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THE THIEVES' TELEGRAPH.

But there is one system of prison converse which distances all others for ingenuity ; it is known as the telegraph. Prisoners are often heard tapping more or less gently in their cells. It sounds like the objectless occupation of idle bauds, or an accompaniment to some wearily whistled tune, which no warder is bound to take cognisance of. In fact it is the clicking of the telegraph; and this is how it is worked. The. staples upon which the bed-hooks hang penetrate the walls that divide the cells ; and iron is so facile a conductor of sound that, for that matter, there might just as well be no masonry between the prisoners at all. The slightest j tap on a staple in one Cell is distinctly heard inthe other; and i*-. is only necessary, therefore, to arrange acode of alpha- ! •betical rap signals, and conversation is easy enough though not very fluent. Two neighboring prisoners have a mind to talk. One of them gives his staple a few smart raps to engage the other's attention ; and then they begin. "What are you in for ?" is the first question ; and the enquirer raps oiF in regular quick strokes, every letter in the alphabet till he comes to the twenty-third, w. There he pauses for a moment and then begins again ; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, which is h; and so on till "what" is spelled, out. A few very rapid strokes signify that the word is complete ; and so on as the other party to the conversation telegraphs that he has got th* word all right (which is done by repeating those rapid strokes on his side the wall), the next word is forthwith commenced. But sometimes the operator gives a tap too many in the middle of a word, which would confuse it altogether, of course, if provision had not been made for so likely au accident. The remedy is simple. With the instrument he taps with, the operator rubs the staple, as if erasing the wrongful letter ; his friend on the other side repeats the rub in token that he understands the signal, and the mistake is audibly corrected. It is obvious that this system of telegraphy must be very slow at first; but time is only worth killing in gaol, and when once the prisoner has become familiar with the telegraph, he works it with astonishing rapidity, as I can j myself testify, for I have both he rd | and seen it in operation. It appears to ; be commonly known amongst professional thieves,' and sometimes to occasional offenders, obviously an advantage I to those who arein the secret, for the more I widely it is known the more frequent is the chance of conversation. Not that ; it is absolutely necessary for commu- | nication between two prisoners that ! they should reside in neighboring | cells. A flat between two sharps by I no means spoils the harmony of social ; intercourse, as might have been supposed. The knowing ones may be five cells apart, and still carry on conversation. A warder one day informed me that, to his- great astonishment, he had been told by a prisoner #11 that had passed in several interviews between himself (the warder) and another culprit; whose cell was five walls, off. The officer was sure that the men had never seen or spoken to each other, and yet all that had" passed in one cell was known to the other. It was a startling case; but I discovered the explanation and put it beyond doubt. I requested the warder to place an officer in any empty cell, and himself to go into another, five distant ; they were then to rap on the wall and listen fora response. The experiment succeeded to admiration; every tap delivered upoi the wall of one cell was distinctly heard in the other. It is idle to talk of the separate system after thie. — Corn/till.

„ • . IRELAND. _j<j ikr^Mx (Prom the Home News.') i 1 Amorttr the articlesfor the production' of which I-elKnd is celebrated Kiniihau's "Lti" whisky has long held a for.eiripst; place. For.jmore than half "a century this potent though mild spirit has been 1 the delight of every connoisseur, the attraction of every festive board. Mr, "Win. -Bolton, a grocer, and formerly* an apprentice of the Messrs Kinahauj has been in the habit , of . selling,^a spirit which he. distinguishes by the norne^f " Bolton's LL,'' and as the Messrs' Kinahan considered the use of those letters an infraction of their rights, they, applied for an injunction to restrain_him from further displaying %hem lon his labels. The case was heard before the

Master of the Rolls, and the matter was thought of sufficient importance to engage the talents of Sergeant Sullivan, Mr Brewster,and the Solicitor-General. Serjeant Sullivan, who appeared for.the petitioners, gave a history of the origin of the title. Upwards of forty years ago the then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Richmond, was so well pleased with Kinahan's whisky that he purchased large quantities of it, and he gave directions that a vat should be set apart in the establishment of the firm for him, with the letters " LL" and a du«al coronet, pointed thereon. From that time the firm gave to the whisky so prepared the name of "LL" whisky, the letters being the initials for " Lord-Lieutenant. 1 ' They had ever since used the letters " LL" to distin guish the whisky so prepared by them. All the corks had, besides these letters, a ducal coronet impressed thereon. On the patt of the respondent, the Solicitor-General contended that Mr Bolton had used these marks for ten years, and that the court could not now interfere with him. The court, however, thought the letters " LL" were a trade mark. The motion was ordered to stand over till the hearing of the cause, and in the meanwhile the Master of the Rolls expressed a wish that the respondent would discontinue the use I of the letters.

The motions on the great Egmont case, which have been occupying for some time the attention of the Irish law courts, were continued at great length on the 4th aud 6th, of June. The heir-at-law of the late Earl of Esrmont and his relatives are the plaintiffs, and Sir Edward Tierney is the respondent. In 1822, Earl John succeeded to the title, aud appoinfei Sir Edward Tierney agent and receiver of the Irish estates, he being at the same time agent to the Earl of Devon, the Earl of Kenmare, and other proprietors. He was also Grown Solicitor for the North-West Circuit of Ireland, and registrar of the Court of Appeal, his various employments producing an income of Llo,ooo a year. The estates were then in a wretched condition, owing to gross mismanagement. They were so overwhelmed with incumbrances that the rents were insufficient to pay the annuities and the interest on charges, the deficiency being advanced by Sir Edward Tierney, whose claims against the estate increased every year, his money being secured by mortgages and the Earl's bonds, on which judgment was entered up. He also laid out large sums iv improvements, with the landlord's knowledge. The Irish estates were put up for sale at Morrison's Hotel in October, 1832, when the highest bidder for the Churchtown estate was a Mr Purcell, for L 135,000. There Were no bidders for the Kanturk esiare, and the attempt at sale failed. Sir E. Tierney was subsequently applied to to purchase the Churchtown estate for L 140,000, but he did not accede to the proposal. In 1840 there was a balau.ee of 1,23,000 due to Sir Edward Tierney. The Earl received from his Irish estates L2OOO a year, and his housekeeper, Mrs Clesse, LIOO. Long and intricate details were given by Serjeant Sullivan of the transactions connected with the incumbrances of the property and the attempts to sell it. The answer to the petition defended Sir Edward Tierney on every point. Mi 1 Brewster Q.C., then addressed the court on the part of the petitioner. He complained that a great many episodes j had been introduced into the cause, i with the object of filling the public mind \ with ex parte statements. It was most j extraordinary that no companion of the Earl's early life had been brought by the respondents to testify to his habits. ; The petitioner went for testimony to Webb's Hotel, where he (Mr Brewster)' might say the Earl lived and died, and th°re found the evidence of his drunken habits and his fondness for low company. The evidence o"f one of the persons who attended him at the time of his decease showed that the Earl died of consumption and delirium tremens. The letter written by Sir E. Tierney about the " cider cellars" was only valuable for the purpose of showing that the Earl began as he had ended. Tierney, in his letter of May, 1836, said he had not heard of Lord Percival from the month of October previous, which clearly showed of what kind the business habits of the late Earl were. His letter of Nov. 11,. 1841, .addressed to the Earl, by the memoranda at the top, put aii end to ; everything about his business habits and sobriety. It was—- " For God's sake read this soberly, quietly, and attentively," Did ever solicitor write tbliiis employer such a letter as that ? The lest of the letter? was also important to show the state in which the Earl was living. He (Mr Brewster) defied the opposite side to show that ever before Lord Henry had expressed a wish to make a will in favor of Tierney. In this letter of Tierney's it Was first suggested by, him to the Earl that he ought to dispose ofany property he might possess after payment of his. debts, as: he (Tierney) | was continually apprehensive ;that somei thing would .-happen^ to him, and for

i,God'is?Ksak^^ *atteVcf lo^liisV eternal*** affairs."'; * JfciWa^j ""aTlo^nVceiT^r^^ answer ;^Ge¥ne|V letters to him. ■|^T-Jlp.t;.; •letter 9h^ed;^learly^ba£ ttie^lni^i^ess, habits>of the-l^Msi^w^ei^h was stated tlmt the lat^Estrl's de&ts( were iliimi table, -but lihe cpunsej for tlie} respondent -to- show that after jb^^eftleme^tr o^ the Earl'i^ affair^ .JLXO.QO. had eVer.beenL paid <m[ account ' ; of his^bjs jttijanjyjne .except :*tbej bonds, ■ to' Tierneyy i He; (Mr Brew^te|) |wodldj satlify ■ the court tliat Mr Tierhey did] not leave beliin c d ? Kirn a single ddcjitbeht t]Biai?^lie'/did .no tjthink would be|m his of thej court the ! Chancellor aaid-z^' jThe question*^ J^/; how far, the. imputations* cast upfm Mr iWoodgate and- .-Mr' Parkinson jiare to deprive the petitioner-of his temedyf in* this suit.'*. On the 'following d]ay the Lord Chancellor gave judgment in favor of the petitioner. He directed au.jssue. to be tried at the next 'assizes for the county Cork. < j Another landlord has fallen in TipperaVyr Mr Andrew Jacksonya^magistrate, who resided at Mount" Pleasant, about four miles from Nenagh, went out one morning in his slippers. He did not return ihat day, nor that; night. About daybreak, next morning the coachman and steward found the body under a cluster of laurels in the;shr.ub-, hery within a few yards of his housed; The slippers were first discovered a few paces from the body, which was lying with the face downwards. At the coroner's inquest the jury returned a verdict of "Murder against some person or persons unknown."

The election of a member of .Parliament for New Ross took place on the 6th June. At ihe close of the poll the numbers were — for Colonel Tottenham, 82; Mr M'Eenna, 79. The numbers at the Kinsale election were announced on June 8- They are as follows : — For Sir George Colthurst, 63; for Mr Fitzgibbon, 51. The new members- have promised to give a genera.l support to the present Government.

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Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18630828.2.28

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 85, 28 August 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,962

THE THIEVES' TELEGRAPH. Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 85, 28 August 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE THIEVES' TELEGRAPH. Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 85, 28 August 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

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