AMERICAN NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 760, 7 January 1871, Page 2

AMERICAN NEWS.

A great gold robbery has taken place on the Pacific Railroad. About halfpast one o'clock en the morning of the sth of November, the. train reached Verdi, about fifteen miles above Reno. The train had to wait here for one from the West, and while doing so five men in masks, quickly succeeded in uncoupling the first car attached to the locomotive from the' rest of the train, which car was an express belong-' ing to Wells, Eargo, and Co., containing a large sum iu specie iu charge of of a clerk; having detached this car, the ruffians mounted the locomotive, aud with cocked pistols compelled the engineer to run down the lino for a distance of seven miles, where thev forced the clerk to open the car in which he had secured himself, when they helped themselves to' gold of the value of from forty to fifty thousand doliars, aud decamped. The engiueer then returned for the train, the inmates of which knew nothing of what had happened. The robbers were afterwards captured, and most of the gold recovered. One of the robbers was employed on the railway. On the 4th of November, the Hon. A. P. Crittenden, a distinguished' lawyer in California, went to Oat lands to meet his Family, who had arrived bv train from the East, and,, while sitting .between -his wife and daughter! on board the steamer that was tq convey them to Sun Francisco, a woman walked deliberately ; up. ; and. without saying a word,, dischargod, a pistdl atr his breast, which caused jtuc., .uiifdrtunato gentleman's death.' No reason is given for the crime, but the woman, who'is a Mrs Pair, hao before been guilty of some acts of violeuco, which appear to indicate insanity. In Sacramento, on the Oth of November, a desperate battle was fought witli pistols, between three gamblers, in tho streets of the city, thronged with people. Two brothers named Greers, commenced pistolling a man

named Dreaner ; and seven or eight? shots were fired before Dresser was p truck, but a ball at length entered', his heart, which killed him almost instantly, and at the same moment he, hit one of the Greers, who was not expected to recover. Ou the 11th November, at San Bernardino, in California, a Chinawoman who had committed some petty robbery among her people, was seised :by the Chinamen of that place, tied to a stake, a lire built around her, and she was burned ..to. death.., .Sev.eate.ej3,, Chinnmeu wore arrested and lodged in jail. At Fair-port, in Ohio, on the 2nd of November, there was an explosion of 1(3,000 lbs of nitro-glycerine,' which" 1 produced a fearful concussion, the report being heard both at Buffalo and Chicago, and at places more distant. The effects were awful. Not a single house was left uninjured in Fairport—buildings overturned ; sidewalls blown in; doors and windows smashed; plastering torn off; roofs broken in and rafters torn off; vessels in the harbor smashed was an awful exhibition of power. "Tn Lerey, some eight miles distant, doors of iiouses and windows were smashed.

At Morris Comity, New Jersey, an old and respected farmer named Miller, was poisoned by his wife, and when the guilty woman saw she would be discovered, she poisoned herself. At St. Louis, on the 30th October, a high wind blew down a large malthouse, burying 10,000 bushels of malt in the ruins. A billiard manufactory adjoining was crushed by the falling building.

The cable to connect the Isthmus of Panama with the United States, by way of Jamaica, was landed at Aspinwail on the 24th ult.

At Buffalo, on the 10th of November, a fire broke out in the transfer house of the Kail way Company, and destroyed property of the value of 000,000 dols.

At Philadelphia, a woollen mill was also destroyed, with a loss of 100,000 dollars.

At DonoldaonviUe, New Orleans, on the 10th, a negro mob had possession of the place. The town was fired, and the chief authorities seized and murdered.

At Wilkesbank, November 10, the Lucerne Powder Company's wall and dry houses were destroyed by a terrific explosion. Damage, "100,000 dols.

A terrible storm desolated Cuba in the middle of October. From 1000 to 2000 people were killed or drowned. 1 2 000 head of cattle were lost, and several vessels were wrecked. In Matanzas ,alone,' over 400 houses were destroyed. Among the most horrible features of this calamity was the uprooting and sweeping away of a cemetery, and the scattering of the corpses through the adjacent country. A survey of the Isthmus"of Darien is about to be made.