AMERICAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3696, 26 December 1874, Page 2

AMERICAN NEWS.

{Front the New «Zealand Herald' and other paper#.)

EXTRAORDINARY FIRE IN A MINE. By the Cyphrenes we have intelligence of an extraordinay lire which has occurred in the air shaft of the Belcher mine, Virginia County. California. It started at the 850 feet level, but whether it was the result of carelessness on the part of a miner leaving a candle burning on timber, or was the work of an incendiary to depreciate stock, and so influence an election proceeding, is still a quest on. The scene was heartrending ; thousands of spectators, including women and children, relatives of the thousand mep employed in the various mines connected with the shiift, were around the mouth of the iv-ft. from whl hj issued flames and rocks and burning timbers to the height of several hundred feet. Luckly but a few men we e working in the shaft at the time, and these had a narrow escape. Those injured were working at the 1060 feet level, and while endeavoring to erect a bulk' ead to prevent the fire spreading, a “cave in” occurred in the air shaft, driving back the flame*, which, like a sheet of flame, literally licked the clothing off the men, and in an instant, until the fl resumed their upward torrent, inflicted injuries that in several cases will prove fatal. One volunteer who had gone below to assist, while rushing from he flames, fell down a winze and was killed, while ten, also vo.unteers, were so burned that the lives of several are despaired of. The bravest and most unremitting efforts were made by those connected with the various mines in the district; and after burning with terrible fierceness for about six In urs, the fire was subdued. The shaft in entirely destroyed, and the total loss re. suiting is estimate ! at 50,000 dollars. FIENDISH REVENGE. Some weeks ago, say* the Paducah ‘ Kentuckian,’ a wom»n calling herself Bridget Vlalbony, appliel to Dr Jackson, of cumbus, Ky , for the place of cook. Employ* ment was given her, and lor a, short while she gave satisfaction, \ few days age the doctor noticed some irregularities in her life, and notified her that she must look out fur another home. Tris appeared to infuriate her beyond control the pent-up devil in her nature burst forth in a fury of patsion that sent the doctor scampering for the police, and the family for an asylum of safety. Whea he returned, Bridget ha,d cfoparted, leaving his ra rrors and furniture wreck. It appears that, frorq a mistaken kindness, she was nqt prosecuted, bub allowed to depart unmolested From hia residence she went to a boarding house kept by an estimable German Catholic named Switzher, near the M. and (». Kailroad. She easily imposed herself upon the good-nature of this lady, and was permitted to stop with her, paying her board in work. She behaved badly again, aad Mrs 8, dis! charged her. Instead of going off, however she went up into Mrs S. s room (it was immediately after breakfast) and sent for this lady from the dining-room. When she .her presen e she commeuetd to abuse her in a most shameful Mr^ Switzher tried to qufot her* and expressed sympathy i-.r her. Bridget told her she bad fceter sympathise with herself, and made at her, Mrs S. rushed downstairs, leaving her three children, consisting of a little boy four years od, and two daughters ag«d respeotively six and ten, in the room. The oldest says that the two children were in bed with the raosqu to bar fastened down around it and that B. idget deliberately took the lamp and saturated the bed and cnihJren wth coal oil and fired it. Before assistance could reach them the passage was a solid sheet of flame, and the two children were burned with the house and most of the furniture. The fiend is in prison, and the poor mother nearly distracted with grief at her terrible loss.

A, CUI TIER OE CRIME. . in duel or at sight also shows m ns of becoming a recognised means of settling disputes or avenging insults. A lawyer at Memphis, Tennessee, shoots dead a learned friend for words spoken in conversation. A member of Congress from Manama takes redr as by shooting his palum, mator vflth ti shotgun, waiting long for hU victim at the Becond| storey window of the member’s residence. “ A man of great wealth, m Lawreuoeberg, Kentucky, shoots and kills the Town Marshall, this being the wealthy Kentuckian’s second murder. He was exc sed in the Srst instance for happen--Ingtohe dm k. At Vicksburg an editor is shot dead by a citizen who was offended by a personal paragraph. At Beauregard a clerk aud his employer have a quarrel, and settle it with pistols in tbe back yard, where one is killed An editor at Indianapolis, Indiana, shoot ! the seducer of his daughter who commits suicide by taking laudanum! At Evansville, Indiana, one man stones another to death at a dance, for taking sides with the murderer’s wife in a famdy quarrel. \ young mau at Hillsboro, Ohio, shoots and kills a rowdy with bis own pistol, which protruded from the man’s pocket, while be was pounding the lad’s father, A policeman is murdered at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and a colored school tocher is “Ku-Klused ’' ' Ulo, Teriessee— that is, “uha was taken out of her bed at about two o’clock in the m irnimj and shot dead, for teaching a ‘-olored school. Tbe Ku-Klux outrages are revived in some parts of tbe South simultaneously with riots between . negroes and, whites, and the Southern newspapers are predicting a “ war of races,” whwh is to result in the extermination in revenge for the emancipation of the blacks.