HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Advocate, 1887-08-24, Page 6DOWN TO DEATH.
----.----
Over 100 Excursionists Hurled
Into Eternity.
TQVA gvil-PuP BADLY ;WM.
, .
The Orpwded Train graehee ThrOugh
Burning Bridge,
_THRILLING AND KOKENING ,BIGHTS.
Human Ghouls Plunder and Rob the Dead
and Dying.
A Chicago special from Forest, Ill., gives
the following fuller particulars of the great
railway catastrophe: .411 railway horrors
in the history of this country were sur-
passed three miles east of Chatsworth Wed-
nesday night, when an excursion train on
the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Road dropped
through a burning bridge and over 100
people were killed and four times that
number were more or less badly injured.
The train was composed of six sleeping
cars, six day coaches and chair oars and
three baggage. It was carrying 960 pas-
sengers, all excursionists, and was bound
for Niagara Falls. The train had been
made up all along the line of the Toledo,
Peoria & Warsaw Road, and the excursion-
ists hailed from various points in Central
Illinois, the bulk of them however; coming
from Peoria. Some of the passengers came
from Canton, Elpaso, Washington, and in
fact all the stations along the line, some as
far west as Burlington and Keokuk, Iowa.
A special and cheap rate had been made for
the excursion, and all sorts of people took
advantage cf it.
START OF THE ILL-FATED TRAIN.
When the train drew out of Peoria: at 8
o'clockWednesday evening it was loaded to
its utmost capacity. Every berth in the six
sleepers was taken, and the day cars car-
ried sixty people each. The train was so
heavy that two engines were hitched to it,
and when it passed this place it was an
-/ hour and a half behind time. Chatsworth,
the next station east of here, is six miles
off, and the run there was made in seven
minutes, so the terrible momentum of those
fifteen coaches and two engines shooting
through space at the rate of a mile a min-
ute can be understood. The train did not
stop at Chatsworth, and sped by the small
station with lightning speed. Three miles
east of Chatsworth is a little slough, and
here the railroad crosses a dry run about
ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide. Over
this was stretched an ordinary wooden
trestle bridge, and as the excursion train
came thundering down on it what was the
horror of the engineer on the front engine
when he saw that
THE BRIDGE WAS ON EIRE 1
Right up before his eyes leaped the bright
flames, and the next instant he was among
them. There was no chance to stop. Had
there been warning it would have taken
half a mile to etop that on -rushing mass of
wood, iron and human lives, and the train
was within one hundred yards of the red -
tongued 'messengers of death before they
flashed their fatal signals into the ,engi-
neer'et face. But he passed over in safety,
the first engine keeping the rails. As it
went over the bridge fell beneath it, and it
could only have been the terrific epeed of
the train which saved the lives of the engi-
neer and his fireman. But the next engine
went down, and instantly
THE DEED OF DEATH WAS DONE.
Car crushed into car'coaches piled one on
top of another, and in the twinkling of an eye
nearly 100 people found an instant death
and fifty raore were so hurt that they
could not live. As for the wounded they
were everywhere. Only the sleeping
coaches escaped, and as the startled and
half-dressed passengers came tumbling out
of them they found such a scene of death
as is rarely witnessed, and such work to do
that it Seamed as if human hands were
utterly incapable. It lacked but five
minutes of midnight. Down in the ditch
lay the second engine, Engineer McClintock
dead and Fireman Applegate badly in-
jured. On top were piled the three baggage
cars' one on top of another. like a child's
cardhouse after he has swept it with his
hand. Then came the six day coaches.
They were telescoped as cars never were
before, and three of them were preesed into
just space enough for one. The Becond car
had mounted off the trucks, crashed
through the car ahead of it, crushing the
woodwork aside like tinder, and lay there
resting on the tops of the car seats, while
every passenger in the front car was
LYING DEAD AND DYING UNDERNEATH.
(Ini of that ear but four people ce,me
alive. the second car lay the
third and its bo -ryes smeared with the
blood of thevictinae.
broken (...Y
&I
shape, and every crushed. timber and
represented a crushed human frame and a
broken bone. Instantly the air was filled
with the cries of the wounded and he
ahrieks of those about to the. The groans
makere„emd the screams of women aided to
could be haak•2ia. sound, a •
nd above all
children, as in '1;i•o.iiiltinagnecrsiesth6oty'lititalye
pinned alongside their deade
- perentg
there was another terrible dan And
r fet to b
met. The bridge was still btrning, and
the wreaked cars were lying on and around
the fiercely burning embers. Everywhere
in the wreck were wounded arid unhurt
men, women and children, whose lives
could be saved if they could be gotten out,
but whosedeath, and
DEATI/ IN A MOST HORBLE RIreale
WAS certain, e twisted wood of the
broken cars caught fire. And to fight the
fire there was not a drop of Water, and
only some fifty able-bodied men who still
had presence of mind and nerve enough
to do their duty.' The only light was the
light of the burning bridge, and with so
much of Its aid the fifty men went to work
to fight the flames, For four hours they
fought like fiends, and for hours the vic-
tory hung in the balance. Earth was the
only weapon with which the fee wind be
fought, and so the attempt Was amide to
sine out. There wasno pick or shervel
to dig it up, no baskets or barrows to deny
it; and so desperate Were they that they
were not so badly crusted+,119,1' threeoars
and twisted in every co
dug their fingers 'down into the earth,
Which a icing drought had baked aim* as
hard as stone, and heaped the precious
handfulthins, hardly wog upon the un-
orPaohing flame. with this es4th7irfe*,
built handful by handful, ,
TEET REPT DACE TEE FOE.
While this was going on, other brave men'
crept nnderneath wrecked cars, beneath
the fire and the wooden bare which held as
prisoners so many precious lives, and with
pieces of boards, sometimes their hands,
beat 'back the 110321813 when they flashed up
alongside some unfortunate wretch, who,
pinned down by a heavy beam, looked on
hopelessly while it seemed as if his death
by fire Was certain. And while the fight
was thus going on with theworkers the cars
were filled with groans of dying men, the
anguished entreaties of -those whose death
seemed certain unless he terrible blaze
could be extinguished, and the cries of those
too badly hurt to care in what manner the
end were brought about so only it could be
quick ; so they dug up the earth with their
hands, reckless of the blood streaming out
from under finger nails, and heaping it up
in little inounds, while all the while came
heartrending ories '
"Fon ocso's SAKE DON'T LET US * BURN TO
DEATH 1"
But finally the victory was Won ; the
fire was put out after four hours of
endeavor, and as its last sparks died away
a light came un, in the east to take their
place, and dawn came upon a scene of
horror.
While the fight had been going on men
had been dying, and there was not so many
wounded to take out of the wreck as there
had been four hours before. But in the
meantime the country had been aroused,
help had come from Chatsworth; Forest
and Piper City, and as the dead were laid
reverently alongsidp of eaoh other out in
the cornfield there were ready ° hands to
take them to Chatsworth, while some of
the wounded were carried to Piper City.
One hundred and eighteen was
THE AWFUL POLL OF THE DEAD,
while the Wounded number four times that
many.The full tale of the dead cannot,
however, be told yet for days.
Chatsworth was turned into a morgue
to -day. The town hall, the engine -house,
the depot, were all full of dead bodies,while
every house in the little village has its
quota of the wounded. There were over
one hundred corpses lying in the extem-
porized dead houses, and every man and
woman was turned into e.n amateur but
zealous nurse. Even in a lumber yard the
noise of hammers and saws rung out on
the air, and busy carpenters were making
rough coffins to carry to their homes the
dead bodies of theexcursionists who twelve
hours before had left their homes full of
pleasure, with expectations of the enjoy-
ment they were going to have during the
vacation which had just begun.
AID FOR THE SUFFERERS.
When the news of the disaster first
flashed over the wires prompt aid was at.
once sent. Dr. Steele, chief surgeon of
the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw road, had
come on a special train, and with him
were two other surgeons and their Mili-
tants. From Peoria also came Drs.
Martin, Baker, Fleugler and Johnson, and
from every city whence the unfortunate
excursionists had come their physicians
and friends hurried out to help them.
From Peoria had also come delegations of
the Redmen and the Ancient Order of
United Workmen, members of both
societies being on the ill-fated train, and
so after 8 o'clock in the morning there
were plenty of people to do the work that
needed such prompt attention. In the
town hall was the main hospital, and in
anxious relatives and sorrowing friends
sat fanning gently the sufferers' faces.
Down in the deadhouses fathers, husbands,
brothers, sisters, wives and children tear-
fully inspected each face as it was un-
covered, and sighed as the features were
unknown, or cried out in anguish when
the well-known face—sometimes fearfully
naangled but yet recognizable—was un-
covered. The entire capacity of the little
village was tried, and kind-hearted women
drove in from miles to give their gentle
ministrations to the sufferers.
• STATEMENT OF A PASSENGER.
Dr. Hazen, of Fort Madison, Iowa, says
the train Was running about thirty miles
an hour when the accident occurred. He
felt a sudden jar, and found himself and
wife fastened under the seats. He pulled
the baelts off of two seats before he could
get his wife out. She was bruised on the
body, and both of her feet were crushed.
His shoulder was dislocated, and he had it
pulled into place as soon as he could get
out of the wreck. There were nine per-
sons in his party, and he can only hear of
three of them so far. He says he saw Ed.
Stodaard throw his boy out to a lady while
he crawled back to get his wife, who as
killed.
DIABOLICAL DEPRAVITY.
No sooner had the wreck occurred than
a scene of robbery commenced. Some
bands of unspeakable miscreants, heartless,
and with only animal instincts, were on
hand, and like guerillas who throng a
fittlefield at night after the conflict and
reoeffern the dead the money which they
the broriff their meagre pay' stealing even
children of nt.,als, and robbing from the
nemigbhltemdisa otfhteeh2u.tthe otherwise worthless
dead from the territbhieer's bravery-, so last
even the shawhichl 1:56reaaa plunder the
:der
wl
Who these wretches asre!dentecand take
Whether they were a bandrle'ocitheir feet.
t
who accompanied the train lurk-
ingwhntiLtekeepke°11vent
in the vicinity' ° s
cannot b said. The
horrible suspicionhowever,exists, and
there are many who give it credence, that
he accident was a deliberately
PLANNED OA= OF TRAM wenceneo,
that the bridge was get On fire by miscre-
ants, who hoped to profit by the opportu-
nity offered ; and the fact that the bridge
was so far consumed at the time the train
came along, and the added feet that the
train was an hour and a half late,"aro
pointed Out as evidence of a careful con-
spiraoy, It seems hardly possible that
man could be so lost to all the ordinary
feeliaig which animates the breast of the
human race. &it still men Who will rob
dead men, who will Steal from the dying
and will plunder the wottridedlheld down
y e broken beams of a wrecked car,
whose death by fire seemed imminent; can
do ilmost anything which IS base, and that
is what these fiends in human form did.
They. went into the care when the fire was
burning fiercely underneath, and when the
poor wretches who were pinned there
begged °On
"-` Yen ,OODIS SA= TO HELP THEM OUT,"
strippedthena pf their watchee and jewellery
and searched their pockets for money.
eWo rhnefine 1 et hdeesaaebbgai ae twu er nPfl laidabeon 1°0 tua rt oe
their search for valuables, and that the
plundering was done by an organized gang
was proven by the fact that next 'inerning
out in the cornfield severel purses all
empty were found in one heap, It Was a
ghastly plundering, and had the plunderers
been caught this afternoon they would have
been lynched. There was one incident of
the accident which stood out mere horrible
than all of those horrible scenes. In the
second coach was a man, his wife and little
child. His name could not be learned to-
day, but it is said he got on 114 Peoria.
When the accident occurred
THE ENTIRE FAMILY OF TRREE
was caught and held down by broken wood
work. Finally, when relief came, the man
Mimed to the friend and feebly Bald, "Take
my wife first. I'm afraid the child its
dead I" So they carried, out the another,
and as a broken seat was taken off her
crushed breast the blood which Welled from
her lips told how badlyshe was hurt. They
carried theehild, a fair -haired,• -blue-eyed
girl of 3, .and laid her in the cornfield,
dead, alongside of her mother. .Then they
went back for the father and brought him
out. Both his legs were broken, but he
crawled through the clam to the,side of ,his
wife and feeling her loved features in the
darkness, pressed some brandy to her lips
and asked her how she felt. A feeble groan
was the only answer, and the next instant
she died. The man felt the forms of his
dead wife and child and cried out •
" MY 00D, THERE IS NOT/IING MORE FOR ME TO
LIVE ron
and taking a pistol out of his pocket pulled
the trigger. Tkie bullet went surely through
his brain, and the three dead - bodies. of
that little family are now lying side by
aide in Chatsworth waiting to be identi-
fied. There have been many guesses as to
the origin of the fire which weakened the
bridge and caused the accident, but so far
they are nothing but guesses. The most
probable one is that a spark from the fur-
nace of the engine of a train which passed
two hours before caused the blaze. The
season has been very dry hereabouts for a
long time, almost no rain having fallen,
and so the woodwork of the bridge was
like tinder. A live coal dropped on it
would fire it at once, and the result, acci-
dent, soon follow. Another and startling
theory
IS THE ONE OF TRAIN WRECKING:
This is an awful one to congnitiate, but it
has its adherents. They point to the fact
that there were a lot of thieves aboutaiad to
the additional fact that they seemed to be
members of an organization working to-
gether, and the diabolical heartlessness
with which 'they went about 'their work
indicated devilishness which would stop at
nothing. The news of the. disaster VMS
brought to Chatsworth by one of the pas-
sengers about Midnight. As fast as the
corpses were taken from the wreck they
were laid out on the side of the track.
Before daylight the work of recovering the
dead and moving them to Chatsworth had
begun. The residents of the town, threw
open their houses for the reception of the
dead and wounded, but the former were
taken to improvised morgues., The •
SCENES IN THE DIFFERENT PLACES.,
where bodies lay were heartrending. The
majority of the bodies were mangled in a
most frightful Manner, many of them hav-
ing their faces entirely torn away, leaving
their brains exposed, while their jaws,
fingers and limbs had been torn off. About 5
o'clock one of the Chicago Times staff visited
the scene. The sleeping car Tunis was at the
end of the train; It was jacked in the air,
supported by trestles. The front end of the
oar was directly over the place where the
bridge stood. Tothe right lay a, coach
broken into kindling wood, and directly
on the road was piled up what was left of
six or seven coaches turned bottom up
and broken beyond recognition. ' Beyond
were two tenders' and one engine. They
were turned bottom side up, and were
scarcely recognizable. Along ,the hedges
there were valises, shoes, boots, hats, all
manner of articles of wearing apparel,
broken lanterns and seats from care. It
was an awful sight. Hats of men and
women broken and smeared withblood,
coats reeking with gore, and ladies' under-
wear smeared with life blood. It was plain
to be seen from the baggage that the travel-
lers were well-to-do people.
"IT WAS SIMPLY IIORRIBLE,"
said Mr. E. A. VanZandt, of Peoria, to a
reporter. " No words of mine can de-
scribe the awfulnessof the scene. I was in
the rear sleeper and was in no danger, as
no one in the six sleepers wad more than
shaken up, but even there we got a bad
shake. I felt three distinct butnps and
then rushed out of the car and ran forward
to the wreck. The scene was horrible.
The only light was the flames of the burn-
ing bridge, and above the daycoaches
i
were piled on top of one another n a hete-
rogeneous mass. The engines were buried
in the ditch, and the
HEADLESS DODY OF ENGINEER M'CLINtOOK
was underneath. From all sides came
cries for aid, so we went to Work, and WO
Worked hard, too. If the wreck ever caught
fire 300 people would have been burned to
death. The only thing we could do was to
smother the firo with dirt. It was hard
and slow work, and took us four hears, but
We did it, and when the fire was Mit and
other help CSI/10, we got the dead and
wounded out during the morning and
carried them to Chatsworth."
TheM was an incident in the affair which
Was not only remarkable in its way, but
shows how terribly these six coaches were
jammed and Mashed together. When the
accident pcourred, Andy Meeney, of Peoria,
and Conductor Stillwell, who was inchaige
of the train, were three cars fret' each
other. Mooney Was in the second ear and
Stillwell in the fifth. The next instant
they found themselves literally in each
Other's ainie, the car it which the •Con-
duetbe was fiat having been ckried
ever the two in front and droppa;on top
of the one in, which Mooney'iaat, eTho
strange Part of it vette that neither Man
as hurt.
The most horrible death of all Was that
of Eugene McClintock, engineer of the
second engine"
TUM Lh'rEB4 V:ItTIOULARB•
Charnel houses and hospitals made up
to -night what has been the peaceful village
of Chatsworth. Of 800 merry excursion -
its, journeying by rail to the Falls of
Niagara twenty-four hours ago, fully half
that number have since passed through a
maelstrom more fearful than all the whirl-
ing waterer that they were travelling far to
see. Eighty-four of their blackened and
mangled corpses are scattered in the depot,
schools and engine houses here and at
Piper City, or are being carried on trains
in all directions to their homes. ^ One
hundred and thirteencripples are stretched
on all atailable. mattrasseet beast chairs
and floors in this vicinity struggling for a
little lease of life. The streets are • filled
with crowds of anxious seekers for friends
and relations, and with othter 'crowds of
bustling people hurrying medicines, slowly
bearing rude pine coffins to thetraine or
talking earnestly of the horror.
. AN nen-wrneess' STORY •
P. C. Churoh, ' commercial traveller
arrived from Peoria this morning and
related many incidents of the disaster.
"We didn't hear about it until yesterday
morning," salaam, 'fend the first report
was that several hundred had been killed.
There were 750 excursionists from Peoria
alone, and a special train was at once made
up to go over to the scene of the accident,
about sixty miles , distant. When we
reached the place where the accident oc-
curred the first thing we saw was a pile of
mashed -up coaches RS high as a telegraph
pole. The top of the second chair car shot
up on top of this, standing like a monu-
ment, at least fifteen feet higher. We
arrived just in time to see Mr. Murphy, a
hotel -keeper from Galesburg, climb out of
a'hole in the top' of the first chair car,
which was just in view upon a pile of
broken timbers at the top of the heap. He
pulled out his wife and baby uninjured,
but ahnost exhausted from having been
penned up for nearly twelve hours. It
was with great difficulty they were assisted
to the ground. Mr. Murphy then went
back into the hole and brought out
alive a little baby. He had torn it
from the arms of a dead mother.
After that he helped out an aged woman,
whose back had been injured. These five,
together with two others, were all that
were rescued from the car. When Murphy
came down I asked him how it happened
that he was not killed. He replied that
when the crash came his wife was sitting
in one Beat and himself and the baby were
in the one just behind and near the front
of the car. The baby was knocked off the
seat and he stooped to nick her up as they
shot into the mass of ruins ahead. Just at
that moment he said a timber penetrated
the oar, shooting across the place where he
had been sittingand struck a young lady
i
who sat opposite n the neck. He was thus
pinned down by the timber, which. also
protected him from being emashed and
saved his life. He looked across the aisle
and saw the young lady's head had fallen
over on the back of her seat and hung only
by the skin. The siglat of the dead and
wounded lying in the fields was horrible.
A friend who was with me counted ninety-
seven dead bodies at noon yesterday, and
the wreck was not nearly cleared away.
They were lying in little heaps of about a
dozen, all having been killed in a different
manner. The entire side of one man'e
face would be smashed in, while a hole as
large as your fist ,in the forehead
of another would show where the
thnber had penetrated. Three-fourths of
the dead never knew what killed them. It
was h sight I never want to look upon
again. There were young ladies in picnic
dress, with their white skirts saturated
with blood and the front of their faces
mashed beyond recognition. One young -
looking mother had held her baby in her
arms, when a timber striking the child in
the back impaled both victims in instant
death. The mother's face did 'not bear a
scratch, but the expression on it will haunt
me to the grave. I was sick when I re-
turned from the catastrophe last night. It
would make any man sick. The depot at
Peoria was surrounded by 5,000 people, all
waiting for,news from the wreck."
A BABY'S MTRACULOES ESCAPE.
Mr. Arch. Croswell and wife, of Peoria,
were on their way to visit their parents in
Kankakee with their six weeks' old baby.
Mrs. Croswell occupied a seat in the front
end of the car, next to the door. Mr. Cros-
well, being unable to get a seat with his
wife, took another position a few yards
beak. When the concussion came the front
end of the car was crushed in, and Mrs.
Croswell killed. The baby was found in
the centre of the car with but slight injuries.
It Was taken to a farm 'Muse near by and
cared for.
FRIGHTFUL SCENES OF SUFFERING.
A special from Forest to the Times says i :
" As fast as the woundedwere brought into
Chatsworth from the wreck they were taken
directly to the town hall, which had been
turned into a temporary hospital. Beds
and cots were brought in from neighboring
houses with necessary bedding, and the
sufferers were cared for by loving hands.
Torn and bleeding human beings in all
stages of suffering lay around the rooms,
moaning and crying with agony, while
doctors and nurses were binding up their
wounds. Bloody clothing, torn and covered
with mud, lay around on the floors in heaps,
with car oushione or mattresses and
blankets on which they had been brought
from the wreck. Many patients were under
the influence of ether or chloroform, while
their faces, gastly white, and teeth tightly
clenched, showed the suffering which they
were undergoing While partially obvious of
the fact. Blood was everywhere—on the
floors, walls, clothing and hands of the
wounded, as well as those who were caring
for them. As tho clay wore away and the
afternoon rehadows lengthened into the
evening the scenes changed somewhat. The
wounded had been dressed and bandaged,
and most of them rested quietly enough,
OVOTC01110 by mental and physical suffer-
ings. Lamps were placed around the halls,
their lights carefully shaded and the scene
was strongly suggestive of the interior of
an hospital on the field of tattle.. In the
depot at Chatsworth and in the unoccupied
Store used as a morgue the scone was sug-
gestive eta slaughter house. Stretched out
on the 'floor ing different direetiered Woke
corpseri of ttririt) womeit and ohildkon, dtescied
in the clothing in which they had met their
death. in the empty storeroom wore
counted twenty-soven corpses at one time.
Their clothing was tern and dishevelled and
•their stiffened hands and arnae; in the Ina-
jority of instances, Werci crossed °YET their
breasts. The heads of the dead were gener-
ally mangled in the most frightful manner
and were always goyered by some article of
clothing. The face of a young woman
who was lying on the floor of the
depot had been soi beaten in by
the cruel oar timbers that recogni-
tion was out of the question, and her
brains and the flesh of her face were a
pulpy mass, in which dabbled her long red
hair. She was not identified. A man with
a'heavy dark moustache, and who was ap-
parently 35 years of age, had been struck
in the face by some object that had tern
away the jaw and left the side of his face
exposed. A 5 -year-old boy, with chubby
face and curly hair, looked contented and
running. His legs were alone broken, but.
the flesh was so mangled that it bore the,
appearance of raw beef. His chest was
also crushed. in. Nearly every corpse Was
mangled or disfigured. The faces of !some
-
of the dead were black, as though they laad.
died from suffocation, while others were a
deadly white. ,
The pecuniary loss arising from the acci-
dent is simply enormous. Under the laws
of Illinois the relatives of those Ifilledin the
diaster will, if they have any claim at all,
deplete the treasury of the Toledo, Peoria
& Western of something like $350,000, and
those injured would receive at least a quar-
ter of a million more.
THIEVES AND pIORPOCHETS.
Rowdyism by Canadian Toughs on a De—
trait Steamer—Fassengers Beaten and
Robbed—Most of the Gam; Arrested.
A Detroit despatch says : A gang of
thirteen pickpockets and general thieves
went to Put -in -Bay yesterday morning on
the steamer City of Cleveland. Their con-
duct on the way was such that the officers
of the boat put them ashore and refused
to let them return on board. As a result
they took the steamer Alaska on her return
trip. During the voyage pandemonium
reigned, in some cases pistols being drawn.
Peaceable men were robbed, insulted and
threatened with violence. The women
passengers were greatly alarmed, and
although the officers of the boat did all in
their power to restore order the riotous
conduct lasted during the whole trip.
When the steamer reached Detroit she
stopped in midstream and sent two yawl
boats ashore. In fifteen minutes two
patrol waggons filled with detectives came
down to the dock. The officers got into
the boats and rowed out to the Alaska.
A thorough search of the boat was made,
and when she came alongside the dock an
hour later eleven persons were brought off'
and taken to police headquarters. Among
those arrested were : Martin Forbes, of
Toronto; John Byers, of London, Ont. ;
Robert S. Rodgers, of Hamilton, Ont.,
and Thos. Mullen, Windsor, Ont. Two of
the gang, on the approach of the police,
jimiped 'overboard. One, said*,to be the
ringleader, reached shore and escaped.
The other was taken off one of the blades
of the paddle wheel. Ex -Deputy Sheriff
Downs and George Campbell, of this city,
were badly beaten by the gang. A large
ameunt of caeh was found in the pocket of
one of the gang.
THE ACTOR AND HIS WIFE.
De Bensaude Arrested for Ringing BiEr
Wife's Door Bell.
A London cable says: Mr. De Bensaude
was on Wednesday arrested for violently,
wilfully and persistently ringing the front
door bell of Miss Violet Cameron's villa in
that part of London known as St. John's
Wood. He was hauled up before a magistrate
at•the Marylebone Police Court, and much
of the dirty linen which was so copiously
aired last fall at the Tombs in New York
was relaundried. The only new thing
which appeared during the) course of the
proceedings was the remarkable statement
made by Miss Violet Cameron's lawyer to
the effect that she had already paid her un-
savory hueband a sum of $5,000 in the
hope of getting a little peace and quietness,
and that the reason of De Bensaude's con-
tinued ringing of the front door bell was -
with the object of extorting further pay-
ments. To this De Bensaude retorted that
the $5,000 in question had been paid him
in consideration of his signing a statement
to the effect that he saw nothing damaging
to Min Cameron as cl• wife in the purely
business relations which she had main-
tained with the Earl of Lansdale. De Ben-
saude added that he now regretted having
made the statement above mentioned. By
way of compromise he offered to undertake
never to ring the front door bell again if he
were furnished with a pass key. This was
indignantly refused by Miss Cameron's
counsel, and the case was then adjourned
for further hearing.
Poverty Among Plenty.
A New York despatch says: One year
Sp Joseph Waldman, a Polish Jew, ar-
rived in this country with his young and.
pretty wife Elize.both. The couple began
housekeeping in Fifth street, and Joseph
secured ernplcyment in a manufacturing
house. He was dissipated, however, and
lost his situation, and to make matters
worse his wife was taken ill. They then
moved to Orchard street, and lived on
charity for several months. Joseph again
obtained work, but spent his money and
abused his wife and infant. Three weeks
ago he disappeared and over a week the
mother has lived on ten cents worth of dry
bread and what little else her poor neigh-
bors could spare. Yusterday she gave up
in despair. Last night the neighbors sent
notice to the police headquarters that Mrs.
Waldman was starving and that if SoMe.,
thing was not done immediately she would
die. Another poor family residing in Or-
chard street shared half a loaf of bread and
two cents' worth of milk with the starving
woman and her child that morning.
At the village of Liss, in Hampshire
England; an oft was boiled whole on
jubilee Day. A. huge tank was placed in
a hole in the ground, and was bricked all
roUnd. The whole carcase , was lowered
into the tank, With quantities of vegeta.
blest; and, after boiling seven heiurie the
rearming saner and the meat were ItherVed
o the people of the village.
This is the sort of stories that they pub-
lish for fact in Saratoga : "A clergyman,
calling on 04 Washington street family, was
iisheiedrinto the parlor, whi3ro MisilDettY
was Mated at the pianoforte. He asked the
young lady; a Member of his Bible class, to
'play One of her favorites.' 'Pen net, play.
ng favorites any More," she Baird.• 111 take
he field against them every tithe.'
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