A DIABOLICAL PLOT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 941, 7 May 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

A DIABOLICAL PLOT.

The Adelong correspondent of the Tumut Times writes: —“A profound sensation was created here by the intelligence that a diabolically malignant plot for the destruction of human life was attempted by some one living in our midst. A bulky letter was dropped into the post office receiver, probably on Wednesday last, March 30, for local delivery, addressed to one T. G. Williams. On Thursday evening it Was duly handed to the young man whose address it bore, and on the letter being opened it was found to contain a destructive charge of crumbled dynamite, and a centrally adjusted detonating cap. The cap was also found to have inserted therein a sharp pointed tack, the point directed to reach the fulminator, with a view that, should an abrupt opening of the paper wrappers be made, the desired frictional scratch would be I produced; and the explosive fired.)

Williams is said to have very carefully slit the sides of the deadly missive with his pocket knife, as he labored under something more than a presentment of evil, in consequence of an anoymous letter sent to him -the week previous, giving him to understand that ere long he would be a dead man. The frustration of this murderous device is mainly due to the fact that, from a fear of possible selfdestruction, the projector used a tack a little too short; the point, therefore, | could not produce its desired friction, unless under greater handling and pressure than that resorted to in the making up. The life of the postmaster was placed in more imminent peril than that of the intended victim, as the blow of a stamp would have been the most effectual means of discharging the contents of the missive. The goddess Love, and the demon Jealousy, are supposed to share largely in the incident, fortunately shorn of its tragical denouement. ’ The matter is now in the hands of the police.”