ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 275, 6 November 1862, Page 6

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Dangers of Alpink Adventures.—The Alpiue climber, says the Alheiwum, who went forth, early in Juno, to scale the Matterhorn— nnd add the last triumph of skill and daring to bo won in the Swig.-, mountains—bave been again defeated. Tho peak defies all attempts. Mr Whimper, one of the Alpine Club, reached a higher point than bad hitherto been reached ; but an accidental fall, which may be truly described as one of the most miraculous escapes from instant death on record, cau-ed him to abandon, for the present, and perhaps for ever, all further assaults on the virgin summit. In ascending, the mass of ice and snow, Mr Whimper, who was alone, was compelled in one place to cut a series of steps in the ice. Knowing there was no further difficulty of that kind to be. feared, he left his hatchet behind him, and on returning from his baffled attempt to mount, he found to bis horror that his step 3 were gone. The sun had melted them away ! As his t hatchet could not be recovered, he leaned over the precipice and began to prod at the ice with his alpenstock. vSorae snow gave way, and lie rolled over the ledge, grazing bis face and body on the rocks and ridges, crash, crash, down the sides of a clia'sgn eight hundred feet deep ! By happy chance, he was caught in a rough bed of rock on the crest of a precipice scarcely equalled in the Alps, and tbere remained for an instant stunned and bleeding, though not seriously hurt. He is slowly recovering from tbe shuck arid from his wounds. A few days later, Prof. Tyndul re-appeared on the scene of his last year's adventures. Mr Whimper's tools and experience were placed at bis disposal, and the conqueror of the iliffel setoff full of confidence and courage. But his courage and his endurance were taxed in vain. Again and again he risked his life. Higher than any one has ever been up the peak he crept and elouib : bicher than Mr Whiur/cr : 'but the steepness ofthe highest peak repulsed bim, and the undaunted but unsuccessful mountaineer left the Matterhorn unsealed. Tin-; Art of Getting Up a Public Company.—The getting up of companies bas become itself an art. It is even said, and with much apparent probability, tbat there are men who make a living by it. A curious example bas recently been supplied of this branch of industry, in a series of letter;; iatelv published respecting the projected " I>:mk of Queensland," Mr Mackay, tho eminent shipowner, was invited to become"a

director, and his interest iv the colony inclined him to take a favorable view ofthe proposal. But be found that the new company was to be saddled with the payment of £10,000 to a certain gentleman, under the name of "formation money," and, upon bis demurring to such an engagement, be was told* thafc out of this sum a douceur would probably be paid to each director, and a much larger on :to the sharebroker. Mr Mackay thereupon repudiated the whole affair in a letter which he at once made public. We need not recapitulate the correspondence. We gather from it tbat the proposed bargain was not known to all the gentlemen who had consented to become directors; but we also perceive that the existence of such an

understanding is not expljgpy denied. Tiie ViceChairman of the Board, «(j§s>! Tnade the communication to Mr Mackay, has f&figned his post. The publicity given to the affair has induced the projector to make a very large reduction in his first demand for formation money. We conceive that the curse taken by Mr Mackay will have done good sir vice to the public, if, as be suggests, it induces directors to take some trouble in sifting the cost of hatching their projects, and thereby tends to discourage impracticable schemes, wliich, in his own words, "come to grief every day, and bring innocent people along with them."—Dispatch.

Lktkmiini:!) Suicide of a Bettino Man. Yesterday, Dr Lankester, the Central Middlesex Coroner, instituted a painful investigation at the Hope Tavern, John-street, Tottenliam-court-road into the circumstances attending the death of Mr Godfrey Clay, aged 50 years, residing at 6, Goodge-strcet. The evidence adduced from several witnesses went to show that deceased was respectably connected, ancl had always been supposed to be in very good circumstances. Not very long since a very considerable property was lefc him. Latterly he had been in the public line, and was supposed to be much addicted to gambling propensities and betting heavily on horse races. Within the past month or two be appeared to bave become very destitute, complained of pain/; in his head, and kept in bis room, refusing nou* risbment or food of any kind for as long as two days together, ci liber because be would not be the recipient of the bounty of bis landlord, or for the purpose of starving himself. On Wednesday evening Mrs Ma;thews the landlady of the house went up to .deceased's door and knocked to ask if be would not take something to eat, as was her wont of late, bat being unable to obtain an answer, she called Mr Matthews. The landlord accompanied by police constable 139 E ac once proceeded up stairs, and finding the door locked inside they forced it open. They then entered the room, and found the wretched man dead and cold, hanging hy his silk pocket-handkerchief, carefully arranged with a slip noose from a post of the bedstead. There were other appearances denoting that tho suicide was a very determined

one. Dr O'Coimeil, of 1, North Crescent, Totten-ham-court-road, deposed that he was called to attend deceased, and that the cause of death was strangulation by hanging. Verdict—" Suicide by hanging whilst in a state of unsound mind."— Despatch.

Free Negroes Attacked by a Mon.—A mob, said to consist of Irish, had attacked a tobacco manu factory, in Brooklyn, in whicli Negroes were employed. Tlu-y approached the place screaming like infuriated demons, and cryiug out: " Kill the d d Naygurs," " Burn the Naygu'rs," and other elegant parts of spcc-ch. The factory was surrounded, and bombarded with stones and brickbats, and almost every pane of glass in the building was broken, when the inmates retreated to the upper storey. The Negroes kept the excited mob at bay fov nearly an hour, on the stairway, and fought witli desperation, until finally one of them was seized and dragged outside, where the mob went at him in bloodhound fashion, and would have carried out their threat to kill him, had not the crowd been so great that only a few of their blows reached the victim. At this juncture, a police force arrived, and the Negro who had been so. bad:y hi aten was forced back into the building for protection. But this wos not accomplished until the police used their clubs freely. Tbe mob had filled the whole lower part of the factory, and seeing the police interfeie for the protection of the inmates, their leader, a man named Patrick Keenan, the keeper of a low groggery in Columbiastreet, and candidate for alderman in the Sixth Ward, gave directions to fire the building. A pot of tar was upset, in the lower storey, a'quantity of wood was placed over it, and fire was applied. ,It commenced to. burn briskly, and but for the almost superhuman exertions of ihe police,- the building would have been burned, and the lives of the employes, who hod crowded into the upper storey, must have been sacrificed. While the police were engaged in extinguishing the fire, the stones and bricks thrown by the mob, to use the words of one of the officers, "rained npon them in showers," and several of the force were severely injured. The police finally extinguished the hie, and after awhile dispersed the crowd, which, at one time, numbered several thousand persons. Sensitive Drapers' Assistants. —The Paris tribunals have dealt with an alleged libel on what are called " Drapier's assistants," apropos of a pamphlet entitled, "A Bas Ins Calicots/" found personally offensive by thi-? class of soft goods' shopmen. The squib was a plea in favour of women's attendance on lady customers, and simply embodied what is generally thought of masculine employment behind silk and toilette counters. No individual plaintiff having substantiated a loss or wrong, it was ruled that in their collective capacity these persons could not sue as a corporation or guild, and were thus put out of court.—Paris Correspondent of Globe. A New Yohk. Zouave in a Nbw Character.-— A few days a? o a Frenchman, dressed in the uniform of a New York Zouave regiment, appeared at the Southwark Police Court, in a sad plight. He said he had married an Englishwoman in New York, - and had recently arrived in this country on a visit to her friends. Soon after their arrival she decamped with all his luggage. Tie was possessed of no other cloth-" ing than the uniform he had on ; and he did not like walking about the streets in that, as it caused people to laugh at him, at-.d reminded him of,'" Bull's Run." (Laughter,) He was also one of those who escaped at Bull.-* Run. . £ome of their battalion, however, fougH bravely, and were much cut to pieces. He, however, was tired of the war, and got away as soon as he could, and came to England. Since lie had been in England, he had found out that his wife had a husband ia Jjondor., whom she left some three or four, years ago. Mr Lurcham said he ,wuid riot assist him.— -Albion. ;■: •• ■'•-:';;-- B-, ■'■ '■':i-! - 7:";~ '.: A.-, ~u