A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (10 page)

The acquaintance it would seem ripened into friendship, and finally a still more tender feeling sprang up in the breasts of both Mr Bradley and his fair enslaver. The gentleman proposed and the lady accepted him, although it was known that she was in the last stage of consumption.

Upon reaching Florida arrangements were made for a speedy union, but the bride elect became so weak and prostrate that she could not venture to move out of the house, and there was some idea of having the ceremony performed in her sick chamber, but this was overruled by his parents before it could be solemnised, and the ill-fated young woman breathed her last, and now comes the most remarkable, and what has been, with justice, termed the most unpleasant and discreditable part of the tale.

The coffin containing the dead body of the young woman was taken into the church, and several young ladies habited as bridesmaids surrounded it, while the clergyman read the marriage service, and then proceeded with the funeral service.

It was stated that Mr Bradley had given his spiritual wife his solemn promise that her body should not be consigned to its last resting place until this objectionable formula had been gone through.

The Illustrated Police News
, September 17, 1881

A Young Lady in Ticklish Circumstances

An uproarious scene has occurred at Worksop. On Sunday evening a tradesman escorted to his home and introduced to his wife a young lady, to whom he paid the most marked attention.

The wife protested against her husband’s conduct; a row ensued, and the assistance of neighbours was invoked. This only made matters worse, and the husband, to extricate himself from his difficulty, knocked his wife down, and, presenting a pistol at her, threatened to shoot her.

A crowd quickly gathered about the house, and the husband was threatened with summary punishment. He, however, escaped, and the injured wife went and procured a warrant for his apprehension.

On Monday, a large crowd assembled near the house, and with pots and kettles created a most unseemly disturbance. It was not to be supposed that a young lady who could act the part already described would be discomposed by the noisy indignation of a street crowd, and to show that she did not care she made her appearance at the window, and then proceeded up stairs and sat down at the piano.

The crowd thought it improper that such coolness should not be further tested, so a party proceeded up stairs and brought her down into the yard amid the snow. Here she was greeted with loud yells, and a volley of snowballs fell thick and fast upon her.

She succeeded in escaping from the yard, but was closely followed by her tormentors. A friendly door was opened to her, where she found refuge. When it was dark she quietly left the town by train.

The Dundee Courier and Argus
, January 5, 1867

A Jealous Woman’s Revenge.

Ludicrous Scene.

A most remarkable case of jealousy and revenge reaches us from Blythe. It appears that a young man named Walkingshaw, who is connected with a large London firm who make mantles, skirts, bodices, and other articles of female attire for the trade, paid marked attention to a Miss Bradley, the well-known teacher in a first-class establishment in their neighbourhood.

For some reason or another the Mantelini in the case treated his quondam enslaver with coldness and neglect, and eventually turned her off for another and newer flame. Miss Bradley was a prey to the ‘Green-eyed monster.’ The demon of jealousy raged in her breast.

On Saturday night last she chanced to meet the ‘gay Lothario’ with her rival on his arm. Her head seemed to swim, she breathed with difficulty, but contrived to follow the loving pair at a respectful distance.

A turning in the road, however, for a brief period concealed them from her sight. Nevertheless she followed on. Presently she observed young Walkingshaw enter one of the houses in an adjacent street. The people who rented the house in question were well known to her.

She entered, and followed her quondam lover upstairs. In the corner of the passage was a regulation rifle; Miss Bradley seized hold of this as a host of contending passions raged within her breast. Walkingshaw, unconscious of her presence, entered one of the apartments on the second storey.

Miss Bradley, rifle in hand, burst open the door, and beheld her cruel lover’s arms round the waist of what she supposed was her rival. She raised the gun to her shoulders, levelled the piece at the hateful object before her, and fired. When the smoke cleared away the real facts were but too apparent.

No mischief was done; the gun was loaded with blank cartridge only; and so far from embracing her rival before her very eyes, Mr Walkingshaw was but trying the effect of a shawl on a dummy made of wood, canvas, and tow. How matters have been arranged we cannot at present say, but rumour says the case will engage the attention of the gentlemen of the long robe.

The Illustrated Police News
, November 9, 1872

Married By a Dying Man

An extraordinary phonograph story comes from America. It is said that a Protestant clergyman was very anxious to perform the marriage ceremony for his daughter, but shortly before the day fixed for her wedding he became dangerously ill, and his recovery was pronounced hopeless.

Under these circumstances the dying man ordered a phonograph to be brought to his bedside, and spoke into the instrument his part of the Marriage Service. The phonograph was placed on the Communion table of the church in which the daughter was married to a young merchant of Louisiana, and this voice from the grave, as it were, united the young couple.

The Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette
, September 5, 1900

Remarkable Fatality.

Five Husbands Meet With Violent Deaths

A remarkable case of fatality attaching to the many successive husbands of one woman is reported from Nevers. A man named Chandiour has just hanged himself in the locality. The circumstances of the suicide are in no way extraordinary, except for the fact that the man was the fifth husband of a woman, all of whose previous husbands came to a violent end.

The first hanged himself, the second perished in a fire, the third drowned himself and the fourth and fifth have both been found hanged, and in each case, strange enough, on a pear tree.

The Western Gazette
, Yeovil, January 18, 1901

Kissing In Public Strictly Prohibited

A sensation has just been caused in the States by order issued by the Baltimore Park Board against love-making in the park. General J.S. Berry, secretary of the board, has declared that public parks are not meant as courting-places, and that in the future anything in the way of love-making will be held to be improper conduct and punishable by the police.

Two young people have, in fact, been arrested for kissing, and fined – the man twenty dollars, the woman five dollars: a curious distinction in the value of a kiss.

The order and the decision have caused considerable stir in New York, and the commissioners of the Central Park have been inundated with letters protesting against the Baltimore precedent being followed.

The Citizen
, Gloucester, June 10, 1893