A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (37 page)

An Elephant in the Witness-Box

A young elephant was introduced into the Court of Exchequer, London, on Friday week, as a witness in an action for damages against Messrs. Bertram and Roberts.

The plaintiff, Miss Thurman, was standing up in an open carriage at the Alexandra Palace when the appearance of this elephant frightened the horse, and the plaintiff, being thrown out, had her collar-bone broken.

Counsel declined to put any question to this novel witness, which, meanwhile, amused itself by seizing the hats upon the table with its trunk. Ultimately the case was arranged.

The Grantham Journal
, July 26, 1879

Villa Half-Back Charged with Drunkenness.

The Case Dismissed

Before the Aston Magistrates on Monday, James Cowan, the well-known Aston Villa centre half-back was charged with being drunk on his own premises, the Grand Turk, New Street.

Cowan called a number of witnesses, who declared that so far from being drunk he was able to take a leading part in all intellectual discussion on the Transvaal crisis, the Dreyfus case, and the beauties of Dutch scenery. The proceedings, which lasted two hours, ended in the summons being dismissed.

The Citizen
, Gloucester, September 26, 1899

Murderer’s Ghastly Mistake.

His Son Changes Beds with his Enemy

An extraordinary story is reported from Tarnopol, in Galicia. A peasant named Adam Gawrydo, whose property is in a small village near Zbaraz, in Galicia, cut his own son’s throat with a kitchen knife by mistake.

Some weeks ago a Jewish merchant, Solomon Barb, bought old Gawrydo’s stock of honey, and paid 50 florins in advance, to make the bargain valid.

When the time for delivering the honey came, the peasant declared that he could not keep his word, and was prepared to pay any damages to the merchant that the Rabbi might decide.

Yesterday they both went to the Rabbi, who said the peasant must pay the merchant ten florins damages. This he did most willingly, and then both went away together.

On the way home they stopped at a wayside inn, and did not leave it till night. It began to rain, and the peasant asked the merchant to pass the night in his house. The merchant accepted, and they went home together.

The peasant prepared a bed of straw in the barn, and when the merchant had laid down went to his own room after carefully locking the barn door.

This frightened the merchant so much that he got up, felt his way about until he found a second door, which was bolted from the inside, left the barn, and started to walk back to the inn.

In the meantime the son of the peasant returned home half drunk and finding the barn door open walked in and dropped on to the bed of straw prepared for the stranger. He was soon fast asleep. The merchant on his way to the inn met a gendarme, who asked him where he was going so late. Barb told him all that had happened, and the gendarme, thinking he had a dangerous man before him who was lying to avoid suspicion asked him to go with him to the peasant’s house.

There they found Gawrydo in the act of washing his hands, which were stained with blood. When he saw them he exclaimed, ‘Surely I killed you an instant ago.’

The gendarme searched the house, and in the barn found the son of the peasant dead with his throat cut. The peasant was immediately arrested.

The North-Eastern Daily Gazette
, Middlesbrough, July 12, 1894

Extraordinary Case of Attempted Suicide

On Saturday last Mr Sly, landlord of the William the Fourth, Flagon Row, Deptford, discovered that he had been robbed of certain monies, &c., and mentioned the facts to his family and servants. Amongst the latter is a young woman, named Mary Ann Wiggins, who, on hearing the circumstances, became greatly excited and went away.

Shortly afterwards a customer to the house went to the water-closet and found the door fastened within. After waiting a short time the door was forced open, and a noise was distinctly heard of some person struggling in the night soil. On examining the spot the poor creature was discovered immersed over head, scarcely a vestige of her person or dress being discernible.

Less than half a minute’s delay and suffocation would have been complete. Assistance was immediately afforded, and with much difficulty she was drawn out of her awful predicament by means of an iron rake which was placed under her arm-pits. This, however, was not effected without bruising and lacerating her person. Mr Downie, who saved the woman’s life, says her head was completely under the soil, and it appeared that when he had drawn her partly out she struggled hard to effect her purpose.

Mr Downing, police surgeon, who attended her, states that it was with much time and difficulty that suspended animation could be restored, and that her person was much bruised in getting through the seat of the closet. The place where she was discovered is at least ten feet deep.

On getting out she was stripped by two women in the back yard, and with a large tub of hot water and abundance of soft soap and brushes she was ultimately brought round. Her mouth, nose, and eyes were filled with the night soil, and but for the means so promptly afforded by the surgeon and others her life must have been sacrificed.

After bathing her for a couple of hours by the kitchen fire she was removed to the infirmary of the Greenwich union until convalescent, when she will be taken before the sitting magistrate.

The Northern Star and National Trades’ Journal
, London, May 10, 1845

A Naked and Unwelcome Guest

When Charles Warren and his wife, who live at Stepney, got home on Tuesday morning from a party they were surprised to find a naked young man curled up asleep in a perambulator.

The kitchen was in great disorder, and when awakened and asked how he got in, the unwelcome guest replied ‘Through the door.’

He was summoned to appear at the Thames Police Court, and a constable said he found one of the windows of the prosecutor’s house unfastened. The prisoner’s hat was found in one place and his trousers in another. His coat could not be found.

The prisoner, who appeared in a dazed condition, gave a correct address, which was a short distance from the prosecutor’s house. The magistrate said there was no evidence that the prisoner intended to steal, and he therefore would be discharged, but he had better be careful for the future.

The Citizen
, Gloucester, December 28, 1892

Bound in his Own Skin

Through the courtesy of the librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, I was enabled (says a correspondent) to examine a portion of human skin which was taken from the body of Corder, the murderer of Maria Martin, in the Red Barn, near Bury St Edmunds.

The doctor who dissected the man after the sentence of death had been carried out, knowing that a ‘Life of Corder’ was about to be written, sent the author a piece of the murderer’s skin, properly tanned and prepared.

In this a copy of the book was subsequently bound and presented to the library. This is a remarkable instance of a man’s biography being bound in his own skin.

Supplement to the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle
, December 9, 1893

Singular Trial at Madrid

A most singular trial has taken place at Madrid. A soldier was cited last week before the police court for having stolen a gold cup of considerable value which had been placed as a votive offering on one of the numerous altars dedicated in that city to the Virgin.

The soldier at once explained that he and his family being in great distress he had appealed to the Holy Mother for assistance, and that while engaged in prayer and contemplation of the four millions’ worth of jewels displayed on her brocaded petticoat, she stooped, and with a charming smile, handed him the golden cup.

This explanation was received by the court in profound silence, and the case handed over to the ecclesiastical commission, to whom it at once occurred that, however inconvenient the admission of the miracle might be, it would be highly impolitic to dispute its possibility.