NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Evening Star, Issue 3919, 15 September 1875, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

On the morning of Sunday, July 11. at about three o'clock, the whole of the entablature surmounting the colonuade on the noithern side of Drury Lane Theatre, and extending nearly the entire length of Little Russell street, fell to the ground with a noise so great that the inhabitants of the houses* opposite were startled in their sleep while their habitations were shaken to their foundations. The entablature was composed of heavy blocks of stone, which fell, blocking up the street, at the ends of which bat riers were placed. It would seem that the constant late rains had lessened the cohesion of the materialu, and at the time of tho fall a heavy storm of wind and rain prevailed and caused the overhanging cornice to give way, bringing to the ground with it the piece on which it was supported, On the previous evening hundreds of peoplo were assembled underneath the gallery on part of the colonnade, and the crowd extended far into the roadway.

The winner of the Queen's Prize of L 250 at the late Wimbledon competition, Captain I'earse, of the 18th Devon, said, on being carried to his tent, and having his health drunk :—" One of the wiunera of this important prize attributed his success to teetotaliam. Now, Ido not attribute mine t > that; 1 consider 1 owe it to faith in my Bible. About six months ago that feeling came over me, and since then I have felt that everything I have done has been done with a higher motive. I hoped to win this prize to-day that I might have an opportunity of spying this. That opportunity'has come, and lam glad of it In the presont state of my feelings I hope you will excuse my saying any more " -a. duplex negro is the latest wonder in the American papers. We are told by t'"e 'New York Tribune' that this highly-favored creature has acquired such powers of s.if-oou-tortion that, in exhibiting his dual organisation to a Wheeling doctor, he dropped his ribs one foot, and the doctor felt another set underneath the first. He then announced that he would throw his heart down the B;i.me distance. The stethoscope was placed over it, and it was shown to be breaching regularly in its right place. He gave his body a jerk, and the hea~t wa< !)■ aiing a loot below, as he had promised . iter tw<-> Minutes' interval, the active orvnv returned, as rhe negro said it vvou;d luii him to keep it there longer. He cropped it ; «g ;i i: the same distance on the r'ght side, asd held, it there fov tri.-. same i'.urtS of tim-.. 'iV.e»< he stopped i'.s b • altojctbor, and the spa'-e of two minutes there was no pu'v in all his boi'.y. When this remark ; t :.,ie child of nature began to tnani:>uhte hi-; ribs, and do several v J< : - gs wiih bin internal organs ::t: 1 i ..ere nunakable boio; gentleman present fainted. If, is not said what has become of the man who wrote th story. Kn Monday last Captain Webb, -who intends making an attempt to swim from the English to the French coast next month, started, from the Admiralty pier at Dover, about 10 a.m , and swam to Ramsgate, a distance of eighteen miles, arriving t ;,ere at 6 35, after having heen eight Lours and forty minutes in the water Lie did not once' stop or receive the slightest s ipport. As he entered the harbor the people < n thpiers cheered him loudly. Upon landing Captain Webb hae a good rub down, am said he felt no ill effects from his long stay in the water.

A whale which struck the Cunard steamer Scythia in the Atlantic on her last passage was discovered floating dead with a deep gash in the body and she bead nearly severed. It was towed into Quecnstown harbor, but was so decomposed that it had to be towed to sea again and cast adrift. r he carcase measured fifty-four feet m length. The race-horse George Frederic has been leased to the Stud Company for three years for L2,5Q0, with the option of purchase at the end of that period for LS.OOO. The ' Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News' says of Mr Anderson's Betting Bill : —"For the present the occupation of a well-known class of turf advisers is substantially gone. The columns of the ' Sporting Life ' are no longer at their disposal; they must find other means of advertising their recipes for realising rapid fortunes. Sir Thomas Dakin is of opinion that ' the Act is a most salutary one, and that its enforcement would be attended with great benefit to society. ' He is welcome to his views. ?. s he is an alderman and an ex-Lord Mayor, it would be presumptuous to differ from him ; but we do protest against his rehabilitation of that dreadful city clerl;, who never by any .;haiico robs his employer until he has lost moiiey by betting ou horse-ra-.-ing. The turl has enough to answer for without having laid to its charge all the peculations of city clerks."

A daring attempt waß recently made to rob the express-car of a railway train on the Indianapolis and Vandalia Railroad, at Longpoint, Illinois. This t>tatio;i is in a dense forest, and at midnight, when a passenger train bound eastward stopped there two men boarded the locomotive and compelled the driver to start it. A. dispute arose, when the men shot the driver, killing him, and then took charge of che engine themselves. The stumer, who Lad boon standing on the tank, ran to the rear Aoup the train, to give the alarm as soon \s lie saw the dispute begin, and the t.ain had barely started wh<su ft confederate r.-f the robbers detached the train behind the ex-press-car, leaving the passenger-coaches standing on the line, whilo the encioe went on with the express-car. .'\ftei- r-.inuing '. about two milts the car was stopped, and the ! tbievea endeavors! to force ai< entrance. There were .i of them, but the ex.'<rebs messenger barricaded tiie doors and kept them out. They fired repeated shots into the car, but could not stnk;.- him, the car being very stoutly built and without window.'-, so that they had to fire their weapons at random. The alarm haviug been given at the train which wan left behind, the train hands and passengers organised a party to go to the relief of the express messenger, their weapous being two carbines and a pistol. At their approach the thieves 11-.d, f.ud the mi avenger was relieved from his bold defence of the impromptu fortrusp The dead body of the driver waa ttmnd " ' the engine. * 0n