Serious Assault in a Railway Carriage

Evening Post, Issue 76, 8 May 1865, Page 3

Serious Assault in a Railway Carriage

—At the Shavnbruok Division Petty Sessions. Bedfordshire, Air. Whitebread Roberts, of King's Walden Hertfordshire, and Mr. William Howe, of Nether Criwley, Luton, gentlemen farmers, appeared to have summons taken out by the directors of the M Miami Railway Company, to answer a charge of having committed a breach of No. 5 of the bye-Uws, on Sunday, the 13th of Novembp*. At the opening of the case a dieussinn took plneo respecting the bye-law under which the offlenc" was to be dealt with, and the bench decided that if any it was.a bye-law infringement which imposed a penalty of 40s. — Mr. Henry Martin, who seemed to he very ill, deposed : 1 was a passenger on Sunday evening, the 13th of November, from Leicester, in n second class carriage, having passed the day at the bedside of a son who is now past ncovery. I was alone as far as the lreh ster station, and the two defendants entered tlie compartment in which I was. I believe they were the first to speak. Those iwo tfe.ulfc men present ara the two gentlemen. One of them said, " Hallo, master we mean to smoke here, whether you like it or not." My r ply was that I Jiad not made any objection to smoking, and that I had not had time to do so. One of them said, " Who the a, c you ?" I can hardly say which of them said t hat, for I was terror-strinken, and they both ciimed in so thafc I hardly 1 onld say wbieh of them spoke first. The one I now know to be Howe, said to the other, "Give me a liuht." Koberts snid, "He has no business here; we'll blow him out." They then let down both windows ; and one said, " He is a bankrupt, and only dares travel on a Sunday," They evidently alluded to me. I think 'it was Roberts then sad he would throw me out. Howe said, " We'll serve him as Briggs was served, and then wo'll throw*um out ;" and at that moment I wmjWl have given all I possessed to have had some means of communicating with the guard. This was on the evening bpfore execution of Mull r for the murder of Brisgs. Howe said, " I am Tom Kina, and I'll make an end of him in three minutes and a half." He tucked up his sleeves and said, putting his fist in my face, " I'll make an end of him fin ." He Btood up in the carriase. I was sitting down, and he said, " Stand up, you ." Then he squared to me, and put one fist to my faue, and hit at me witli the other ; and at that moment I bee tme terrorstriken. He put one fist on my face nnd made as though he would strike me in the eyes, and then I became partly unconscious. The fright has resulted in an increase of deafness, and I have not been well since st as to attend to tn)' business as usual. While the complainant was insensible the defendants left the carriage. Tlie bench, after hearing the other evidence, inflicted the full fine with costs. We extract the following from an article on mining in the Dunstan Times of April 25 : — " A stranger wandering over our gold fields now cannot but be struck witli astonishment at the magnitude 'of the works that meet their gaze on every hand. At Tuapeka and surrounding diggings, the cost of the races, and other scientific mining appliances, is esfimuted at upwards of £40,000, and in many other districts an equal, if not larger sum has been expended. So numerous and extensive are the works on different parts of the gold fields *.hafc it is difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of their real value ; but time has established firmly the fact that these works lire extreniily reproductive. In a very few instances have men embarked in speculations of this nature without earning their reward. It must not be forgotten too, that notwithstanding the wonderful develope mem that has taken pace in our gold fields, all this is due to the miners themselves, entirely untisisted by the capitalists."