STRANGE OCCURRENCE AT CHARLTON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 264, 26 February 1877, Page 4

STRANGE OCCURRENCE AT CHARLTON.

A romantic affair, which has engaged th* attention, of the- potice at Woolwich for some few flays,, culminated in a charge l»ein« preferred, before Mr. £;dgvty, against a young man named Thomas Wiflttiam Christian,, aged twenty-two, a draogiat, lately in tho employ of a who.egate Inn at Bethnat Green. Ho had tnBated in tnw Boyat Artillery. Mrs. Susannah Bavby, wife of a warrant othet-r on board her Majesty's ship Fisgard, said she Hvsd at Kingston-terrace, Charlton, and the prisoner tind been a single man lodger at her houso for about twelve months. On Monday night, after her supper, she left a gl.'W»s of beer on the table while she answered the door to the postman, and when she returned, the prisoner, when* she fad left there alone, had gone to- his bwdrootn. Her daughter afterwards; handed her the glass of beer, bat it smelt s<> strongly that it almost overpowered her. She poured the beer into- a glass dish, which contained a little vinegar, and it was given to the police nest morning. Her husband being at his duty en board ship, her daughter slept with her, the prisoner's room being on the floor below her bedroom. At four ©/clock in the morning she was awoke by feeling a man's hand on her throat, and something like the mouth of a small bottle at her lips, with a strong smelt of some drug. She did not scream nor open her lips, but struggled, and caused she conteets of the bottle to be spilt ail her. Her daughter, who* was awoke by the scuffle, screamed out, and scratched the face of the man, whom she believed t»> be the prisoner, and he then ran downstairs. Her first impression was th;»t there were. robbers in the house, but her younger daughter saw the prisoner making his escape out of the back garden, partly dressed and without shoes.—Mary Ann Grace Baytey, about twenty years of agK, daughter of the last witness, corroborated her evidence, and said that the fumes from the liquid spilled on the bed were sulphurous and suffocating. She felt the face of the mm as he was leaning over the bed, and scratched it. (The prisoner had a scratch on his cheek.) She did not see who he was, as it was dark, and he did not speak. After he had gone away she found by the side of the h«d a strap with a noose- in it, two handkerchiefs tied together at the corners, and another handkerchief folded like a bandage.—Mr. Batgny : Can you account for his wishing to do harm to your mother {—No.; my mother neverdid any harm to hitu.— Has he ever paid you any attention I He has. lias tie-asked you to marry hint ( —Yes.—He had no situation, and t said he must wait tilt he was in a position to marry.—Did anyone try to< preVrtit your marrying him? Jf©...—'Have you ever told him that you would marry kim i —Wttnesj : Yes; Because he twice threatened to take my life-if I refused.—The prisoner: When I asked this young tady to- marry nte five weeks ago-1 was in a situation.—Tue witness fainted away on leaving the box.— [Detective Morgan said he traced the naked footprints-of the prisoner out of the hack gate, which opened on some open ground called the Mount, leading to Hanging Wood. He went away without hat, collar, or necktie. On Wednesday night witness apprehended him at St. George's Barracks. .London-, ami charged hrm with the attempts I murder of Mrs. at Charlton. The prisoner said, '* Is she dead?" and witness told hitu she was not. The prisoner then said, ' k I should not have- done it, only the night before she told me that I should not have tier daughter, whom 1 had been keeping company with for four years. J intended to have finished her. and then taken the-remain-der of the stud myself." Witness said, "Something was put into the beer the night before, and Mrs. .Bayley believes that only you eoutd have put it there." The prisoner replied, " I did it, and it was prussie acid." The prisoner said he would reserve his defence and the cross-exami-nation of the witnesses, and Mr. Balguy remanded him.

Mrs. Huntoon, a sister of the Eddy Bros., was detected whitst impersonating spirits at Webster, Mass. She had been invited to hold forth at the house of a person named Hint. A circle was formed, the lights were turned low, the curtain was drawn aside-, a tow bending figwre appeared, hands were outstretched, and finally it was announced that the spirit of Mrs. Flint's mother desired to communicate with her daughter. The lady drew near the curtain, and the fluttering hand of the spirit made desultoryattempts to grasp the daughter's hand. "Is this my dear mother (" "Yes: lam your mother." Mrs. Flint seized the •pint's hands and held them. A lawyer turned on the gas, and Mrs. Huntoon was revealed struggling in the arm of the courageous lady. *' Spiritualism (says the American paper from which the above •va* taken); is fast becoming the stupidest tuahttg of the- country." A very sad case of sudden death is reported from Baris. A young tady. Mdlte. Emily de Batteray, was the betrothed of Viscount Gaston de- Lestarde, a lieutenant m the* Hussars, and alt was arranged for the marriage. When the notary, who had been summoned to read the contract Before the- assembled families, came to the words of the ceremony, " My bride to be, net more remains but that E now embrace yott > "'Mdlle;. Balferay swooned away and Immediately expired. The doctor, wno was* at once called in, could only attribute the sodden death to an excess of }n*y. A correspondent who lately saw the Empress Eugenie says she h?s broken sadly it* the last year or two, and has: f o9 t xwa*V every vestige of her beauty. She has grown very stout, dyes her hair, and cover* her face* wtth powder.