MELBOURNE MARKET TRAGEDY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11401, 19 April 1899, Page 5

MELBOURNE MARKET TRAGEDY.

COMMITTED FOI. TRIAL. Press Association—By . Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, April 18. (Received April 19, at 10.10 p.m.) Medor has be<^ committed for trial oft a charge of wilful murder. Tho following particulars are from the Argus of the llth inst.:—, A tragedy occurred yestefday afternoon in the Eastern Market,- when an eccentric "astrologer" named Gordon Emery Medor killed tho proprietor-of !a phonographic parlour named I 1 rank Spencer Stevens, after wounding his wife, Annie Stevens, and inflicting such serious injuries on Mr Barnet Freedtnau, a picture-frame maker, carrying on business in the same building, that it is feared that lie will lose his sight. For some time past there has been ill-feeling between Medor and some of the other: shopkeepers, and as the outcome of a prolonged drinking bout of several days' duration he was unable to attend his business on Saturday., Some joker thereupon.affixed to his door a mourning card bearing the words, " Closed in consequence of the death of . 7enus,". with a device of five stars attached, in reference to the calling of the absentee, Medor's anger on finding this card on. his shutters on. Monday morning was intense, and he confided to a lad, who acts as salesman to a firm of cementmakers, that he would get a revolver and "make an end of his enemies." The threat was not regarded seriously, and no moro heed wa3 paid to Medor until, unfortunately, some humorist—probably the same person who penned the Card—tied a bunch of radishes to his door while he was away continuing his drinking bout yesterday afternoon. Medor re-, turned to his shop about half-past 4 o'clock, found the vegetables where they had been left, and then opened his door, evidently to secure his revolver.' Mrs Stevens, was at thin time talking to her nephew, a little boy of 10, outside her own shoo, and in complete ignorance of the condition of the man sho had seen entering his premises. A moment later, however, he emerged with a revolver in his right hand, and, rushing towards her, ho raised, the weapon and fired. Throwing up her arm instinctively to.protect herself, Mrs Stevens fell a bullet strike, her arm, and then she staggered back with the impact of the man's body, for he had continued his rush upon her with the revolver pointing at her.

With rare presence of mind Mrs Stevens did not turn or run, but grappled with Medor as he tried to press the muzzle of the revolver against her temple and fire from a side position. Tho woman managed to alter the direction of the revolver, but in his endeavours" to kill her Medor pressed, downwards with such force that,the riioment she released her hold the barrel of the revolver struck her ear, and almost tore it off. Medor then seemed to abandon his idea of killing tho woman, and. releasing her. ran to his shop, while Mrs Stevens ran off screaming wildly towards a panorama of the Spanish-American war, which her husband was managing in one of tho " island " stalls of the market. Stevens had, however, been attracted by the report of the first shot, aud was near enough to notice the blood ou his wife's arm, and see. her assailant disappear through his own door ; Though only a man of short stature and light build, he dashed into the " astrologer's" rooms, Without Waiting a second.' A.s- he entered, the other shopkeepers, who bad in the' meantime come from tbeir stalls in some trepidation, heard two more shots follow one another in ''quick succession, and then there was ominous silence. Mr Barnet Fraodman, noticing that nobody else was inclirtod to enter the shop, mentioned to his wife that as a policeman there seemed afraid to go.in he would go himself. He ran across the flat, and at the door of Medor's _ shop encountered Mr Cecil Goodisson, a visitor from AVest Australia, who had been attracted from Little Collins street. Freedrnan passed the door first, and met Medor standing at the entrance to his inner office, brandishing a revolver in his right hand, and a long dagger, dripping with blood, in his left! The man was waving his arms wildly. In the attempt that Frcenm.in made to secure the murderer, the point of the dagger struck his right eye, slashing across the eyeball, and causing injuries of a very grave nature. Seeing Freedrnan injured, Mr Goodisson,' who was well acquainted with Medor. caught his wrists, and held him. Ho made no attempt, to resist, and a small boy entered the shop and removed the revolver from his hand.

Stevens was found lying face downward* on the floor of the outer office. His head was half severed from the trunk l.vy two vicious slashes whicb tbe murderer bad delivered with his dagger, apparently while tbo other lay senseless on the floor. The outer ofiice was carpeted with blood. AVhen he was brought from the inner room, Medor walked over to where his victim lay, leaned over the whitening features with- a nonchalant air, and remarked: "That's all right, I did it. I never missed, a shot yet." Beyond tbis the man said nothing.

— Women cyclists often find progress difficult in the streets of Cairo, unless they are preceded ou foot by a dragoman, who clear., a way by the aid of a very serviceable stick.

- -As Mr Lowell has said, a nation is tested, not by its character or its men of genius, but by, its imports and exports, as though thoy represented necessarily anything more than hungry mouths and naked backs. Mouths must be fed and hacks clothed, but if nations exist for nothing more than, that, they are only fit, as Carlyle said, to be succedaneum for salt, and the curtain might almost as well bo rung clown. Attica and Palestine were tiny lauds, hut we are living to-day on harvests of which they sowed the seed. We need to look at quality rather than quantity; in very truth, " ripeness is all."—Spectator.

— Canada needs only 237,000 square miles to ho as largo as the whole continent of Europe; it is nearly 30 times as large as Great Britain and Ireland, and..is 500,000 square miles lareer flu.-, tbo TTmtad Kw__._