GLEANINGS OF NEWS.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 116, 30 November 1858, Page 4

GLEANINGS OF NEWS.

(Irom late English Papers.) A sudden and terrible catastrophe took place in the metropolis a few days ago. The scene of it was the Westminster-road, near the corner of the Waterloo-road. About that point and opposite to each other are two firework factories. The one belonged to Madame Coton, pyrotechnist to theVauxhall Gardens; the other to a wellknown firework maker named Gibson. In the evening of July 12, about half-past 6 o'clock, a boy engaged in the " colouredfire department" of Madame Coton's factory suddenly cried out that " the red fire was alight," and immediately rushed out of the building. Here there is a pause of a minute or two, while some fire-engines arrive. But at the very instant when the plug is being drawn to supply them with water, there opens a series of rapid and disastrous surprises, cf which the consequences cannot yet be fully told. First, the whole of Madame Colon's factor}', except a portion of the external walls, was blown into the air, as well as across the full extent of the wide road. At the same time rockets, Catherine-wheels, and the more powerful description of fireworks exploded, scattering everything used in the business in every direction, and knocking down crowds of men, women, and children. Some of the rockets now shot into the premises of Gibson, and the catastrophe was consummated. For several minutes neither the firemen nor the police knew what to do, for explosions continued to follow each other until everything in each building was destroyed; and it is needless to say that the adjoining houses were greatly damaged before the fire was subdued. A child and a man were killed, the latter being burnt to a cinder. Madame Coton is so terribly injured that but faint hopes are entertained of her recovery, and Mrs. Gibson has scarcely fared better. Another female is so much injured that not a feature of her face is discernible. But the list of calamities is too long for our space. About 300 persons have been more or less hurt, of whom not a (e\v, it is feared, will lose their lives. The cause of the accident is not explained. We may observe that this is the third or fourth time that Madame Coton's premises have been destroyed by a simitar casualty; and, indeed, her predecessor, Madame Hengler, was killed by an explosion of the same description.

Several labourers, engaged in mowing clover in a field near Sherborne, had stopped ibr the purpose of whetting their scythes and taking a little refreshment. One of them, as soon as he had finished, threw himself down on the swathe of grass next to his own to rest till his companions were ready to recommence, and at once fell asleep. The others, being soon ready, again went to work. The mower who worked next to the sleeping man did not perceive him, and the first stroke of his scythe, carrying its burden to the swathe, drove its point deep into the neck of the poor fellow, severing the jugular vein in two. Death immediately ensued. In th?) list of patents for which provisional protection lias been taken out is a machine of a novel and somewhat curious character. The specification, as taken from the list, describes the machine as a " blast drill," the object of which is to protect the turnip crop from the ravages of the fly and the slug, and its other numerous enemies, and secure, as far as human ingenuity can accomplish it, this most valuable of all bulbous roots. The common practice of protecting the turnip from the fly is by dusting the row with lime during the night and while the dew is upon the plant. This operation is difficult, and imperfectly performed. Besides the slow process of doing this by hand, the difficulty of dusting the underside of the plant as well as the top side offers an insuperable objection to this mode of applying lime, soot, or any other compost to the young turnip plant. This difficulty is now overcome, and the lime (a mixture of onesixth of soot with it is recommended) is thrown, by means of a blast fan, upon every part of the plant, both on the upper and under side. The fan is put in motion by the travelling wheels of the drill, and receives its velocity in the usual manner by gathering wheels. The blast thus created by the fan is brought to bear upon the plant, which, yielding to its .action, bends from the current, and as it acts upon a falling stream of lime or other composition the plant becomes completely covered with the

powder. But this is not the only object the blast drill will accomplish. The fly, disturbed by a simple contrivance, hops away, but is at that moment caught by a current of air entering the blast fan and instantly destroyed, and thrown out again ■with violence from the vortex into which it had been drawn. This operation is simple, and the process of annihilation is similar to that of a mouse or rat going down a thrashing machine. The fly and the lime are so completely mixed and incorporated that the mischievous yet delicate insects are destroyed by the atmospheric pressure thrown upon them, and the plant is also secured, by the dusting of compost, from ail future attacks of the enemy.

A Nell Gwyn letter has just been sold for £13. An extract or two will amuse the i reader. After telling her correspondent (Lawrence Hyde, the second son of the great Lord Chancellor) that she can " hold" no longer to let him know lhat she has " never been in any company without drinking his health, for I love you with all my soule," she continues :—" The Pelmel is to me a dismal place since I have lost Sir Car Scrope, never to be recovered agane, for he tould me he could not live always at this | rate, and so begune to be a little uncevil j which I could not safer from an ugly baux i garscon. Lord Dorset apieiswonse in thre | month?, for he drinkes aill with Shadwell aud Mr. Haris at the Duke's house all day long." After mentioning Lord Burford and Lord Beauclerc,she concludes thus:— ' "We are agoing to supe with the King at Whithall, and my lady Harvie, the King remembers his sarvis to you. Now lets talke of State Affaires for we never caried things so cunningly as now, for we dont know whether we shall have peice or war, but I am for war, and for no other reason but that, you may come home. I have a thousand merry conceits but I cant make her write urn, and therefore you must take the will for the deed. God bye, your most loveing obedient fauhfull & humbel sarvant, E. G." Sir Can- Scrope, or Scroop, was a poet and gallant; Shadwell is the wellknown dramatist; Harris is the actor at the Duke's Theatre so often mentioned in " Pepys' Diary." A relic of Mungo Park's travels in Africa has been discovered by Lieutenant Glover, of Baikie's West Coast Expedition. The incident is thus related by the Qape Literary Magazine :—Lieutenant Glover, one of the officers under the command of Captain Baikie, has stumbled upon a valuable relic of Mungo Park, and has of course secured it. Passing through a native village near the scene of Park's melancholy death, an old man accosted the lieutenant, and showed him a book which had for years been in his possession. It vvas a volume of logarithms, with Mungo Park's name, and autographic notes and memoranda. The possessor offered it to Mr. Glover for 200,000 cowries. Inestimable as the prize i was, the price demanded was enormous, and it was impossible to pay it. After some consideration the lieutenant took from his pocket a clasp knife, and asked the native what he thought of that. This was too tempting a bait to be refused; the native joyfully took the knife, and the lieutenant still more joyfully secured his valuable memento of the distinguished African traveller. " Seven-and-twenty years ago," says a Cambridge paper, "a young gentleman left his university (as young gentlemen will sometimes) considerably involved in debt. He had, indeed, so ' overrun the constable' that his father came down to make an arrangement with his creditors; that arrangement consisted of giving the creditors 13s. in the pound, taking, however, a receipt in full. A few days ago, the young gentleman in question, but now arrived at mature manhood, came to Cambridge, and placed in the hands of a highly respectable tradesman the balance of his debts, although legally exempt from payment, and all his creditors have received the remaining 7s. in the pound. Among the recipients was Mr. Wm. Bird, formerly landlord of the Hoop Hotel here, whose balance was s£24 10s., and Bird flew down from London for the cash, to ,add a few feathers to his nest. The gentleman who has thus behaved so honourably, on paying over the balance, exclaimed, * This is the happiest day of my life.' Many Cambridge tradesmen would, no doubt, be glad to know that other gentlemen who have left the university involved in difficulties should have equally as happy days under the same happy circumstances." A breech-loading rifle carbine, detachable so as to form a pistol also, the invention of Mr. Terry, of Birmingham, has been under test on board__the Excellent, under the superintendencVof Captain Hewlett, C.8., for some lime, during which time 1800 rounds have been fired from it with unprecedented accuracy at various ranges, without cleaning the weapon, which, notwithstanding, gives no recoil. The rifle missed fire but twice in the 1800 rounds, and, ! whether discharged by officer or man, 86 per cent, were hits. A gentleman named Mr. Abel Matthews advertised that he would on Tuesday evening, at St. Martin's Hall, recite the whole, twelve books of Milton's " Paradise Lost" from memory. The uninteresting feat was duly accomplished in the presence of a very small audience.

A daring escape from the convict establishment, St Mary's, Chatham, was effected at an early hoar on the morning of Sunday, the Bth of August, by a convict named Forside, a man of most determined character, who has been twice transported, and is now under sentence of fourteen years' penal servitude. The manner in which the escape was planned and carried out reminds one of some of the exploits of Jack Sheppard. The convict, who had been at work in Chatham dockyard with the other convicts, was confined in his cell at the usual hour on the previous evening, when he must at once have commenced his operations to escape. The part of the prison in which the cell was situate was nearly at

the top of the building, and in order to -prevent any of the. convicts making apertures in the walls to enable them to escape, the ceilings and walls are covered with stout sheets of iron, of about the eight of an inch in thickness. During the day the convict must have obtained possession of some instruments from the dockyard, which he contrived to secrete about his person. On being locked in for the night he commenced what would have appeared the almost impossible task of cutting away a portion of the iron ceiling of his cell, and, astonishing as it may seem, succeeded in making an opening of rather more than a foot square, just large enough to admit of his body passing through. This task occupied him several hours, as it was not until between three and lour o'olock in the morning that he effected his escape. Before quitting his cell he tore up his sheets and blankets, and tied them together to be used as a rope. After getting through the ceilin "■ he crawled for some distance between the rafters and roof of the prison until he found an opening, when he let himself down into the yard, the early hour enabling him to elude the vigilance of the warders. He then crossed the prison yard, and by means of his rope succeeded in scaling the high boundary wall of his prison. On descending the other side he was seen by one of the coastguard men stationed at St. Mary's creek, who called upon him to stop, threatening to shoot him if he did not. The convict, however, ran off, the man firing at him without effect. As soon as the escape became known, a number of warders turned out to endeavour to capture him, but so successfully had he carried out his escape, that he was not missed even by the man on duty in his part of the prison. After leaving St. Mary's it was ascertained that he broke into the railway station at New Brompton and stole some clothes, which he bore away, taking the road towards Canterbury. He was followed by Superintendent Everist as far as Sittingbourne, where all traces of him were lost. He made his way into the woods, where he remained concealed all that day and night, emerging from his hiding place early the following morning. He was immediately seen by a police constable at Broughton, who was on the look out for him, when he was instantly seized and handcuffed, and then conveyed, back to Chatham. He is only 21 years of age. A man and a woman, who passed as husband and wife, and who followed their calling as hawkers of artificial flowers, lodged for some time in a public-house kept by Mr. Bean, at Gravesend. On the evening of July 12, after partaking of supper, they retired to rest in their usual chamber, the landlord occupying the adjacent room. Next morning Mr. Bean was aroused by a scream and a strange cratching noise at his chamber door. He immediately jumped out of bed, when he perceived, on entering the passage, that the outside of the door of his chamber was stained with finger marks of blood, and he then, in consequence of the direction from whence the screams came, entered the adjacent chamber. Here a fright fur scene presented itself. It appears that the woman from whom the noise had proceeded had managed to get back to her own room, when she iell down in a pool of biood, whilst the man was reclining on (he side of the bed, with his throat cut in a frightful manner. As Mr. Bean entered the room, the man said to the woman lhat "he had done for her." Both he and the woman died after lingering for a short time. An inquest on the bodies was held. Evidence was given that the man had recently attempted to commit suicide by hanging, and was cut down by his sister. Insanity had prevailed in the family, as two of his sisters had died in a lunatic asylum, and another sister had just been removed to a' mad house. The verdict of the jury was " That the female had been wilfully murdered by her companion, who committed suicide whilst laboring under temporary insanity." The Siech says —" A woman residing in the Rue Rochechouart was bitten a few days ago in the back of the neck toy one of "those large flies which feed on decayed meat at this season of the year, and died shortly afterwards, after most severe suffering and in spite of the Uest medical attendance. It is supposed that the fly must have eaten carrion immediately before wounding the woman, and that the virus which it introduced into the wound quickly spread through the system.

The Abeilk Medicate relates a case of traumatic tetanus (lock-jaw) cured by the inhalation of chloroform. The patient, a a small landowner in the commune of St. Servant (Morbihan), had the index and the middle finger of his left hand crushed by the wheel of a cart heavily laden. The upper portion of the index had to be amputated, but the middle finger was saved. About three weeks ago he caught cold by running out at night in his shirt to give the alarm, a neighbouring house being on fire; two days afterwards the first symptoms of lock-jaw made their appearance, and continued to increase to an alarming degree. Dr. Paulus, of Josselin, being called in first administered opiates, and emollient enemas; then observing that the wound of the index appeared unusually dry, dressed it with a pledget of lint, steeped in chloroform. The rigidity of the body and muscular contractions increasing, he administered chloroform by inhalation, but not to a degree sufficient to obtain complete stupor. This at once afforded some relief to the patient, which lasted for about the space of one hour; the alarming symptoms then returned. The inhalations were repeated two or three times a-day, anti-spasmodic potions being administered internally in the intervals. At length, at the end of the seventh day of this treatment, the spasms having assumed a remittent type, so as to return precisely at certain hours, the cure was completed with sulphate of quinine. A curious fact occurred in this case; the patient, who when in health laboured under a slight

degree of deafness, could during his illness hear all that was said in the room, even in a low whisper; and this sensibility of the ear gradually disappeared as the cure progressed. ; A manufacturer in the south of France advertises a preparation which he calls "Eau. de Noblesse;" and declares that "it makes the hair always preserve an honorable direction and gives to the person who uses it an air of "distinction and supremacy."

The Shakspeare autograph is enshrined in the British Museum. It lies on velvet, in a sloping mahogany case, with a* plateglass before it, and curtains of blue silk to protect it from too strong a light. Mr Wingrove Cooke, the \a,te Times correspondent in China, has resumed his former vocation of a barrister.

Upwards of £3000 have been subscribed in aid of the fund for establishing special Sunday evening services in the dome area of St. Paul's Cathedral.

A letter from Athens states that a peasant of the Peloponnesus, while lately digging in a field, found two antique statues in good preservation, and of remarkably fine execution. One represents Apollo bearing a lyre, and the other a handsome young female. They both appear to have belonged to the time of Praxiteles, and their renown has already become so great in Greece that a great number of persons have gone to see them. There is a furnished hotel in the Quartier St. Denis, says the Driot, which is principally occupied by junior clerks. There is a large room in common for them, where those who happen to be without employment pass their time in playing cards or talking. The day before yesterday one of them, named Emile , said to his companions in a jocular way that it was so hot, and he was so out of spirits, that he had a strong inclination to blow his brains out. One of the young men present said he would make a, bet against his doing such a thing. "What will you bet?'' replied Emile, still in the same laughing tone. "A bottle of beer." "Done," said the other, " but order the beer at once, for as, to gain the wager, I must shoot myself, I should like to drink my share of it first." The beer was ordered and drunk, when Emile rose up to leave the room. " Where are you going?' said the others. "To shoot myself," was the reply, which was received with a burst of laughter from all present. Their merriment vvas, however, immediately put an end to by the report of a pistol in an adjoining room, and on running to the spot they found the young man lying dead on the floor. As no clue to his family could be found, the body was conveyed to the Morgue.