Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 101, 1 April 1885, Page 4

A Chapter of Horrors. ©. . The wickedness of the world is certainly beyond comprehension. From time to time we are appalled by the accounts which we read m the newspaper of tragedies and cruel practices of various kinds. But when the perpetrator of some dreadful deed his one who by reason of youth should be possessed of tenderness of heart, our horror knows no bounds. The last mail i brings us some stories that would seem to be related of demons or fiends rather than human beings, for they are almost beyond the worst point of human wickedness. The first is that of a nurse girl who got tired of her situation m Paris, and endeavoured to poison her charge with phosphorous scrapedoffmatches so that she might leave her situation with a good character. How any girl could be so demoniacal and devoid of all feeling or tenderness is a mystery. But even that dire deed pales into comparative insigni- i ficance when compared to that of .another girl, also a nurse maid and sweet sixteen. Emily Redston, employed by a lady at Chiswick, was one day desired by her mistress not to do some work on a particular day but to defer it till the next. This order did not meet with her approval, so she proceeded to tear down the pictures and paintings m the hall, after which she smashed all ihe crockery she could lay her hands on m the kitchen, destroyed a valuable set of china, sprinkled a plum pudding about the kitchen floor, tore oft' the stair carpeting, pulled her bedclothes to pieces, and wound up by throwing her mistresses two little daughters into the icy river arid following them herself. Thanks to the promptitnde and courage of two boatmen the would-be murderess and her innocent victims were rescued from a watery grave, and it is to be hoped that Miss Emily Redston will have stern justice meted out to her as Socle y says, "pour encourages les (wires young Jadies of sulky temper. 1 ' Fiendish asj these instances are, they are quite outdone by a tale which comes to i? 3 from Chalons. Comment would be useless, so I will just give, the facts of the case. Two little boys, cousins, aged respectively eight and ten, were living with their parents at Barcelona. One day -hey were returning together from school, when a man and woman.rhet them and persuaded them to go with them to the railway station and then on to Perpignan. When there one of the little fellows was made one armed, the other transformed into a cripple by having his leg bent and strapped, and attenuated by ropes being tightly bound round them, while the unfortunate child's loins were cut with a knife and corrosive acid poured into the wounds. For two months these poor little victims were operated on daily and sent out to beg m the towns through which they passed, the little cripple wheeling himself about. The police of Chalons have arrested the man and his wife, and it is to be hoped that they will meet with adequate punishment. Such a tale makes us sick with horxor, and causej us to wonder at the ways of all wise Providence who allows st.eh things to be. Surley that barbarous couple deserve some such torture as the rack or the wheel. — Melbourne Leader. Remarkable JEscajpe at a F?ve ♦ Rutherglen Bridge Mills, a cot-ten-thread manufactory situated at Glasgow, has been burnt to the ground. The fire broke out shortly after 3 o'clock, and the workpeople, about 200 m number, were all m at the works at the time. The flames spread with great rapidity, and though there were ample means of exit a panic ensued among the workers. A number of the women made their escape by the windows on the fourth and fifth stories, reaching the ground by means of ladders, which were readily available. Several of the girls slipped and fell to the groundin the excitement of the moment, but none were seriously injured. While the fire was at its height an intense sensation was created among the crowd of onlookers by one of the workmen emerging from a skylight on the roof'of one of the sections of the mill. The building was enveloped m flames, and there was no means of • escape through the interior. With the utmost coolness the man nailed a piece of leather belting to the inside of the window,' and, throwing the end over the roof, began to descend. The flames were blenching, from the window, the leather belt snapped and the man fell from a height of four stories. He, however, fell into a tank of water and escaped unhurt. The mill was one of the oldest m Glasgow. The destruction is complete, and the loss sustained will be about i? 30,000. It is estimated that, at the present time, Russia is m a position to put 3,200,000 men into the field m case of war. A census of horses taken m 1883 m 58 provinces of European Russia, gave a total of nearly 15 millions as fit for service m case of necessity. The total of the British army, exclusive of the army m India, is 177,000. The Indian army is composed of 190 v OOO officers and men, and, it is stated that this number could be doubled. With the aid of Afghanistan England could put very nearly a million of men into the field. £2 REWARD. THE al»ove reward will he £>iven to iinvoju' giving 1 information tliat will lead m tl.e recovery of a Dark Bay Mare with tutlifv-rope and c-)ii;n Httucliwi. Anyone det (lining t.lic same irtor this date will be j>ro.>eiuted. Apply St/\Ndab» Ofliee. |