A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (45 page)

Three Thousand Lives Lost in Russia

The following extraordinary statement is from the
Cologne Gazette
: The Russian journals announce an unexampled catastrophe at Taganrog, on the Sea of Azoff.

Allured by the mildness of the temperature, and by the purity of a cloudless sky, about 3,000 inhabitants of Taganrog followed the fishermen upon the ice. In that country fishing is the favourite occupation of all – young and old, rich and poor.

The air was so calm that all advanced, without mistrust, farther and farther upon the ice, in the hope of obtaining a richer booty.

Suddenly a warm wind rose from the east, which insensibly rose higher, whirled masses of snow, and finished by detaching from the shore the ice which adhered to it. In a few instants the vast sheet of ice cracked – rose – broke in several places – and the unhappy people who were upon it saw themselves carried out towards the open sea.

Two hours afterwards not a trace of life was perceived from the shore upon the surface of the wave. On the following day the waves drove ashore a floe of ice, on which were five of these unhappy people; three were dead, and others stupefied by cold – the two last, a young girl and an old man. The young girl died some hours after.

The old man survived, but from fright he had lost the use of his tongue. He gave in writing a narrative of the events of this frightful night. The number of persons who met death in the waves amounts to 3,000.

The Leicester Chronicle
, March 19, 1859

Horse Killed by Bees

An extraordinary accident which was attended with serious consequences, is reported from the village of Snainton, midway between Pickering and Scarborough.

On Wednesday afternoon three waggon loads of beehives, the property of Messrs Hicks & Hearts, were being conveyed from Sherburn to Givendale Head, and about two miles from Snainton the foremost waggon gave a lurch and one of the hives toppled over.

The bees escaped in thousands, and at once attacked the driver and the horse. The poor brute, maddened by the stinging insects, set off at a swinging gallop, and the unfortunate driver, who had himself to screen from the enemy, was utterly helpless to avert a catastrophe.

The waggon was finally overturned and the inmates of a dozen hives set at liberty. The waggoner and a lad who was with him luckily escaped without a broken limb, but they were so badly stung about the face and hands that the services of Dr Saymes had to be obtained, and they are reported to be progressing favourably.

The horse (a valuable animal belonging to Mr Heath) managed to smash the shafts and kick itself free of the waggon; but thousands of bees must have pierced its body – in fact, it was surrounded by a dense cloud of them – and dropped down dead, having been literally stung to death.

The Edinburgh Evening News
, July 30, 1897

‘Father Christmas’ on Fire

At the Peterborough Infirmary on Thursday Mr A.C. Taylor, the dispenser, was dressed as ‘Father Christmas,’ with a flowing hirsute appendage of cotton wool, and was distributing the articles from a Christmas tree when the wool beard caught alight enveloping his head in flames. His moustache, eyelashes, and eyebrows were singed off, and his face, ears, and head were badly burnt. It is, however, hoped that his injuries will not be of a permanent character. Fortunately a panic among the inmates was prevented.

The Evening Telegraph and Star
, Sheffield, January 3, 1891

Strange Accident

Seven persons have been dangerously hurt at Glasgow, by an explosion of gunpowder. A deaf and dumb man found a keg in a passage, and took it home; thinking it contained butter. Failing to force it open with a poker, he made the poker red-hot, and proceeded to bore a hole in the keg; the contents were gunpowder. The explosion which followed blew the roof off the house, and every person in the building, except an infant, suffered.

The Carlisle Journal
, February 10, 1854

The Tragedy at Sunderland

The appalling catastrophe which occurred at Sunderland on Saturday will send a thrill of horror throughout the kingdom.

Not since the terrible collision on the Thames between the Princess Alice and the Bywell Castle has such an immense loss of life been recorded as the result of a preventable accident; and in the present case the calamity is, if possible, aggravated by the fact that the sufferers are children of tender years, and that their death was one of the most horrible that can be imagined.

No such holocaust of youthful victims has ever been recorded in the annals of our national disasters, and certainly no more heart-rending scenes could be imagined than those which were presented at the Victoria Hall, Sunderland on Saturday evening.

A well-known conjuror, by offering to give his entertainment at a merely nominal charge, had attracted from 1,100 to 1,200 children to the largest hall in the town, to witness an entertainment which has a special attraction to the juvenile mind. Everything passed off well till the close of the entertainment, when the children began to leave the hall.

The little ones, who for the most part were under 12 years of age, were coming trooping down the stairs leading from the gallery in hundreds, little dreaming, we may well suppose, of the awful ending which awaited their afternoon’s amusement.

It is stated that a door at the top of the first flight of stairs, through some most unaccountable mismanagement, was only open a space of about 20 inches, so that only one child could pass through at a time.

What followed recalled the terrible catastrophe that occurred at Bell Street Hall on New Year’s Day, 1865. The exit becoming blocked, and the youngsters continuing to press from behind, were heaped together in an inextricable mass, piled one upon another in all conceivable forms, and before proper assistance could be obtained nearly 200 had met with a most cruel death. A most sad ending this to what all had expected would prove a pleasant afternoon’s enjoyment!

Of course there will be a full inquiry into the cause of this most unfortunate occurrence, and until this has taken place it would not be proper to say who is to blame for the appalling loss of life that has taken place.

The facts, however, so far as they have as yet been ascertained, seem to point to the necessity that still exists for further regulations as to the means of exit from large public halls and places of amusement.

Especially is this the case when the audience consists for the most part or entirely of children. It is hinted, in the reports of the occurrence which have been furnished, that there was not a sufficient number of adults in charge of the multitude of children who were assembled to witness the performance.

This also is a matter that is sure to receive some attention from those who have the care of children committed to them.

The Dundee Courier and Argus
, June 19, 1883

FASHION and CLOTHES

Preface