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Globe, Volume VI, Issue 659, 31 July 1876, Page 4

A couple of porters were talking at a .street corner, Newcastle, about a recent fire. "Aa say, Jacob," said one, "ha' ye seed the ruins in the Broad Chare ?" " 00, ay," rereplied Jacob, " They say that spontaneous combustion set the pleyce on fire." "Ye divin't say se ?" returned the other. " Hev they copped him yet ? He must be a furriner : for aa's sure aa nivvor hard his neyme afore I" " The return of a retired brigand to active professional duties," observes the Pall Mall Gazette, " is announced from Greece. Petko, one of the most eminent robbers of his time, who had amassed sufficient wealth to enable him to lead the life of a peaceful citizen at Athens, has become disgusted with the ennui of respectability, and has betaken himself to Thrace —the scene of his former exploits—where he is roving and plundering with great success and with all his former activity. He has lately captured a young woman, for whom he demands a heavy ransom, and has also announced his intention of murdering some intimate friends, who have in his opinion mismanaged some property he left under their care. His proceedings excite unusual interest and admiration, because they are conducted from a pure love of brigandage, and not from necessity. He ie, moreover, well advanced in years, being upwards of sixty years old, an age when most brigands are glad to rest from their labours, Petko is of a highly suspceptible temperament, and the other day naarly lost his life when scaling the wall of a house in which lived a lady whom he much admires. A Circarsian zaptieh, seeing Petko ascending the wall, fired at the venerable thief, who, however, was happily untouched by the shot, and, sliding to the ground, took to his heels, and fled with really marvellous activity. There is some talk of offering a reward for his head, but the inhabitants of the district, having before now brought in heads to the authorities and received no remuneration for their trouble, maintain that transactions of this nature should be conducted on the principle of reward first and head afterwards."