dog carried away, but scarcely had the engine started when he ran up again, and was out to pieces by the last truck. A CRICKET STAND SMASH. A serious accident, resulting in injuries to close on 100 persons, occurred on Aug. 9 at the inter-county cricket match "between .Perthshire and Forfarshire, at the North Inch ground, Perth. A grand stand, erected for the occasion, had been officially passed as safe, but at three o’clock, when the match had reached an exciting stage, a loud crack was heard, and the stand, with its GOO occupants, toppled over and crashed to> the ground, sonic fourteen feet below. The spectacle of the struggling mass of people amidst the debris of the broken timber momentarily paralysed the spectators, hut in a few minutes both players and onlookers had commenced the work of rescue. As the injured were extricated from the splintered timbers they were conveyed to the pavilion and to tents, where medical men, who had hastily arrived on the scene, attended to their hurts. Whilst the great majority of the occupants of the stand escaped with bruises, cuts, or a shaking, several of those who ocupied the top tiers on the stand were seriously hurt., as they fell a. distance of thirty feet. They were removed to Perth Infirmary in ambulance vans and carriages, while temporary stretchers were improvised for those who had sustained broken limbs. Soldiers from Perth Barracks proceeded to the ground and assisted to control the huge crowd of people who were attracted to the scene of the disaster. A BERLIN SCANDAL. The reports of the desecration of the graves of citizens of Wurzburg (says the “Morning Leader”) are officially confirmed. An inquiry instituted by I the municipal authorities, revealed the fact that for years past bodies buried in the £hurciiyard in zinc and lea v d coffins had been disinterred a night or two after the funeral, and either put in a wooden coffin with another corpse, or simply replaced in the grave without any other covering than the earth. The metal coffins were then cut up

and afterwards sold to a dealer. According to a Wurzburg journal, Franz Keh, the official in charge of the graveyard, has stated that he and his predecessors have always considered the secret sale of metal coffins as a perquisite of office. The whole matter is now in the hands of the public prosecutor. SOLDIER MURDERS HIS sweetheart. Shortly after midnight on August 9 a painful tragedy was enacted at Hawley Orescent, Camden road London, where a young woman named! Alice Mutton, 18, had bc-en staying at the house of the parents of her young man, named George Aglington, aged 23, a private in the Middlesex Regiment. Two of Mutton’s sisters called at the house to persuade the girl to return home, and in reply to their representations she said, “Let me stop; he does not want me to go home.” Shortly afterwards, it is stated, young Arlington was heard to say that lie wishqd to speak to the deceased in ifche hack yard, whence he proceeded, followed by Miss Mutton. A few moments later the latter rushed 1 into the forecourt, of the house, exclaiming “Oh ! Mill; oh ! Mill” to her sister, and then fell dead from a terrible wound in the throalk. Arlington, it is alleged, had by then disappeared, and it was not until six o’clock the next morning that he was found. He was formally charged with the murder at the police station, and made no reply. A VALUABLE DEAD MONKEY. An old sailor named Kerlec, who had been in receipt of poor relief for some years, was found dead in his room in Paris on August 11 with a stuffed monkey clasped in, his arms. The animal when alive used to answer to the name of “Fifine,” and was its master’is only companion. Since its death a few months ago Kerlec had been much depressed. The old sailor was buried and after the funeral a neighbour was examining the dead monkey out of curiosity, a.nd discovered a-slit in the skin, from which he drew a piece of paper bearing a few words written by Kerlec asking pardon of 'those who had given him money, and stating that he was in no want, but was afraid of burglars, and preferred to pass as a beggar. He added that he had no relatives, and! did not care what became of Iris money. This moved everyone present to lay individual claim to the dead monkey, from whose interior they drew 5000 francs in bank notes. They became impatient to see what else poor Fifine contained, and nearly tore it in half in their eagerness. This time they were rewarded with a bundle of securities worth 25,000 francs. A RAILWAY ADVENTURE. The New York correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” describes 'the adventures of two young girls, well known in Minneapolis. The two young women, who wei’o going to Omaha, occupied a section in one of the sleeping-cars on the Minneapolis and St. Louis express-train. They rose early to perform their morning abolutions, but finding the dressing-room of their own car locked, had slipped into the sleeper ahead. While there the train ran into FortDodge, and the sleeper they were in was slipped from the first train and attached to the Illinois Central train, which started off. The girls hajd taken no note of this change. When they came from the room their car was miles away. They finally prevailed upon the conductor to run the train back, so. that they might board again the Omaha sleeper, which contained the remainder of their wardrobe. DAMAGES TO A YOUNG MINER. FOR INJURIES. In Hamilton Sheriff Court recently, Sheriff Thomson has issued his decision in an action under* the Employers’ Liability Act at tire instance of George Greenshields, miner, Larkhall, against Messrs Brand and Co., coalmasters. The pursuer was employed as a miner in defenders’ Auldtonhill Colliery, and on 9th December, 1902, while proceeding to the working face along the main haulage road, was knocked down and severely injured by the fall of a large stone from the roof. There was a “fault” in (the strata at the place, though the roof of the road was exceptionally good, forat three weeks before the accident the roof at lthis place was discovered to be bad, and an entry was made in due course to that effect in the reports book. The defenders at once took down the loose stones complained of but took no further precautions in the way of timbering. The Sheriff holds that the defenders ought to have foreseen the probability of weakness and the consequent risk of accident, and that the pursuer was thus injured through the fault of defenders. He finds, therefore, for pursuer, with £SO damages, and also finds him entitled to expenses.

RURAL SUPERSTITIONS. ’ The somewhat startling news that the lower classes of Cambridge are trusting to the presence of a goat to protect them and their houses from the infection of smallpox is, says the “Lancet,” only another proof that primitive barbarism dies out very slowly even under the shadow of colleges and laboratories dedicated to the highest forms of scientific research. lt . , There is a universally-found, rustic superstition that goats brmg good ltqck and ensure the health of cows and otheranimals. It is common in Lincolnshire, for instance, to keep a goat on the ground of fits being “healthy for cactle. Among old-fashioned cattlemen in Virginia the goat is held to he a pieventivo of disease and a clearer-away of obnoxious herbs. In Ulster a goat grazes among the cows of the small farmers in order to bring good luck and to eat poisonous weeds, and on many large dairy farms in the South of England a goat or donkey is senlfc out with the herd in order, aa avowed, to prevent premature calving. A ST. HELENA CRISIS There is a journalistic crisis in St. Helena.. That lonely Atlantic isle, British Crown colony, and Napoleonic prison;, possesses but one little newspaper, and its editor complains in the latesit issue that he cannot get any advertisements, and that his journal is “boycotted by the Government.” He points out that “the maintenance of an up-to-date paper in St. Helena entails a considerable outlay,” and that printing paper is 25 per, cent, dearer than anywhere else. The “St. Helena Guardian” shared in the general prosperity of the island while it was the temporary home of thousands of exiled Boers, but now its receipts “scarcely cover expenses.” The first column, of the first page of the latest issue is filled with this announcement in. large letters: —“To Local Advertisers. This space to Let. Immediate Possession Given.” The editor quotes the opinion of a London friend) that the “St. Helena folks must be a sickly lot, for the only advertisements in Ifcheir paper are patent medicines.” That sarcasm, ought to wake tlx© St. Helena advertisers pap and save the situation. AN EXTRAORDINARY NAVIGATOR. Captain Blackburn, who has been frustrated in his attempt to cross the Atlantic in a small open boat, is surely the most extraordinary navigator in the world. His foolhardiness consists not merely in making perilous voyages in; open boats, but in the severe handicap wilich an accident has imposed on him. For the captain has neither fingers nor toes,* and vet some five years ago navigated a small open boat across the Atlantic from Gloucester, in Massachusetts, to the town of (the same name ill England. He afterwards brought the tiny vessel round to the Thames, but was stopped at the entrance to the London Dock. “You can’t get in here,” said the dock superintendent. “Why,’* asked Captain Blackburn ; “is my ship too large?” “She is too small,” said the superintendent, and explained that he was afraid she might be crushed to bits by the big liners. Captain Blackburn lost his fingers and toes by frostbite off the Newfoundland Bank one night when rowing a dead comrade’s body ashore. LADY’S EXCUSE FOR ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. Alary Ann Whynne, aged 40, a welldressed lady, described as of no occupation, and living at 53 Abingdon. Villas, Kensington, was charged at the West London Police Court with attempting to commit suicide by taking elilorodyne. A police constable found in the prisoner’s bedroom three empty bottles of elilorodyne, and several letters, two addressed “to the constable,” two' to the landlady, one to' the Coroner, and one to a gentleman. In one of the letters she wrote, “I can’t live in peace, and I can’t die in peace.” In answer to the Magistrate the defendant, sobbing, said ®he had no friends in London. Air Plowden —What about the gentleman?; The defendant —He is no longer a friend. He is married now. Air Plowden-—ls that why you tried to take your life? The defendant—No. I was trying to get a situation. as liotisekeeper 3 aaicl it© wouldn’t tell just a little lie —just-Uo say he knew my people—to help me get the place, so I was left without friends and money. The Alagistrate remanded the accused. terrible gunpowder EXPLOSION. The most tremendous gunpowder explosion of recent years occurred at the works of tli© United • States Cartridge Company, a very large concern, at Tewkesbury, Alassachusetfcs. All the buildings were demolished and the wreckage set on fire, and twenty-five persons were killed and fifty-five injured. The terrific force of the explosion caused a general wreck of buildings within a radius of half a mile from the actual scene of the disaster. Dozens of , houses were shaken (to the ground. The shock of the explosion was heard distinctly at Boston, forty miles distant from Tewkesbury#

boy and girl elopement. Regarding the elopement of a youth of nineteen and a girl of fourteen, a story was related at Burslem (Staffordshire) Police Court. Frank Duncan Beattie (19) was charged with having abdusted Blanch© May Bailey (14) on the 14th July. Miss Bailey, whose father is the landlord of the Legs of Man Inn, Burslem, said that she ha|d become acquainted with the prisoner about two months ago, and he had been a customer at her father’s house. On Monday, the 13th July, the prisoner won't to the house, and at 11 o’clock m the evening she had a conversation with him outside the house. He told her he was going away and asked her to accompany him. At first she refused, but latterly consented, and the two roflo to* fetoke by car, and from Stoice they went by train to Liverpool. They stayed in that port all that night at a boarding nouse, and tho following evening they went toBelfast by steamer, arriving mere early ne:cc morning. They strolled around Belfast all day, “looking round,” the girl <s,said, and at a quarter to 10 at night they took the boat to Fleetwood. Blackpool was the next poxnt reached, aiiY-l they remained there until last Tuesday, when the prisoner excusing hinisetf on the ground that lie was going to post a letter, left her. She remained m Blackpool unci! the follow mg day. _ in reiny to Mr Bell, the girl said she had never told the prisoner lie • age. They had passed as brother and sister during their tour, and occupied separate rooms. Mr Bell made an appeal on benuit of the prisoner, who, he said, liad been in Ins employ six years, and had borne an excellent character. The Magistrates remanded Beattie for a week in custody. A GERMAN JUDGE'S TERRIBLE DEED. A terrible family tragedy occurred at Altona on a recent Sunday night. By the deathbed of bis mother, Jnoge Earn, ci well-known and iiigiily-respeoied gentleman, shot and killed his brother, a lawyer also, the housekeeper of ch© deceased- lady, and then himself. The iour bodies were not discovered! until next morning. The cragedy has caused a great sensation al over the northern part of Germany, where the deceased family was well known, moving in the best social circles. It is said .that the mother of Judge Baur had left all lier property to her housekeeper, which caused an angry scene among the brothers, en/fing with the -death of all concerned. TERRIBLE LOVE TRAGEDY. A.n inquesib was held at Southampton recently on Harry Oswald Hurinam. ox Brock! ey, Kent, and Josephine Pamo. victims of a. love tragedy. Tho evidence showed that Harman, who had served in the navy’ and South Africa, had expressed a wish to marry Paino. who* was fourteen, but tho mother declined her consent. He subsequently asked tho mother and daughter to .accompany him to the -station, as he intended to return to London., and when approaching the main entrace lie shot the girl and then himself. Human’s father said since he had been in hospital in South Africa his &on had scarcely been acountable for his actions. A verdict of “Wilful murder against Hurmau, and suicide whilst of unsound mind,” was returned. ESCAPE OF CALIFORNIAN CONVICTS. * A despatch from San Francisco* gives particulars of an exciting chase after escaped convidbs which was followed with incense interest throughout the country. The convicts, fourteen in number, who were confined in the prison nil t Folsom, California, revolted, overpowered the guard, and god away, taking with thean the governor of the prison and several warders, apparently with the idea that their prisoners might be utilised as hostages in an emergency. The convicts gob a good start, but a hunt was soon commenced by the remaining prison officers, assisted by a number of eager citizens. The convicts were overtaken during the night near Pilot Hill, and a fight ensued, in the course of which one of the desperadoes was killed. A second fight is reported to have occurred, in which two more convicts were killed. This - took place near the town of Oolome. the citizens of which turned cut en masse for the purpose of def ending their homes in case of an attack by the convicts. The convicts, however, again broke away, hotly pursued by the prison officers and volunteers, including a full company of Californian milicia. That night <the militia brought the miscreants to bay in the heart of the bush thicket near fche village of Cool, where a battle was imminent. The people of Auburn were greatly excited, as it was expected that the convicts would raid the town in order to obtain supplies. The convicts, it sems, compelled their prisoners to don the f©lons’ striped garb, While they themselves appropriated the' uniforms of the warders. - During the fights the convicts put the warders in front of them, using them as shields. It seems the convicts; now reduced to twelve, deliberated on the question whether their prisoners should be killed or liberated. It was eventually decided to set them free. .

The convicts were then surrounded at Granite Hill. At that time Gatling guns were being brought up by the California Militia, and it was expected the convicts would surrender. One of the convicts was killed near Pilot Hill,.and another wounded. The wounded man refused to be taken alive, and shot himself dead. THE BRIBERY SCANDAL IN HUNGARY. The Pariiamentary Commission of Inquiry at Budapest into the bribery affair met on Aug. 8. After M. Papp had repeated the statements which he had made in Parliament concerning the attempt to bribe him to leave Budapest, Cou-nc Lridisiaus Bzapary, Governor of Flume, confessed that he was the author of the whole affair, but pleaded that he had only acted wi)ch a view to terminating the existing situation in the Lower House of Diet. The Count asked for pardon for an act by 7 winch no admitted he injured the dignity 7 of the House, and declared on his word of honour that Counio Khueiv Hedervary had not had the least knowledge of the whole affair. A MATRIMONIAL DILEMMA. The aktenrion of the Magistrate at the Cousett Pcl-.ce C-o-urt was recently occupied by a somewhat complicated matrimonial trouble. Martha Taylor, a miners wife, sought a separation ox del from her husband on the ground of assertion. Some years ago she was fined for drunkenness and assault; her husband, however, assisted her to evade the police. He had sent her remittances mu.il, six months ago, she alleged lie nun married anomier woman. Thereupon she returned .and served her month’s imprisonment as penalty of her original offence. Owing to insufficient evidence for separation, -the case was adjourned to give Mrs Taylor time to collect- evidence as to the alleged second marriage of her husband. FATAL ALPINE ACCIDENTS. The season has again come (says_ a Vienna correspondent) when mountaineering accidents are an almosio every-day ocarrence in this country. Dr Walter Ben-seer a Leipsic lawyer, accompanied by a guide, tried recently to ascend the Dacstei from the south, but was unable tc proceed from exhaustion and cold. When the gut-die liad obtained help from the n©arose iiut Dr Benscer was found detyl and .covered with snow. On the same day Signor Vitali, .an engineer from Brescia, -who wanted to go by the Tonal© Pass into Val do Sole, lost his way and fell over - a precipice, where lie was found dead. On Saturday a Vienna University student named Paul Ivonig, who was descending the'Dolomites in company with three Munich tourists, but was not roped like them, missed bis footing and fell down several hundred feet, ins companion finding him -dead. On Sunday Franz Schmidt, an engineer from Vienna, ascending the Rax by a very dangerous path, fell over a deep precipice and was found dead and fearfully mutilated. A FRENCH MATRIMONIAL TRAGEDY. The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle” writes that some barristers and the general public who were sauntering and chatting together in the ground-hall of the Palais do Justice, Paris, on August 6th, were suddenly thrown into a state of great excitement by the report of a pistol sliest, followed by piercing shrieks, in the direction of what is called the prisoners’ gallery. There, indeqd, they found the life-blood ebbing away from the prostrate form of a young man, and bending over Kim a tearful woman. Jules Francois, a shopman, living in the Rue de Ha-ute-ville, although professedly fond of his wife, had given her such cause for complaint ‘that, despite his appeals, She had recourse to divorce proceedings. Both had attended the Court, anfl it was after their examination that Francois, in a state of desperation., drew a revolver and shot himself through the head. The wife's grief was pitiful to witness. ‘AN OLD MAN’S OFFER. An epidemic of spotted fever which proves fatal within a day of two has broken out round Montana, U.S.A., and has been found to be caused by the bite of a woodtick. A destitute old man offered to allow himself to be bitten for the sum of £2O, his object being to ensure a decent burial for himself. So far the doctors have refused his offer. AN ARCHDUKE’S ROMANCE. The ©x-Archduke Leopold! Ferdinand of Austria, who some months ago rein ojinced all his titles and rights and took the name of Leopold Weelfling, was married recently to Frau. Adamovics, an Austrian, actress. The ceremony took place alt Voyrier, a suburb of Geneva.