Miscellaneous Extracts.

Hastings Standard, Issue 483, 23 November 1897, Page 4

Miscellaneous Extracts.

THE RIOTd IN IVUCHEN. Letters have been received in Sydney describing the riots in Kuchen on the Poyary Lake. The outbreak occurred in August last, and resulted in the gutting of two mission stations occupied by the Plymouth Brethren. The riot began at the Ladies' Boarding School at 7 p.m. on August 23rd, just as they were on the point of leaving for evening service in the chapel. A crowd was seen outside, and the ordsr was given to enter the dwelling and to " burn and kill." The ladies, five in number, fled into the adjoining schoolroom and barred the door after them. From their position they could hear all that was going on, and in their helpless condition had to submit to the despoiling of all their personal effects. Aftar the mob had completed its work of destroying the dwelling and contents, the command was given to search for the w r omen and kill them. Some native Christians interferred with the crowd, who had commenced battering at the school door, and this allowed the ladies and girls time to escape by a back door that opened into a lane, the existence of which the mob was ignorant. The door through which escape was made had only been made a few weeks. Finding themselves baulked after breaking into the school, the crowd wrecked the building, and also demolished the home of the single men. From there the mob pursued the fleeing persons to Mr Blandford's (a European) residence, in which the ladies and girls had taken refuge, and set fire to that house, the inmates ultimately escaping in the darkness to the neighboring hills, where they spent the night, and were rescued by a house-boat and taken down the river. The Catholic mission was also attacked, but by this time the authorities had sent a force to suppress the riot.

TERRIBLE "SHAM" FIGHT SCENE.

The recent German manoeuvres (says the Berlin correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette) were not so harmless as, perhaps, they were intended to be. The eagerness of the soldiers at close quarters was so great that numerous wounds were inflicted. The report is even circulated that even other than blank cartridge were actually used, the allegations being made by the German papers themselves. Some of the reports ma:le one's hair stand on end—they can virtually be discredited. The German authorities, perhaps in order to prevent these false rumors being circulated, have departed from the custom of silence in such matters, and published an official report. It is sensational enough. It states that exact details cannot be given, but nine solueirs, at least, were severely wounded. Most of the accidents occurred during a cavalry attack, the troopers being under the command of the Kaiser. The cavalry division had crept up unoticed. Suddenly the cry jang through the Prussian rank- 1 , " Cavalry ! " In the space of half a minute the artillery had unlimbered and were ready to tire, and the infantry awaited orders. A few minutes later aud 10,000 troopers charged the "enemy's" ranks. They were met with a murderous fire from the infantry and artillery. It was a wild charge, and at the head was the Kaiser himself —so say reports. A tough struggle ensued. The eagerness of the Prussian attack was such that the infantry actually fired at two paces. Even the artillery threw aside all rules of sham fight and hurled shot after shot into masses of horses and men. The bugle call of ' halt ! ' at last brought this disorderly scene to an end. The 83rd regiment is said to have stood like a wall. Fourteen dead horses and nine badly-wounded men lay on the sham ('?) battlefield. The ambulance corps had their work cut out to bury the dead and to carry off the wounded. One young fellow was run over, and was picked up for dead. One rider was shot in the body, another broke his leg, and three their arms. One wounded horse was sabred on the spot to put it out of misery. These trivial circumstances are simply reported ; no official inquiry has been set on foot.

STAGE REALISM. The Messrs MacMahon, lessees of the Lyceum Theatre, Sydney, met with a couple of mishaps in their production of " The Pirate King" the other night. Before the curtain went up on the play an immense iron tank, containing 160 tons of water, burst, and let the contents out in a huge inundating stream. This of itself would have been enough to dispirit some managers. The managers, however, immediately set men to work repairing the tank, so that it should, if possible, be ready when the act in which it formed a striking feature was played. Bat after a prolongation, quite unavoidable in the circumstances, the tank was ready when the act in which it formed a striking feature was played. Miss Maud Williamson, as the horoine, had to make her escape from the miscreants. The tank then represents a stream. In dashing away from her captors she has to jump into a canoe and pull across the water. By some misfortune the caneo overturned. Many persons in the audience thought this was part of the business. Then it was seen that Miss Williamson was struggling in earnest. The curtain was rung down, and Miss Williamson was rescued by Mr King Hedley, and Mr Alfred W T oods. Fortunately, there were two medical men in the theatre. They went behind, and by the application of restoratives brought the lady to. For the shock, coupled with the perilous position in which she was placed, had caused Miss Williamson to faint. In about twenty minutes the plucky lady was at her work again on the stage. She had finished her canoeing foe the evening, however. When

next she had to effect an escape from her stage foes she travelled on foot. Afterwards she was to cross the bridge on horseback. The horse proved obstinate, and this part of the scene was as far as Miss Williamson was concerned, not enacted. Mr Hedley, mounted on bis charger, took the bridge. The horse fell into the water, as it was intended to, and the tank was equal to the strain. Much sympathy for the management was shown by the audience. The accidents were unavoidable.

THE REMARKABLE EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING.

Near Guildford a few weeks since Thomas Colt-hurst Jamt s >n, a retired Major in the Scottish Rifles, was killed by lightning. Deceased, accompanied by his father and mother, went into a meadow near the house to pick mushrooms, Deceased was some distance in front; and there was a single clap of thunder and flash of lightning, which frightened Mrs Jameson, and she and her husband went into a wood and returned to the house, expecting that their son would follow. About half an hour later Major Jameson was found by a gamekeeper lying on his face in the field quite dead. Around him, in a radius of several yards, were his clothes and boots, which had been torn and scattered about in an extraordinary manner. The lightning appears to have struck him on the right side of the head, tearing his cap to pieces and burning his hair off. It then passed inside his collar, down the front of his body and both legs, into his boots, which were torn to pieces, and then passed into the ground, tearing a hole about 18in. in circumference and Sin. deep. His collar was torn to pieces ; the front of his shirt was rent into ribbons; the jacket and undervest literally torn to shreds, and the knickerbockers he was wearing were stripped oft' him and scattered on the ground. His stockings and gaiters were similarly treated, and on the boots the lightning had a remarkable effect. These were burst open, some of the brass eyelet holes were torn out, nails were forced out, and the soles torn off. The deceased was wearing his sisters gold watch, and this bad stopped at ten minutes past five. The glass had been reduced to powder, the works were blackened, and the small screws twisted out. The skin had been torn off his chest, and his right leg was torn and blackened. When found, biood was issuing from deceased's mouth and light ear. At the inquest the coroner said it was a remarkable case, because people generally thought there was less danger from lightning in the open than under trees. There appeared to be no doubt that at that moment the lightning must have been going to earth in the exact spot where the deceased was standing.