The Rhos Herald

STOLE TO FEED A TRAMP. At the Hertfordshire Sessions on Satur- day, Mabel Vosper Thomas, aged 28, stated to be the divorced wife of a Hertfordshire clergyman, was charged along with a tramp named Thomas Brown with housebreaking at Stopsby. The parties, according to the evidence, met near Hatfield, and walked together to Hitchin, where Brown was taken ill. Mrs. Vosper Thomas left him, and afterwards re- turned with whisky, bread, and cocoa, which had been stolen. The Hertfordshire probation officer said Mns. Vosper Thomas had consented to go into Lady Somerset's Home. She was bound over, and Brown was discharged.

| EPITOME OF NEWS. i —*— Military honours were accorded at the funeyal of the late Colonel D. Rees Lewis at Merthyr. | Proposals for the removals of the St. George's i Barracks Recruiting Depot to a new building in Scotland-yard are being considered by the Army Council. | Dr. Sheepshanks has fixed the last day of this I month sis the date for his retirement from the j Bishopric of Norwich. He trill receive .a j-etir- ing allowance of .£500 a year. | Mr. George Graves, who was out of the Drury j Lane pantomime bill for & few days .recently, f is now quite recovered from his throat tijxxuble I and has resumed his part of Abanazar. | Major Clive Morrison-Bell, the Unionist candi- date for East Devon, is making' slow biit«toa< y I progress towards the recovery of hie sight, c.i. d J trusts shortly to be able to address liis con- stituents again. A German named Holzapfel, said to ibe undcr- I taking a ihiee years' walking tour round the •w o id, was nenlcnccd to fourteen davs' lia! d labour at Guii-iTord for smashing a glass door I in a publio-hoxise. | One-quarter of the loaves tested by the Esst-x I inspector of weights and measures, according c j his report to the county council just issued v. r I short in weight, and eoal sold by weight shored j a similar deficiency. I Mrs. Lee, a lodging-house keeper;, of Balms r- j street, SL-phtrd't Bush, drank "something hri- cold" in a cup of tea and became ill. T lodgers, Margu-rite McColl Black and 1: I Simpson Love, who were having tea witli lli, cbUd her of more titan £ ik They w, ] t A-dteuct'd to tiuse months' imprisonmeat a;, i 1 six months' hard labour at the London Sessions. An official return shows that the cost of the j Royal Irish Constabulary was in 1908-9. as compared with £ 1,343,529 in 1907-8. j Mr. Harry Pankhurst, only son of Mrs. I Pankhurst, the founder of the Women's Social and Political Union, has died. He had bceo ill for several months. Members of the Tunbridge WelU CvrrnT- tion have agreed to send the Nelson mttnoia dum of the Battle of Trafalgar, which is in i their possession, to the British Museum. i At a Dover inquest on cabman named ) John Dear. who committed suicide by fcangi: g in a stable, his employer stated that Dear lu-i i made four previous attempts to take his life. In a fog near the entrance to the Ship Canal, the London steamer Danubian. from Manchester, collided with the paddle steamer Duke of Leinster, of Dublin. The latter was j seriously damaged. i Twenty-seven new Justice* of the Peace for I the County of London were sworn in at London Sessions before the chairman, Mr. Robert ) Wallace, K.C. Among them were Sir Edward Fithian, Captain Charles Bigham, and Mr. ) David Lindo Alexander, K.C. j The 91,000 reward offertd by the family of Mme. Gouin in Paris for the discovery of her murderers was paid to Manrioe Porfch- caut. a cook at the Epatant Club, whose reve- ¡ lations led to the arrest and subsequent eon- I fession of the two soldiers, Graby and MicheL After scouring the countryeide, the Win- chester police recaptured, on Portsmouth Hard, William Whitear, wlao, when sentenced to three months' imprisonment, escaped on the way to gaol by slipping his handcuffs. "Don't cry," said the mother of George Willocks (aged eleven), vvlno was ordered to be birched at Acton for stealing 2s. 2id. from shop till. George was passing to the place of punishment. "Why I" said^ the magistrate, it's meant to make him cry," I At a City inquest the Coroaer stated that the new oath had not done away with any other forms of oath. People could kiss the book if they preferred. t Charged with stealing 5,000 tons of .eoa1 from an adjoining mine, Mr. Robert Fellows, a Black Country colliery owner, was aequifctcd at Worcester. It was urged that he only com- mitted trespass in the civil sense in extending his working into a mine which be was expect- ing to purchase. Paulina Yarshevskaya, undergoing sentence of ten -years' penal servitude for being an anachist, has escaped from Odessa prison hos- pital, wher she was being treated for scarla- tina. Efforts to recapture her have failed- Convicted of negligence resulting in a gaso- lene explosion in the Russian submarine Drakon, Mr. Meads (an American engineer who is at present in the United States) and two Russian engineers hare been w-steseed to a week's imprisonment at St. Petersburg. Arrested for stealing clothing at BrierfieM. Edmondson Mctcalf, a kam-tuaker, aged thirty, confessed at Preston Quarter Sessions; to having broken into other plac" at Brierfield,, and two at Clayton, six at Burnley, and four at Lancaster. He was sentenced to seven yearv penal servitude. At an important meeting of the Players* Union in Manchester, A. S. (hmlt "the lakister Fosse and International amateur footballer, was chosen out of 160 applicants to succeed Mr Herbert Broomfield, who has resigned the secretaryship in order to take up an important business appointment in London. Birmingham Visiting Justices, is their report just issued on the rccsnt inquiry relating to the imprisonment of suffragette*, expressed themselves satisfied that, in eowMctioa with forcible feeding, the medical ofieers and all j ccerned "acted in the most humane manner, and showed the prisoners every The Irish Horse Dealers' Association have passed a resolution strongly protesting against the proposal of the Irish Agricnttnrai Depart- ment to introduce Normandy sires into Ireland as disastrous, aad calculated to injure the horse-breeding industry. As a fourteen-year-old boy, named Fraocw Davie, of Polmont, was driving with his em- ployer, a local butcher, through Haddington in a van, a girl threw a lighted squxb as they passed a shop door. 111. hone became1 frightened and bolted, breaking both of the vanshafts. Davie was thrown to the gpwtuid OS his back and sustained fatal injaries. Mr. Wkitelaw Reid has left London for the UBited States on a short visit. Dvtriog the Ambassador's absence Mr. William PJuili-pe^ the Councillor of the Embassy, will act itt, Charge d'Affaires ad interim. In administering the new oath, Dr. W: the City coroner, said that it took move but it was more impressive. x Baron Sonnino, the Italian Premier, I the ruins of Messina, and inspected the greea made in the rebuilding of the city, Despondent at the small earnings her Its*" Despondent at the small earnings her Its*" band was able to bring hotne, Mrs. Eunice Darcey, aged 45, of St. James's-walk, Oer|g*- well, cut her. throat. Î

mm LONDON LETTER. [From Our Special Cor rexpondirU. ] With the dissolution of Parliament the participation of the Peers in the General Election ceascs, ov/iiig to a Seconal Order I which makes it improper for members of the House a> £ Lords to interfere with the elec- tion of members to the House of Commons. This Ord-r is considered by many to tit a mere matter of form, find, in any case, absurd, and, in spite of ite existence, Peers I have occasionally in the past given suppert Iio their chosen candidates. The case of the Duke of Norfolk and the Peak by-election will at once come to mind. Exactly what powcrs the House of Commons possesses for enforcing a penalty in the ca.se of any dis- regsrd of the Order is not clear, but they regard it as a breivc-h of privilege and get. very anrrry when anything of the kind oc- curs. There is not likely to be any whole- sale infringement of the Order this time, in -spite of the fact that the Lords are very closely concerned with the result of the ekc- tion. Doubless some of the Peers will be glnd that, so faij, their labours are over. They lui-e had an exceedingly busy time during tite last few weeks, since the decision v as -announced that they were to go "on the stump." Altogether they have addressed more than two hundred and fifty meetings. In many eases they havo had receptions which were decidedly lively, and have had 'to submit to severe heckling. In some other cases the audiences refused to give them a hearing, which, in a country that prides it- sell" on being the home of free speech, is re- grettable..On the whole, it will be admitted that their active participation in the poli- tieal contest has added to its interest. It is noteworthy that most of the Peers have expressed themselves a-s being in favour of some measure of i-,eftrro of the constitution ,of their House. The Duke of Norfolk, who has been one of the most energetic, says that the Kouae of Lords might be "altered ior the better, so as to make it a stronger Second Chamber., and thus protect the inte- (Teets off the country." There are few parts of the country which thave not been stirred at some time or other by the prophecies of evil announced by the Thev. Michael Baxter—"Prophet" Baxter— who died the other day. To some people his visions of coming events were matter for laughter, but it is undeniable that a few ner- vous people were terrified, though their minds became more composed as day after fateful day arrived and passed and nothing happened at it.1 as the "Prophet" had fore- told. It wgs *,an extraordinary thing about 1fr. Baxter that as his predictions became falsified [heat once fixed other dates, and an- nounced with much assurance that wonder- ful things would take place. It is supposed that 'he found a good many believers, or he would have speedily gone out of practice. Those who have read his remarkable book will know that he originally fixed upon Napoleon III. as the "Beast" of the Revela- tionfl; then came General Boulanger, and after him Prince Louis Napoleon. It is said, however, that one day a gentleman, who ap- pears also to have b-60n in the "prophet" -d business., .called upon Mr. Baxter and pointed oat that he had madE" mistake, and that the Rev. R.. J.. Campbell, of the City Temple, was really tihe vBeast." The story goes that Mr.. Baxter was much impressed, and was more than half inclined to revise hie book accordingly. Dramatic and musical criticism must cer- tainly be classed among the hazardous pro- fessions. It is not many weeks eince in London AL musical critic had his ears boxed, and a little earlier there was a quarrel be- tween the editor of a well-known journal and theatrical manager who objected to the terms of a "notice" which was written by the editor's (dramatic critic. Literary critics for so time have escaped anything more •evere than eastigation from the "slated" authors in the columns of newspapers, and the hardened critic can stand a good deal of that sort of thing. Years ago the offended woveijst or poet would appear in Fleet-street armed to the teeth, and challenge the poor critic to a duel. The journalists prefer the newer fashion. Mr. Lawrence Irving has caused the latest sensation by pitching into a. New York dramatic critic for saying un- kind things about himself and his wife, and a play in which they are appearing in in America, It appears that the critic said Mr. Irving had tkin legs, And that his wife ought to be running a typewriter or handing out ribbons over a counter.. Mr, Irving has (Called the critic va blot of scum," "a counterfeit Bernard Shaw," and "a man from Birmingham." Most people will agree that Mr. Irving wins tJke match hand- aoraely. Attention has bee* drawn to A serious dan per by the verdict of a coroner's jury after an inquiry into the death of a,pasgell- ger at the Mansion House station on the Dis- trict Railway. According to the evidence the passenger was helping his children in through the centje-doors when the train went on and jerked him backwards, so that be fell between the carriage and the plat- form. It seems that the centre-door, with which all who have travelled on the District Hail way are familiar, was u»attended. There £ #re on. the trains, it wis said, nineteen feSfpoiw and five officials, and the jury added a |$ider to their verdict "that Mthe company h contributory negligence by not pro- viding sufficient staff on the trains and plafc- forms." It will be easily saen that in the rush and bustle which are the rule on the underground at certain hours of the day, when passengers are Slurrying out and others crowding in, an untended door is a so,urceof danger. No doubt, after the j\\ry:ø ict, ■wiH he <tak«& to witb 'lite matter. I! I ] I In spite of the election and the I fever, to sny nothing of the earnestness of the Suffragettes, it is very evident that i woman in the mass is just now much more keenlv interested in the "winter sales"! than in politics or anything else whatever. I In the great shopprjg centres they gather in crowds, and the mere man finds it safer to walk iu the road and dodge the motor-'buses and taxicabs than to attempt to progress along the pavement, where he will be jostled trodden upon by fierce-eyed women, limiting for bargains and intent only on the attractive displays in the shop windows. Wl oever it was that o^'einated the "sale" I must have had a deep and profound know- ledge of the feminine nature. It is only a woman who will cheerfully pay shillings in rail and 'bus fares, more shillings for lunch and tea, struggle with other women to get to the counter, and go home at the end of the day worn out but triumphant in the posses- sion of something of last season's pattern which she does not wa.it in the least. A. E. M.

SHUNTER'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. At Barnetby (Lincolnshire) station on Monday, Henry Pepperdine, a Great Central shunter, was crossing the line when he failed to notice the Grirmby to Manchester ex- press, whicn was passing through the station at fifty miles an hour. Pepperdine had just reached the side of the outer line when the engine struck him on the shoulder, and he was hurled into the air, and lull into the railway siding several yards away. When picked up he was alive, and Dr. French, who was summoned, found that both legs had sustained a compound fracture and the right shoulder had also been badly fsaetured. After temporary treatment, an ambulanco was secured, and the roan, accompanied by Dr. French, travelled by the next train to Grimsby, where he was taken to the hoo, pital. He remains there in a critical condi- tion. His escape from death is little less than a miracle. I

A YEAR'S COINS. Interesting figures are given in a brief report just issued from the Royal Mint, giving a summary of the work during the years 1908 and 1909. I The number of sovereigns issued last year was 11,800,000, and half-sovereigns 2,000,000, as against 12,600,000 and 2,000,000 respectively. During last year £ 3,000,000 of gold was with- drawn from circulation. drawn from circulation. The silver issued last year showed a large increase over the previous year, the total for 1909 being £ 1,389,569, as compared with X815,751 in 1908. The largest increases in the issues were to Ireland—from 912,000 in 1908 to £ 126,500 in 1909—and to the colonies—from £ 392,475 in 1908 to E734,400 in 1909. Last year the bronze coin issued amounted to £ 121,811, as against 9155,5SO in 1908. The total number of pieces struck at the Mint last year was-of Imperial coinage 75,762,408, and for the colonies 37,377,072.

WANTED, TWO CHINAMEN. Two of the twenty-seven Chinese immi- grants rejected by the Liverpool Immigra- tion Board have escaped from the steamer Dardanus, at Liverpool, and a reward of £ 20 is offered for the capture of each. The men were imported from China by Liverpool laundry proprietors, who paid their fares to secure their services. On their arrival, however, the Immigra- tion Board refused them admission, being of the opinion that the contracts of service into which they had entered amounted to slavery. At the Chinese laundries the refugees from the Dardanus would probably find shelter, and the sameness, to European eyes, of one Chinaman to another Chinaman would make their identification very difficult.

KILLED BY A WAVE. An inquest was held at Southampton on the bodies of Joe Gallon, an Italian, and Petre Vassel, a Turk, who had died as the result of injuries received at sea. The two men were steerage passengers on the American liner Philadelphia on her recent voyage from New York to Southampton. They were standing on the third-class deck when a huge wave swept the ship, injuring three pas- sengers and four of the crew. Carlon and Vassel sustained badly lacerated scalps, aId were conveyed to hospital imme- diately the liner reached port..

A FATAL KICK. At Leeds an inquest was held on Albert Hudson, twenty-eight, a constable in the Leeds Police Force, who was kicked in the back during a suffragist disturbance in Leeds on the occasion of the visit of Sir Edward Grey. Major Tary, Chief Constable of Leeds, ap- peared on behalf of the police, and complained of the hooliganism in the city. The jury found that "Death was due to ex- haustion following an injury to the spine in- licted by some person or pessons unknown."

In connection with the movement for paying greater attention to foreign languages, an "Institute of Linguists" is to be founded by some of the many Englishmen who are pro- ficient in one foreign language. In connection with Dr. Barnardo's Homes 2,500 scholars from the Copperfield-road Free Ragged Evening and Sunday Schools were pro- vided with a tea and entertainment at the Edihbdfcgh Castle, Limebouse.

| THE DISSOLUTION. ISSUE OF THE WRITS. I The second Parliament of Kirg Edward IVII. was dissolved by Royal Proclamation ion Monday. Writs ha\e been issued for the election of a new He use of Commons, which I is to meet at Westminster on Tuesday, February 15. The D:solution Council was held at Buck- ingham Palace. The proceedings were brief and formal. In a few minutes the Procla- ingham Palace. The proceedings were brief and formal. In a. few minutes the Procla- I mation dissolving Parliament, and ordering the issue of writs to returning officers throughout the kingdom for the election of I representatives of his Majesty's faithful Commons had received the royal r.ignature, and the Parliament of 1906 was at, an end. The Proclamation was conveyed by the Privy Council's messenger to ih ■ offices of the Council in Whitehall, whence the order for the issue of the writs was forwarded to the office of the Clerk to the Crown, at the House of Lords. Thevc the writs had been prepared in advance. Immediately sifter the writs were sent out for ilelivery to the re- turning officers of the London coristituen- In all 534 writs were dealt with at the Crown Office, and of these 88 were delivered by hand in London, and in county constitu- eneies immediately adjoining, the remainder being sent by special messenger to the General Post Office for despatch by regis- tered post. In no case were the writs received early enough for the returning officers to make arrangements for pollitirj on Friday next. The late hour at which the Privy Council met, instead of the usual hour of noon, was fixed in order to place practically all parts of the country on an equality with regard to the fixing of datas for nominat-on and polling.

FATAL FIRE AT BELFAST. FAMILY OF SIX DEAD. Six inmates of *n Irish cottage perished in a fire on Monday. They were David Fagan and his wife, and their four children, living at Lisburn, near Belfast. Three lodgers narrowly escaped. Tiie police discovered the fire early in the morning, and at once set about smashing the windows and doors to gain admittance. In the kitchen the fire was burning fiercely, and the two police tried unsuccess- fully to force the door. Receiving no re- sponse to their calls; they secured assistanoe from the gasworks near by, and smashed in the door with a sledge-hammer. By this time the fire had spread to the par- tition adjoining the front room, and imme- diately the door was knocked down dense volumes of smoke rolled along the hall into the street, almost suffocating those (standing in the doorway. When the men were able to get through the smoke they came upon a pitiful sight. FINDING THs DEAD. In the hall—evidently he had been trying to escape through the fog—was the body of an eigiit-year-old boy, while in the bedrooms near by lay the bodies of his two little brothers and a sister, whose ages ranged from six to two. There were irigns of life in the mother, who was in the same room with the children; but she died in a few moments. Meanwhile the fire brigade was working vigorously, and in about three-quarters of an hour the firemen were able to get into the building, where, after a careful search amongst the debris, they found the charred remains of the father. When his body was discovered he was lying with his face pointing towards the kitchen,. the presumption being that he wa» rushing to the spot where the fire origi- nated.

A LOVER'S QUARREL ENDS IN MURDER CHARGE. On Monday' va young woman named Anniip Covell was found dead with her throat cut ia a house in Florence-terrace, Ealing, and her sweetheart, George Henry Perry, was shortly afterwards arrested on a charge of murder. A blood-stained bread knife lay oit a table by the woman's body. The victim, a good-looking woman ot twenty-seven, lived with her parents. Perry, who was described as an indoor ser- vant, was charged later in the day at Brent- ford, and evidence was given that he mw. the following statement to the police: "She was invited to a wedding at Hanwelt on Saturday and was bridesmaid, but they did not invite me. We had a few word* about it, and when I went into the house last night at seven no one upolre to me. I re- turned again at about eleven and slept in a chair. This morning she was in the break- fast-room, and I had the knife in my hand and did it. I suppose I had to do it. I could not stop myself." It was stated that he had been staying at the house, while he was seeking employment, but had been told that he must not come back again. Asked if he had anything to sav, Perry re- plied: "I have done it; I am satisfied now." He was remanded.

BOGUS STAR TURN. The story of a remarkable entertainmeafc hoax comes from Edinburgh, where a perform- ance at the Albert Hall had. been widely adver- tised with "The Zaaxigs" topping the bill. As a matter of fact "The Zanzigs," who made a sensation at the Alhambra with thought-reading turn some time, ago, are in America, and on the first night of the Edin- burgh show, when the hall was packed, a tele- gram was read from the stage stating that, "owing to Mr. Zanzig's illaesB, his company would be unable to appear this week." As this was the star turn, the audiene.e were given free passes for another night, and it was subsequently discovered that the man who took the hall had decamped with the takings, leaving about a dozen artiete stranded. The advertising has not been paid -for. f

The Rev. R. S. Fyffe, since 1904 head of the Winchester Brotherhood, Mandalay, will be consecrated Bishop of Rangoon at Calcutta on Sunday, January 16. Twenty-two thousand feet vf laiid been purchased for a London Jewish Hoepitai, and East-End Jews axe being asked to buy a square foot for 105.. M. to ielp build Jibe ifioø.