NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Evening Star, Issue 4021, 15 January 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

A "wedding agency" is about to be established in Paris. There will be a chapel and a branch of the mayoralty, so that civil and religious weddings can take place under one roof. Carriages, lawyers, priests, ballroom, music, and even the wedding finery will be furnished.

A shocking murder has just been committed at Brownedge, near Leek. Two colliers quarrelled in a public-house and fought in the road. After the figlit was over, Hancock went into his house, returned with a gun, and shot Goodwin dead, the ball passing through the heart. Two policemen came up and arrested Hancock, who is said to have been perfectly cool and collected. In reply to the charge, he said, " I know it is right. ' The men were cousins, and it is not known that there had been any quarrel previously between them.

The Derbyshire ' Mercury' says:—"The most unblushing thing in advertisements we have ever seen occurred last week amongst the obituary notices of the Derbyshire 'Advertiser.' Omitting the essential part of the advertisement, it reads thus : " Solomon.—On the 13th July, 1875, at the residence of her son, Mr Isaac Solomon, Kent Terrace, Norwood, Adelaide. South Australia, Mrs Esther Solomon, aged 100 years and six months. For the last twelve months of her existence she lived exclusively on 's Pure Extract of Meat. Country papers please copy." Dr James Hardie, of Manchester, at a recent medical congress in Edinburgh, tells us how a young girl, having lost her nasal

bones and cartilage, came to him to be repaired. In the most daring manner he determined to put a new nose on her. He bandaged her arm in such a position as to "enable the fore-finger to be laid and plastered on her nasal cavity," and kept there for about three months. Without any idea how nearly he approached to a worker of miracles, Dr Hardie modestly says :—"After the first few days the girl did not suffer from the irksomeness of her position. Gradually the finger became attached to the cavity." Ultimately the upper joint was snipped off by forceps from the rest, and being duly trimmed and calved by Dr Hardie's dexterous scalpeL and covered with grafted flaps of skin from the face and arm, it grew into a most respectable nose, indeed. A BRAVE CAPTAIN. A very courageous feat was performed by a Norwegian coptain named Hansen, in the latter part of October, off the coast of England. His bark, loaded with iron and deals, was badly injured in a fearful gale, and all her pumps were disabled. A smack came in sight, and Captain Hansen's crew, not believing the vessel could live, left him. He refused to leave, hoping to get his bark into Grimsby. He managed, all alone, to set the

sail and mainsail, and to light the side-lighta and the binnacle-light, and then steered towards the west. He fell down several times from sheer -weariness. The cabin was full of water, but he finally succeeded in getting his vessel into port. GENIAL WRITING. An article in 'Fraser' on "Impediments to Marriage," thus describes the case of a British mother with daughters on hani : " She sits there like a Turkey merchant, with her merchandise before her. Some of the wares, it may be, are rather the worse for wear ; eVen the newest was fresher last winter than this. ' O, public, dear, will you not come and buy ? This is Milly, my eldest boru; she is not bright, but she is good—which is far better.' " This ia kindly, genial writing, and is perfect aa a picture of society. The social moralist who penned the above, and further on alluded to girls being "trotted out like young fillies," has a very fine style indeed, but it is nothing to his taste. That is irreproachable. A GENTLEMAN CAB-DRIVER. A London correspondent writes:—"A strange career came to a termination a few days since in an upper room at Gray's Inn. A gentleman, who had been rescued by an old Rugby schoolfellow from the cab-stand, and had been taken by him to an attic in Gray's Inn, died there. He was the son of a wealthy manufacturer at Manchester, a schoolboy at Rugby, and a graduate of Oxford University. Supported by Cobden, he became Member of Parliament for a Northern constituency. On the death of his father he became possessed of great wealth. Coming to London he read for the bar, but was never "called," and then plunged into all the excesses of profligate life. He got into the Divorce Court, lost his friends, and changed his name. Then he "ran amuck" among the turfites, and, being cheated himself, in the attempt to retaliate by cheating others he was obliged to fly to California, where he was as reckless as he had been in England. After several years he changed his name again and returned to his country, where, failing to obtain other employment, he had to reaort to the poor gentleman's refuge, the occupation of cabdriving, and finally ended his days as previously mentioned. THE FRENCH VINTAGE, Never Bince public records were kept in France has been beheld such a vintage as the one lately past. It had been predicted that the quality of wine would be much below the average, but even in this respect good fortune has attended them. Although not of the highest class, the Bordeaux of 1575 will be quite up to the mark, and even the Burgundies will be but slightly under it. The ' Cote d'Or' tells an anecdote which is not thought improbable by those who have visited that country. A certain vinegrower made his first vendange, or grape harvest, then a second. Every barrel and tub, every vessel that would hold water, was filled. Casks this year were not to be bought at any price. And still his grapes kept ripening in parts of tho vineyard untouched. It made his heart ache to sec tho good wine wasting. So one day he sent round a man with a bill inviting all the population to pick grapes from eight a.m. to five p.m., as many as they could gather, at five francs a head. The people came in crowds and cleared the vineyard. But a man can pick grapes enough to make about sixteen gallons of wine between the hours named. It appears therefore that this year there is such abundance that a vinegrower may be glad to sell his surplus at one shilling the four gallons. COLONEL BAKER SPEAKS HIS MIND. The "distinguished" prisoner, as he is facetiously termed, has undergone the interviewing process at the hands of an American reporter, in the course of which he made the following references to his own case :—"Mr Justice Brett, who ovidontly wished to spare me degradation when he said by brilliant deeds I might rehabilitate myself, did not realise that imprisonment was fatal to me. Many indecent assaults are not punished by : imprisonment. He obeyed tne popular [ clamor, and no doubt thought he would be accused, of partiality did he not condemn me to the extreme penalty of the offence. In this way I was made a sacrifice to the cry of 'One law for the rich and poor alike.' I do not accuse my judge, and I foresaw this. It is the reason why I wanted a special jury and a higher court. I should no doubt have been found guilty, but the disgrace of imprisonment might have been spared me. I do not attempt to condone it, and I shall never cast a word of blame on the young lady who has brought it all on me. I am man enough to know, even though I suffer for it, that, under all the circumstances, she could not do otherwise than she did. I only think it bard that ope moment

of forgetfuiness should destroy the honorable record of a whole life. Had Miss Dickenson not been pushed to it I feel confident she wished to spare me, and I feel thankful for her generous impulse. But with the noise made over it she was forced to sacrifice me to her own reputation. She is a pure, good girl, and, as you saw, I never attempted to controvert a word she said." A COMEDY OF ERRORS. The ' Toronto Mail' gives an account of a ludicrous affair arising out of the resemblance of two young gentlemen, residents of that city. One of them, it seems, was recently married, the other is.still a bachelor. Lately, according to the correspondent of the 'Mail,' the married person went to a dinner party. The unmarried one, as it so happened, was similarly occupied on the same evening, but, unluckily for his reputation, he made a miscalculation, as to his capacity for native wine, and spoilt his night's amuse.nent. While a glimmer of reason remained he endea-

vored to get home without attracting attention. By the time the poor young man reached a cab stand his mind had become so confusad that he was unable to remember either his own name or the name of the street in which he lived. As he was engaged in gesticulating somewhat wildly to the cab-driver a friend of the married young gentleman, happening to pass, noticed his plight, and confounding his identity with the latter, pushed him into a cab, whispered to the driver, and contiuued on his way. The re»sult of the friendly act was the conveyance of the unmarried man to the house of the married man, where his lamentable condition, as may easily be supposed, created anything but a pleasant surprise. The young wife was deeply mortified at the figure he cut in her father's house. Subsequently, as he lay asleep upon a sofa, the father-in-law entered the room to remonstrate with him. After wasting much good advice, the father-in-law suddenly discovered the mistake that had been made by his daughter, and was in the act of trying to persuade the latter, probably much against her will, that the intoxicated young man was not her husband, when the real'husband put an end to the dispute and greatly increased the embarassment of the household by let-

ting himself in at the hall door with a latchkey. A RUNAWAY TRAIN. On the 28th September, about six o'clock, a goods train, consisting of an engine and twenty-seven heavily laden trucks of coal, bricks, &c, started from the Coldren Junction, and had not proceeded far when the guard found that his efforts to keep the train under control were utterly unavailing, the weight of the trucks, even upon the moderate incline between Coldren and Ynyscedwin, being more than the brake power of van, engine, and trucks eould control; and in less time than this takes to recite, a velocity of at least fifty miles an hour was attained, to the horror

of the engine - driver, guard, and Btoker. These men were observed with heroic courage stepping from truck to truck, endeavoring m every possible manner to obviate the destruction that stared them in the face. The engine brakes were not only screwed down to the greatest possible pitch, but as the engine dashed along in its fury the machine could be seen at the reverse, vainly endeavoring to throw back the weight, every moment threatening destruction by the enormous oscillation of engine and trucks, the former appearing to be springing back at the trucks, while the latter appeared to be rushing forward at the engine. As it neared the Ynyscedwin station the officials both happened to be in the signal box, and while one closed the points so as to prevent the train rushing into the station, and of course causing death to all the men in the train, the other in an instant signalled to Ynysgeinon junction, " Look out, train run wild." Through the station, in a cloud of dust, and fire sparkling from every wheel, it dashed forward with increased velocity, and down the desperate incline which commences at this point, continued its mad course. At the Ynysgeinon Junction, when the message arrived, the live o'clock train from Swansea to Ystalyfera had just arrived, and at Pontardawe the 5.30 train from Swansea to Brecon was waiting the signal that the Ystalyfera train had cleared the junction and " line clear." In an instant the signalman rushed down and gave the staff to the guard, and the information of what had happened, but before any great progress had been made down came the runaway, passing on the lines on the higher level, and dashing into the blind siding. The engine and two carriages only out of twenty-seven took this point, and the remainder of the train dashed on its course to Pontardawe, on the same line as the 5.30 Brecon train was on. But in the course of a hundred yards or so, after violent oscillations, part went over on ene side part on the other, and into the river. The signalman at Ynysgeinon kept his points open for the main line, but oii seeing the driver jump off he turned it into what is known as the blind siding. Happily no lives have been lost, though the driver, in jumping off the train, rolled over and over again, and it was feared that his life would be sacrificed, but happily he escaped with only a few bruises. Coming down the incline the guard, seeing all hope of stopping the train gone, succeeded in unscrewing the van, and, with brakes full on, he was observed in a few minutes leisurely wending his way in comparative comfort, but, doubtless, with nerves considerably shaken.