Loading...
The Wingham Times, 1885-09-11, Page 7A Guardsman's Luck,' " Sentry, will you kindly keep your eye on my bag for a few minutes ? I am going to have a plunge in the Serpentine," said a well- dressed, middle aged gent;oman to me, one warm Summer morning a few piers ago, as I was on duty at tho park gate of Knights- bridge Cavalry Barracks, " All right, sir," I replied. " If I am re- lieved before your return, I shall hand it over to the next sentry." "Oh, I shan't oe more than half an hour at the latest, as I mut be in the pity by nine, It doesn't contain very valuable property— only a suit of clothes and a few docunAnte of no use to any one but the owner,' as the saying is. All the same, however, I have no desire to lose it." So saying, the gentleman turned away. The request to look after his property did not in the least surprise me, as numerous robberies from the clothing of persons bath- ing had for some time before been reported to the police. The barrack's olook struck eight. Fully half an hour had elapsed since the owner of the bag departed, and as yet there was no sign of him ; the "quarter pa°t'' was chimed from the neighboring clocks, and still he did not turn up. About half past eight I perceived a great commotion in the park. Men were rushing from all quarters in the direction of the Serpentine; and soon afterwards I ascertained from a passer-by that the excitement was caused by one of the numer .us bathers having been drowned. An uneasy suspicion was at once excited within me that the person who had come to such a sad end was the gentleman who had left his valise in my charge, which suspicion was in- tenaified when I was relieved at nine, with the article still unclaimed. I handed over the bag to the sentry who relieved me with- out mentioning to him any of the circum- stances of the case. I went on sentry again at one o'clock and no one had come for it. It was the height hof the London Season, and Hyde Park pre- sented its customary gay appearance, but the imposing array of splendidly -appointed equipages, dashing equestrians and fashion- ably -dressed ladies and gentlemen, which at other times was to me a most interesting spectacle, that afternoon passed by unheed- ed, as all my thoughts were centred on spec- ulations regarding the fate of the owner of the bag. Before being relieved at three I had it conveyed to my room in the barracks, and after coming off guard placed it for great- er security in the troop store. After stables, I left barracks for my cus- tomary walk, and purchasing a copy of the Echo from a juvenilenewavendor, I read the particulars of the fatality of the morning. Friends had identified the body, which was that of a gentleman named Nixon, who had resided at Bayswater. " Nixon ! That corresponds with the in- itial ' N' on the bag," I thought to myself, now perfectly convinced that the deceased Was the person I had seen in the morning. I also ascertained 'from the newspaper report that a man had been apprehended on suapi- oion ohhaving attempted to rifle the pockets of the clothes of the drowned man, and who had been roughly handled by the crowd, be- fore a policeman could be procured to take him into custody, After a moment's refleo tion I decided to call at the address given in the paper, in order to arrange about the res- toration of the bag to the relatives of the de. ceased. I was shown into a room, and immediate- ly afterward was waited upon by a young lady, the daughter of the deceased, who nat- urally enough, was perfectly overcome with grief. I explained to her in a few worda the object of my visit, "Iam uncertain whether poor papa had a valise of that description when he left this morning," she said ; " but possibly you may recognize him from the photograph," sub- mitting one she took from the table for my inspection. I experienced a strange sense of relief—the features in the photo were those of a person e bearing no resemblance whatever to the in- dividual who had left his bag in my charge. The young lady thanked mo heartily for the trouble I had taken in the matter; and I loft the house of mourning and returned to the barracks in a very mystified state of mind. " Could the owner of the bag be the thief who was caught in the act of l lundering the dead man's clothes ?' I asked myself, but immediately dismissed the idea from my mind, as being absurd and improbable, Aftor this the bag ceased to interest mo, as the valueless character of its contents caused me to speculate lees on the unaccountable conduct of it i possessor in never returning for it. Some time afterwards I was on Queen's guard, Westminster. I had just mounted my horse and taken up position in ono of the two boxes facing Parliament street, when a gentleman at pped opposite me and scanned me curiously. Addressing me, ho said, "Don't -you remember me?" There was no mistaking the voice it was that of the owner of the bag 1 Otherwise ho was greatly altered, as he had denuded him. self of the luxuriant whiskers and moustache he worn when I saw him previously. "What has been wrong ?" I edited. "Oh, I was seized with a fit that morning when I oamo out of the water, and was tak • en home in an unconscious state. I have teen very unwell ever since, and I have left my house for the first time, to day. I wish to get my bag at once, I presume you have it in safe -keeping at the barracks ?" " It's much nen er at hand," I replied— " just across the street from here," and then I told him that it was in the custody of the pollee authorities at Scotland Yard. This information apparently disconcerted him. "It is very awkward indeed," be said " I have to catch the six train for Liverpool, as I wish to sail by the steamer that leaves to -morrow morning for New York. Couldn't you Dome across with me to get it?" "You forget that I am on sentry," I re- plied. " I won't be relieved until four. I daren't leave the guard." During the interval that elapsed until my period of duty was ended the gentleman paced about in a most impatient manner, ever and anon seeming to relieve Ms feelings by stopping to pat my horse. At length I left my post, and dismounting, led my char- ger to the stable, and handed it over to a comrade ; then divesting myself of my cui- rass, was ready to proceed to Scotland Yard, One of the corporals on guard received orders to accompany me ; so, together with the gentleman, we started, and crossing the street reaohed the police headquarters in a minute or two, and on making enquiries, were directed to the "Lost Property" de. partment. We stated our business, and an offialal, after receiving an assurance from me that the applicant was the right person, speedily produced the valise. " Why didn't you see about this before?" he asked, addres- sing the gentleman. "Because I was too ill to see about any. thing," was the reply. The gentlem n then signed a book, cert'. fying that his property had been restored to him, giving as he did so the name of Nobbs. Having thanked the official, Mr. Nof,bs caught up his property and we left the office. When we got to the door we found assem- bled a small crowd of men employed about the establishment ; for the unusual spectacle of two helmeted, jackbooted guardemen had caused a good deal of speculation as to our business there. Mr, Nobbs hurriedly brush- ed past them, and gaining the street hailed a passing cab, and the driver at once pulled up. " Here is something for your trouble," he said, slipping a sovereign into ray hand. I, of course, thanked him heartily for this munificent douceur. Declining the offer of the driver to plaoe his bag on the dinky, he put it inside the vehicle ; then shaking hands with the corporal and myself, he said to the driver : " Euston, as fast as you can," and entered the cab, The driver released the brake from the wheel, and was whipping up his scraggy horse with a view of starting, when the poor animal slipped and fell. The man belonging to the Scotland Yard who had followed us into the street at once rushed to the driver's assistance, unbuckled the traces, and after pushing back the cab, got the horse on its feet. All the while Mr. Nobble was watch- ing the operation from the window, and I noticed that one of the men was surveying him very attentively. " Your name is Judd, isn't it ?" the man at length remarked. " No it isn't,—What do you mean by ad- dressing me, sir ?" indignantly replied Mr. Nobbs. " Well," said the man, who I at once sur- mised was a member of the detective force, "that's the name you gave anyhow, when you were had up on the charge of feeling the pockets of the gent's olothes who was drown- ed in the Serpentine a week ago. I know you, although you've had a clean shave." I started on hearing this statement ; my suspicions, ridiculous as they seemed at the time, had turned out to be correct after all ; while Mr. Judd, alias Nobbs, turned as pale as death. " Come out of that cab," said the detec- tive. " You've no right to detain me," said Nobbs, " I was discharged this morning." " Because nothing was known against you —But look here, old man, what have you got in that bag ?" "Only some old clothes, I assure you," said the creat -fallen Nobbs. " Como inside, and we'll see," said the de. tective, seizing the bag. " Out of the cab --quick ! and come with me to the of ee," Mr. Nobbs complied with a very bad grace; while the corporal and I f.,llowcd, wonder- ing what was to happen next. We entered a room in the interior, and the bag was opened ; but it apparently con- tained nothing but the clothes, " There is certainly no grounds for de- taining this man," said an inspector, stand- ing near. Mr. Nobbs at once brightened up and cried; "You see I have told you the truth, and now bo good enough to lot me go." "All right," said the detective. Pack up your traps and clear out." Mr. Nobbs this time complied with ex- lseding alacrity, and began to replace the artioles of olothing, when the detective seemingly acting on a sudden impulse, caught up the valise and gave it a vigorous shako. A slight rustling sound was dis- tinctly audible, "Hillo 1 what's this ?" cried the officer. Emptying the clothes out of the bag, he pro- duced a pocketknife, and in a trice ripped open a false bottom, and found about two dozen valuable diamond rings and a magni- ficent emerald necklace carefully packed in wadding, besides a number of unset stones. The jubilant detective at once crimper.d them with a list which he took from a file, and pronounced them to be the entire pro- ceeds of a daring robbery that had8 recently been committed in the shop of a West End jeweller and whioh amounted in value to fifteen hundred pounds, Mr. Nobbs, alias Judd, now looking ter- ribly confused and abashed at this premature frustration of his plan to clear out of the country with his booty, was formally charg- ed with being in possession of the stolen valuables, He made no reply, and was led away in custody, Before returning to the guard, I remarked to the inspector : " I thought, sir, when he gave me a sovereign for looking after his bag, that it was more than it was worth : but now I find that I have been mistaken," "A sovereign 1" oried the inspector, "Let me see it," I took the coin from my oartouche-box, where I had placed it in the absence of any accessible pocket, and handed it to him. He smilingly examined it and threw it on the table. "I thought as much," he remark- ed; it's a bad one." Mr. Nobbs, alias Judd—these names were two of a formidable string of aliases—turned out to be an expert coiner, burglar and swin- dler, who had long been " wanted " by the police. Ho was convicted and sentenced to a lengthened period of penal servitude. A few weeks after Mr. Nobby had receiv- ed his well-earned punishment, I received a visit from a gentleman, who stated that he was cashier in the jeweller's establishment in which the robbery had been committed. He informed me that his employer, having taken into consideration the fact that I was to a certain extent, instrumental in the re- covery of the stolen jewellery, had sent me a present of thirty pounds, I gratefully ac- oepted the moaey, which, as I had seen enough of soldiering, I invested in the pur- chase of my discharge from the Household Cavalry. Unselfish Heroes. When, at the battle of Zutphen, the wounded Sir Philip Sidney was given water to quench his thirst he is recorded to have handed it untested to a dying soldier near him with the exclamation, "Thy neceesity is greater than mine " A similar instance of unselfreh thoughtfulness during suffering is recorded of the gallant Sir Ralph Aber- oromby. Being mortally wounded at the battle of Aboukir, he was placed on alitter and taken on board a ship then lying in the harbor. To raise his head and thus to place him in a more comfortable position, some one took a blanket from a soldier who was standing by and put it under the hero as a pillow. Sir Ralph Immediately experienced great relief from its use, and asked what it was, "It's only a soldier's blanket," was the reply. " Yes," s id the General, " but whose blanket is it?" "Oh?' said the person addressed, "only one of the men's." " I wish," persisted the dying officer, "to be told the name of the man whose blanket this is," "Well, then, Sir Ralph, it belongs to Dun- can Roy, of the 42nd." "Then see," answered the thoughtful old veteran, "that Duncan Roy gots back his blanket this very night 1" SUMMER SMILES. Said the monkey to the dude, " Beware of imitations." The line that tailors hang clo'hes on— Masculine.— Of course, no one-armed man con ever be- come a two rist, We fail to recognize a hermit by the rule that " a man is known by the company he keeps," Thirteen has always been an unlucky num- ber. Adam's thirteenth rib was the cause of all his troubles, At the christening of Mr Crzkyxvitchi's new baby last Sunday the chilt grabbed its future name in its tender hands, which were severely lacerated. We hear a good deal said about the quick- ness of Irish wit, but after all, is it at all strange that an Irishman should say Pat things? A story is going tho rounds that a woman in a car gave Booth, the actor, $50 for a kiss Determined not to be undersold, our price hereafter will bo only $40. An ostrich egg weighs nearly thirty times as much as an average hen's egg, but to hear the hens remarks after laying an egg one would suppose she bad beat the ostrich out of sight, It is a good deal the same way with human beings. Some will make more fuss and brag over their little thin -shelled achievements than others do over an 'even - lien of work that becomes hiatorioal. FOREIGN EOHOEO. The nowepapersof the world have just been reckoned up at about 33,000, thus giv: ing one to every 28,000 inhabitants, Under seventeen was the Feeneo girl who savagely murdered her father with a olub because he would not let her marry her s weetheart. The Prince of Wales goes to Norway and Sweden next month to s -e a regatta of a yacht club which has King Oscar for a Com- modore, and to hunt elk with a royal party. Artifioial honey imparted into England from this country has been found, on analy- sis, to be made of wheat or corn starch treated with oxalio acid, This fraud can- not be deteoted by the taste, President Cleveland keeps a scrap book of excerpts from the newspapers in order to be informed of all sorts of public opinion. It is one clerk's sole employment to collect and preserve these thing°. The' new Australian Cardinal, Patrick Moran, is a nephew of the late Cardinal Cullen, and was born in Ireland 56 years ago, his mother being sister to the eminent Irish churchman and bis father a prosperous farmer, The French militia having shown them- sevles in thirteen days of camp training are by competent critics pronounced more like hastily raised bands than an army, so poor was their discipline, and so lacking were they in skill. A man became bankrupt with liabilitlea of $20,000, and is the settlement of the estate, which yielded 78 per cent. to the creditors, the costa of the administration amounted to less than $3. This happened away off in Smaland, Sweden. Joaquin Miller tells how he and Bret Harte stood at the tomb of Dickens. "His left hand sought minein silence," says Mill- er, in describing the momentous' occasion ; "hie eyes filled with tears, We had never been friends before." The American Medical Missionary Society organized in Chicago, aims to provide med- ical men and women who will devote them- selves to the work of healing the body: and thus be auxiliary to the missionaries who _ work for souls. Long ago the Portuguese supremacy in the Roman Catholic church in India was bestowed by the Pope, as against the Jesu- its, who are now revolting under his con- trol, and the conflict is said to be the most bitter ever known within the Church. A seemingly dead pigeon was pickr d up from the ocean near Dover, England, but it revived while lying in the sun, and proved to be a carrier pigeon with a letter. The bird had been waylaid by a hawk while fly- ing from its master's yacht to his home, Tho lately diseased Anna, Countess of Meran, widow of the Archduke John of Aus- tralia, was famous in her youth for a beauty which gained her an aristocratic husband, by enchanting him Suddenly as he stopped at the small Post Office kept by her father, Two New England pastors exchanged pul- pits, and one delivered a sermon which the congregation had within a month heard from the mouth of the other. The Baptist Weekly vouches for this Glory, and would like to know the reel author of the discourse, The tombstone of the Gladstone family in Leith churchyard, has been restored by Sir Thomas Gladstone, brother of the ex - Premier. The monument is a simple con- struction, resting on a base having six pilas- ters with an entablature and intermediate panelling, surmounted by a moulded table. Being informed that a man whom he bad discharged for drunkenness was the sole supp-rt of a wife and six children, a Lowell mill ouperintendent replied : "It happens that the man who takes the place has a wife and seven children. It should he borne in mind that every expulsion of a bummer makes a job for a decent worker." The Superintendent of the Elmira Reform- atory says(that drunkenness can bo traced in the ancestry of more than a third of the convicts sent there : that only one in four of their parents has reoeived a common school oduoation ; and that, as nearly as can be as- certained, the home influence in half the cases has been distinctly vicious. The Chinese Viceroy of Chen-si and Kan- su explains that the earthquakes which have done much. damage in his jurisdiction wer, chiefly occasioned by the mildness of the winter, which caused an excess of the yang or male element of nature ; but they were due in a measure to the perfunctory perform- ance of their public duties by the local offi- cials, who failed to call down the harmoniz- ing influence of heaven. Lawn tennis was being played on tho L -ng Branch grounds of a wealthy family, and the game struck a epootator as being inordi- nately elaborate in its movements. Every pose and stir was laboriously careful in its grace, and at the same time • there was a strange disregard of the real progress of the game. A glance at the adjacent veranda re- vealed an amateur photographer making a series of instantaneous views in which the players would bo shel'wn in a success' n of attitudes, A hundred prepared plates were in the holders, ready to be exposed one after another, and the scheme contemplated the printing of oopies from thee, numerous neg- atives so that every person portrayed coni$ have a hound volume of the pictures. A smart thief has just been convicted ins, the Rhone Assize Court, Hie real name let, Gresilien,,but he travelled under the narrate of Waltonand pretended to be a rich Eng-. lishman. He affected the accent and man- ners of the Britisher, played high, ac d lived in the fastest style, In reality he was a,. convict who had several times been arrestea'lY fur theft and robbery. One of his recentex ploits was to rob the safe of the prison :ref',: Chiavari, in Corsica, where he was a prison.,- er, and from which h , esoaped with i them funds, He was arrested on a charge off robe- bing several churches in the Department of; the Rhone, and was tried upon one of these, charges. Hie manner in court was cool an& impudent. He was arrested at the Cafe Morel, one of the most fashionable cafes ole Lyons, and when the Court sentenced him tea twenty years' penal servitude he smiled con, temptuouely upon the Judges, and, turning; to his lawyer, ho said, while he shook hands, with 1 im in quite a pleasant and somewhat - patronizing manner : "I will see you next year at the same time at the C•rfe Morel, Au revoir 1" SOIENTIFIO AND Truro',. A piece of solid cast iron will float on the molten metal as readily as on water. Iron bars and steel are elongated by mag- netization, the latter not so much, but nickel, bare are shortened. Bones, freed from fate before grindingaa, by treatment with benzol, are also freed' from ingredients that have no agriculture:I value, If men ate more deliberately they wouhk require but half as much food as they no - consume. The appetite is a very misleading sensation. Filtering atone is now made by mixing certain portions of clay with levigatedi. chalk, coarse and fine glass sand, and ground, flint. They are moulded and hard burned. In making cements for leather, wood ore celluloid, pure solvents and pure rubber are, absolutely required, No care in ether re.. pacts will make up for their absence, Round chimneys are best for workshops,,, factories, etc, They deliver the smoke,, more easily, and are leas exposed to the. wind. They are not, however, so easy ter. build. Prof. Tyndall has stated that the purest._ water he ever obtained was from melting a, block of pure ice. the water of the chalk districts of England he considers remarkably - pure. Rings, or concentric ligneous layers, would seem to be a very uncertain indication off the age of trees. In Mexico some trees., known to be out twenty-two years old weree found with 230 rings. The Dead Sea The Dead Sea is an old and decrepit salt; lake in a very advanced stage of evaporation... It lies several hundred feet below the lever,' of the Mediterranean, just as the Caspian, lies several feet below the level of the Black; Sea ; and as in both cases the surface must: once have been continuous, it is dear that the water of either sheet meet have dried up to a very considerable extent, But while, the Caspian has shrunk only to 83 feet below. the Black Sea the Dead Sea has shrunk te the enormous depth of 1,292 feet below the Mediterranean. Every now and then some enterprising De Lesseps or other proposes to build a canal from the Mediteranean to, the Dead Sea, and so re-establish the old, high level The effect of this very revolu- tionary proceeding would be to flood the en-- tire n-tire Jordan Valley, connect the Sea of Gali- lee with the Dead Sea, and play the dickens generally with Scripture geography, to the infinite delight of Sunday school classes. Now, when the Dead Sea first began its in dependent career as a separate sheet of water- on ateron its own account it no doubt occupied the, whole bed of this imaginary engineer's lake" —spreading, if not from Dan to BOE raheba, any rate from Dan to Edon), or, in other. words, along the whole Jordan Valley, from, the Sea of Galilee and even the Waters of Merom to the southern desert. (I will no insult the reader's intelligence and orthodoxy by suggesting that perhaps he may not be. precisely certain as to the exact position of the Waters of Merom; but I will merely re-. commend him just to refreeh his memory by turning to his atlas, OS this is an op- portunity which may not again occur.) The modern Dead Sea ie the list shrunken relic of such a considerable ancient laho. Its waters are now very concentrated and so. very nasty that no fish or other self-ropect- ing animal can consent t, live in them, and so buoyant that a man can't drown himself, even if he trios, because the sea is saturated+ with salts of various sorts till it bas become a kind of soup or porridge, in which the swimmer floats, will he. nill ho Persona in the neighborhood who wish to commit su- icide are therefore obliged to go elsewhere ;, much as in Tasmania, the healthiest climate• in the world, people who want to die are, therefore obliged to run aoross for a week to, Sydney or Melbourne. I 11111111.