English & American News

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 990, 25 October 1881, Page 4

English & American News

Bad Weather & Harvest Failure

in Britain. Once more the British climate is driving the farmers to despair. A few weeks of the most unpropitious weather has nearly neutralised the rich promise of the early summer, and a per eentage of this year’s cereal harvest is irretrievably ruined. The aspect of the country through out last week was woebegone in the extreme. The incessant downpour of many consecutive days has flooded the low-lying lands Tn the Midlands, rivers have risen and the floods are out. There and elsewhere the harvest had been generally commenced before the disastrous change, and fields upon fields of cut crops are under water, the sheaves afanding like little conical islands on the surface. Where the land is higher the ears have turned almost black from the long, drenching rain. Further north matters look a little more hopeful. The 14 ness of the season has been the saving of Northern farmers, and backward crops which were pining for moisture have now had more than enough. The outcry and lamentations of the agriculturists are general, and landlords are beginning to tremble for their rents.

Mysterious and Diabolical OUTRAGE. A diabolical outrage is reported from Lille. It appears that on the 29th of last month a man who gave the name of Desbois, and said he was a commercial traveller, arrived in that city and took a room at a small hotel. Tin ring four days he went about the place with parcels in his hands, which the inhabitants believed to be samples of merchandise. On the 3rd September he called the landlady of the hotel and announced his departure. Before leaving, however, he hired a cab and commissioned the driver to convey a certain number of boxes to the addresses written on them. Shortly after, the town was aroused by two explosions. The cabman had deposited the first parcel at the house of M. Trachet, a general business agent. He proceeded to oped the box in the presence of his son and servant, when an explosion occurred. Mr. Trachett was thrown to the ground, and had part of his face blown away. His son lost several of his fingers ; the servant escaped with a slight wound. The cabman meanwhile had continued his route, and left another box at the house of a master carpenter. He being absent, his wife and daughter, curious to see what was in the box, set to work to open it. They had hardly begun when it exploded, but fortunately both escaped with only contusion s of no gravity. By this time the police were aroused, and they ran after the cab, and caught it just as the driver had delivered a third box at the residence of an iron merchant. Three more boxes were in the cab addressed to different persons in the town. They were each found to contain bombs of ordinary gunpowder, weighing 10 pounds, connected by a percussion fusee to the lid of the box. The cause of this marvellous crime is supposed to be personal vengeance, but nothing certain has yet been gleaned by the police.

Terrible Railway Disaster : Great Loss or Life. On September 5, Paris was startled by another accident on the Lyons Hallway, which has had alarming fatal results. As far as can be gathered, it appears that a slow passenger train from Montargis arrived at the Charenton Station 12 minutes behind time, and before it could be shunted on to the siding to allow the “ lightning ” train from Marseilles to pass, the latter came up and "dashed intc it. To add to the horror of the event, the travellers in the parliamentary train saw the train from Marseilles approaching, and some of them tried to jump out of the carriages. The .driver of the slow train put on all his steam, but it was too late, and the next second an awful crash took place. The engine of the “ lightning ” train dashed into the other, and literally smashed four of the carriages. The scene that followed was indiscribable. For some minutes the wildest confusion prevailed; but the first horrible fright over, the railway authorities set to organising relief. The police and military in the neighbourhood were soon called to the spot to assist the railway authorities in their sad task. The sight was heartrending. Heaped up in a large mass lay the wreck of the four carriages and their dying and dead freight. To extricate the victims was a labour of some time. Their shrieks rent the air, while their friends and fellow passengers gathered round, some weeping, others fainting, and all pale with freight and terror. Cargo of Human Bones. A special from London says : —A great sensation has been caused at Bristol by the discovery of a cargo of 300 tons of human bones, being discharged there to the order of a local firm engaged in manufacturing manure. The bones were shipped from Rodesto, at Constantinople, and are supposed to be principally the remains of the defenders of Plevna. There are complete limbs among the horrible cargo, and in some cases hair still adheres to the skulls. Peter Cooper says it is a common thing among the British to buy hnman bones. In fact they will take all they can get at any time, and from any part of the world. They use them for Tnaunring the lands.

The Prefect of Police, the Procureur of the Republic, and other officials were not long in arriving to superintend the measures taken for the relief of the victims. Twelve dead bodies fearfully mutilated, and about twenty injured, were soon extricated from the. ruins, and conveyed to the waiting-, room of the Charenton Station, where doctors in attendance. M. Reynoul, inspector at the Lyons Station, came down in search of his wife and daughter, who were in the slow train. H® found both of them seriously wounded. As the work of rescue continued, the victims were discovered to be more numerous. As far as is at present known, nineteen persons were killed on the spot. Their bodies were subsequently conveyed to a shed outside the station The wounded are far more numerous than the dead, and their injuries arc for the most part very serious. They have been dispersed in the private houses, hospitals, and asylums of Charenton, and some having been for a time kept at the station, were sent to Corbel. A few also elected to return to their homes in Paris in carriages. Of these, one, a woman, died on the way. One of the railway carriages, which was smashed to atoms, was occupied by a Musical Society of La Ferte d’Alais, which was on its way to Brighton. These unfortunate people furnished the largest contingent to the victims of this deplorable accident. Some of the bodies are so horribly mutilated that identification will be difficult. It was the slow train which furnished all the victims, the passen-

gers of the “ lightning ” express escaping with a severe shaking. In this latter train was the brother of the King of Siam and his suite, who were in no way injured. Bandits Boabd a Train in Arkansas. Sept 23. —An Arkadelphia special tram on the Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, which left Texarkana at eight o’clock last night, was boarded at Hope by three young men. After passing Prescott, and when near Kensitt, they suddenly drew revolvers and ordered the conductor to stop the train, which he did. They then proceeded to make the passengers throw up their hands and went through them, getting 700 dols. They then visited the express car, opened the messenger’s safe, and took 30,000 dols. in currency. Before leaving the train they threw a package containing 15,000 dols. back under the impression that it was valueless. A second dispatch says it was eight miles south of Prescott. The three presented cocked revolvers to the conductor and bade him stop the train, which he did as quickly as possible. He was in such a hurry to stop the train that he pulled the bell-cord in two. All three of the robbers went to the express car, and made the messenger open the safe, from which they took about 16,000 dols., which was about half the money there was in it. They then went through the coaches and robbed the passengers of 800 dols. All three men were very young. None of them were masked, nor had any a beard. St. Louis.— A Post Dispatch special says : It was five men who boarded the train in Arkansas, and the took 18,000 dols. from the safe, and perhaps as high as 50,000 dols. from all. The Governor will offer 2,500 dols. reward, and the railroad company as much more, for their arrest. Little Rock (Ark). —Conductor Whitside tells a circumstantial story regarding the train robbery. They paid their fare some distance ahead after some conversation, and when the conductor passed on they drank from a bottle and followed, demanding his money. He thought it a joke of drunken men, but found his mistake very soon, and handed out 15 dols. in silver, saving his bills by saying he had none. They then walked him in front of them, and took the money from the passengers, occasionally giving back three or four dollars to the victims. They robbed ten or fifteen passengers, and then marched the conductor into the Pullman car, and then back through the train to the express and baggage car, and, with pistols at his head, compelled the express messenger, Ben Sain, to open the safe, which they rifled, and then getting off fired several shots at the engineer to expedite him. It is not believed they had confederates on the train. The robbery occurred about 10 o’clock in the evening, and it required about 20 minutes. Their total plunder from the express company and passengers is about 18,000 dols. This afternoon the railroad company agreed to pay 5000 dols. reward, and the State 500 dols. each for the arrest and conviction of the robbers ■ total, 16,500 dols. Armed parties are scouring the country in all directions, and the robbers can hardly escape. Nihilistic Movements. The Nihilist organ, the Will of the, People, has re-appeared in St. Petersburg. The numbers issued contain various notices warning spies of their fate , a list of donations to the revolutionary fund, amounting to 5000 roubles ; list of 400 Nihilists arrested since November ; and an article condemning the Czar’s policy, and threatening to deal the enemy a fatal blow. Baron Boronoff, Prefect of Police, waited on the Czar, on sth September, to warn him that a great movement was to be made by the Nihilists in two or three months. He was snubbed. “ Your successor, M. Kasloff,” replied the Czar, “has energy and wit enough to triumph over them.” He then turned his back on Boronoff.