A RAILWAY TRAGI-COMEDY.

Otago Daily Times, 6 March 1865, Page 6

A RAILWAY TRAGI-COMEDY.

A telegram published in the greater portion of our impresjtoa of yesterday, mentioned a rumor current in Liverpool, on the authority of a despatch from Rugby, that a sailor had been robbed and murdered while travelling on the London and North Western Railway. The Liverpool Mercury gives tbe following as the circumstances upon which the rumor was founded:-— It appears that the ship Commodore Perry arrived from Calcutta a few days aince, and entered the Victoria Dock, London, when the crew were paid off; and fire of the seamen who belonged to Liverpool, namely, William Reynolds, James Murphy, Joseph Mantell, James Buriin, and Edward Apter, took secondclass tickets for this town from Enaton Square by. the 5 p.mi express train, which arrives at Lime street Station at half-past ten o'clock. The men took their scats in the second cla«s compartment of a carriage, in company with Sergeant Cowperthwaite, of the Royal Artillery, who was going from Sheerness to Grasmere, Cumberland. Aptcr was far advanced in drink, and the other seamen were more or less under the influence of liquor. Shortly after leaving the station, Anter commenced showing his money, which he carried in an old-fashioned red leather pocket book. He took three or four sovereigns, and what he said was a L 5 note, and exhibited them to his companions. Murphy told him not to be a fool, and put his money back. Apter, who appeared to be careless about the matter, said it was all right. Murphy then produced a pint bottle of rum, from which he and his companions drank. A man, who left the train at Crewe, at the same time produced a bottle containing gin, from which Mantell and Apter only drank. When near Rugby, Sergeant Cowperthwaite says, Apter rose from his seat and said he wanted to get out of the carriage, because he was in Enaton Square, whereupon Murphy forced him down upon the seat and told him to sit still. He sat for a short time, then suddenly rose and staggered against the door, which flew open, and he fell from the carriage, the train at that time running very fast, though not at its highest speed, The sergeant states positively that no person pushed, Apter out of the train, and the rumour is that he either fell out or was thrown out at the moment the attention of the other passengers in the compartment was drawn to a goods train on the other line. On information of the affair being given to Mr Keogh, chief of the Liverpool detective police, be despatched Inspectors Horn and Carlisle, with a sufficient body of police, to Lime street Station, to await the arrival of the train. These, together with Inspectors Southwell and Roper, met the train at 10.45, and all the passengers in the compartment of the train indicated in the telegram were taken in charge and removed to the station master's office till the matter was investigated. Whilst waiting there, Murphy asked to he allowed to retire to the closet, and as he was proceeding to it, Inspector Carlisle stopped him, and took from his hand a green leather purse, containing a £10 Bank of England note, X3in gold, and Borne papers. Murphy stated that this was the moi.ey he had received when paid off from his ship. The men were subsequently taken to the detective office, where the matter was further inquired into. About one o'clock Mr Keogh received a telegram from Mr Eccles. chief of the detective department at Stafford, stating that one of his men, named Davis, had been to look for the body of Apter, but tip to twelve o'clock had not succeeded in finding it, and suggested that the parties should be detained till further inquiries weie made into the matter. The men were accordingly kept at the detective-office during the night. As soon as publicity was given to the affair a number of persons proceeded to the railway station to await the arrival of the train.

Our Liverpool correspondents write:— To. the intense astonishment of the pel ice, however, and the great joy of the prisoners, the missing sailor turned up at the Liverpool police-court, about eleven o'clock yesterday uiorniug, his arrival having been preceded by a telegram from tbe Rugby police officials, who stated that they found him dancing in a field in order to keep himself warm, and that c.U the account he could gi% re was that he found himself lying in a ditch, but Itow he got there he conld hot divine. When it ia considered that the train was going at express speed, and that he rolled down an embankment', his escape is miraculous.