A "CLEVER SCOUNDREL."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 145, 17 June 1878, Page 4

A "CLEVER SCOUNDREL."

"It is t dreadful thing to pass sentence upon a man in such a state !" fflid the jpdge at the Wiltshire Assizes. Hii Lordship' seemed moved almost to diitreJs at (be pitiable object, who, with ai) injured spine, was brought into GQWt, lying helplessly on a stretcher, and who could only feebly plead •VgftHtj' 1 '- to the 1 charge alleged against hfffl. "The infliction yoaare suffering under," "surpasses any punishment I can give you." Had Neale been in ordinary health he would undoubtedly have bad penal* "servitude, for it was »pt Hf jfi^t Jfot of felony j, but who «ould find the s Jttprjt "to parry out the e^repe jigor of ; the. law ijn the case ol spoor gquT wAo. .wooii, to all appoaranflPi -njv.er again be able to rise from the pallet on whieb be lay, writhing in all tb»\«g6ny of an injured spine. So much did hig lordship feel this, tbat , B . en '* eu , oe^ n |™ *P eighteen tyfifmbM*. wP*WM*^m*d to have amitten biro, and he reduced it to »R«l?e, .That Neale bad brought the misfortune on himself there can be no doubt} but what of that? It was but a harmless piece of curiosity of which be had been guilty ; and if ihe verdict of (be spectators could have decided the ease it would at once have set tbe prisoner at liberty? It appears that in October last Neale was apprehended for Healing a mare, tbe property of Mr Jfobn, Smith, of Luckiogtoo, and wai 16dgad in Mftliiwsbury lookup previous to bit transmissiputo Devises. On tbe following morning when the police visited fats cell, they found him lying on the jfloor unable to move. His stateihentwjs that he had got up to look oat of tbe window, when be fell back •wont tbe corner of the bedstead, and injored his spine ! Medical advice was obtained, and bis sad condition at once appreciated. In fact he appeared to be almost irretrievably injured, and to be ■offering tbe greatest agony-^and to rasudve • man a distance of twenty miles under such clrcomßtancea would have been the height of cruelty. He •BcMingly remained at Malmesbury fprV nine weeks, during which time everything that humanity could sug. geit to mitigate his sufferings was reip^ted/toj a jperaon was kept in conItant attendance upon him ; all kinds of nutritions things were ordered for him, snqU.fta rpast fowl, grog, &c., and hit oomfort was studied with the utmost eolivutude. At tbe end of nine weeks it wbb thought that be might heir ihd journey to Devize?, and in January last a conveyance was obtained <MPM\t% tf>^ i Walter Powell, -M.Pi) lOPSieooagh .to hpldi a bed, and with grest earvadd no litt!e anxiety, he war brought (o the County gwl t aod was

at onoe carried to the Infirmary. Two men were specially detailed to attend to his necessities and minister to bis comfort, for the medical officer and another doctor he brought with him to see "the case," were (like the medical gentleman at Malraesbury) both of opinion that the poor fellow's spine whs seriously if not permanently injured. In this melancholy state he was, as we have said, brought before my lord judge on Friday last, and a general murmur of pity, amounting almost to a shudder, ran through the Court as those present beheld tbo pallet with the injared man j lying helplessly upon it. A breathless silence prevailed as the poor fellow was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment; and tbe pallet, with its occupant, was carried back to prison. And now oomeß the sequel. To prove a former, conviction, the Deputy-Governor of Gloucester Goal had been summoned to Devize, and on going over tbe goal a close inspection enabled him to recognise in Neale an old " invalid " with whom he formerly had to deal. " Halloa ! (said the Deputy-Governor, as he scanned tbe countenance of tbe cripple) — halloa! what I at your old game! That fellow, said he, "in an impostor ! There is no more the matter with his spine than, there is with mine!" Impossible it, was though. The Dapuiy - Governor must be deceived. However Dr. Clupham (iho medical officer) thought it worth while to communicate with the surgeon of. Gloucester Goal; and the reply be. received so entirely confirmed the Daputy.-Governor's, statement that he determed td test the point in such a way as put it beyond doubt whether Neale was really the great sufferer he appeared to bd f or an* arrant knay&> Taking with him Dr. Charles and Mr Waylen, he accordingly went t;> the prison on Sunday last, and having put the man through a severe examination the previously formed opinion of the, doqtors' began to waver, Stilt the n/aji protested that his sufferings and , , hit; injuries were real, and he seemed totally ufyable to move. To put the', matter, to a further tear, a galvanic battery was introduced, and thej "shocks'' were turned on pretty strong. All, however, failed to produce the expected result, The man was no more able to move during and after tbe " shocks " than he was before. So the doctors went away. The information wbiob Dr Qlapham bad received from Glouoester was, however, so conoluaive tbat he was far from satisfied, and when he cstrie on the morrow, (Tuesday), he ehou,ld apply the galvanic battery with still stronger effect. Tbe morrow came, and as it came, so it found Neale lying in tbe same position as he lain for oix previous months — if possible in greater pain than ever. Regardless, however, of all demonstrations of suffering, tbe electrio machine was again set to work, and bo sharp ( was the effect; that the leg Which bad appeared' most affected by the spinal injury began to move--* until at last, unable to stand tbe shocks any longer, the fellow jumped out of bed, and in a few minutes afterwards was walking aoroßS Ibe Court-yard to obtain his prison olothee, as lithe and agile on his pins as any man within the prison walls. A clever scoundrel ! Electricity has produced many wonderfuj, results—but none more wonderful than its effects upon Charles Neale, It ia of course too late to give him his desert (of penal servitude), which would. in«vijtap)y have, awaited him for bis, " piiiablo condition," but the learned Jud^e who tried the case, and who gave such "vent to his feelings, will/we suf peot, be not a little dubious of, bis own power of«> discernment should he ever again have a prisoner before him with "an injured spine."

" What may happen to a man in Victoria " has received anotherexemplification, in Colac. It appears, gayg the Colac Herald, that a man who was known by the name of Fr«d. Lloyd, and who was engaged as groom at the Victorian Hotel; and afterwards iv a similar capacity at the Union Club Hotel, received by Saturday morning's post a letter frotn Captain Sandish, conveying the intelligence of the death of his father, and also enolosing a cheque for £100 to take him to the home of his forefathers. It is stated that Lloyd inherits the title of Sir P. W. Trevellyan and an estate in Wales, which ia said to be worth nearly half a million of money. Lloyd left Colac for Melbourne on Saturday afternoon last, andjwilj proceed homa early in Jane, A sooi^l gathering which took place -the other evening at the little town of Ciruelita, near Fort Union, New IJexico, was rendered far from enjoyable by an absence of good taste and decorum on the part of one or i,w,o of those present on the occasion. It 166018, from the account of the affair by the Cimarron Newt and Press, that in the afternoon there had been a "chicken fight" in the town, at which a difference of opinion arose between a man known as DJck Arbuckle and another man named Curley* In the evening there was a « bronco dance," at which, unfortunately, Messrs Arbuckle and Curley renewed their quarrel. Arbuckle waa to blame in the flrstinstancej for he playfully fired a shot from'a revolver, at Curley while the latter 1 was dancing, which paralysed bis right arm. As the shot did not take effect on Curley's lags, he might still have continued to dance, but that a second shot disabled his left hand, and caused him to drop his pistol. While he was stooping to recover the weapon, a third shot fired by Arbuckle passed through his body and disabled him entirely. A man named Texas Jim at this juncture drew his pistol, and "put three holes through Arbuckle in quick succession which finished him." Texas Jim, not satisfled with this result, »'kapton firing at the company indiscriminately with a pistol in each hand, until he had emptied both pistols." When the excitement had cooled down a little it was found that four persons had been killed outright and nine wounded, among them one woman. Curley, moreover, was not expected to recover from the effect ,of Arbuckle's shot. Texas Jim was arrested by Sheriff Robinson and taken to Mora, | where he was lodged in 1 gaol. The same night, however> he and the rest- of the prisoners « broke gaoFaod made their escape,