A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (48 page)

Shocking Affair in a Ball Room

A shocking scene occurred at a ball at Thurmaston, near Leicester, on Wednesday night, given by a gentleman of that village to a party of friends.

It seems that the ball had not long begun when the dress of one of the ladies caught fire through being brought into too close contact with the firegrate.

Becoming terrified by her situation she rushed about the room, and ignited the dresses of three other ladies, which, being of such light material, were speedily in a blaze.

Mr Jacques, house-surgeon of the Leicester Infirmary, who happened to be one of the party, aided with others, extinguished the flames as quickly as possible but not before the ladies had been considerably burnt – two of them seriously so. Their injuries were at once attended to, but they are not yet pronounced out of danger.

The scene in the ball-room may be more readily imagined than described. It is hardly necessary to add that the occurrence of such a catastrophe had the effect of bringing the evening’s entertainment to an abrupt termination.

The Western Daily Press
, Bristol, January 21, 1867

An Extraordinary Occurrence

An extraordinary occurrence took place late on Thursday week on the Great Western Railway.

One of the travellers by the down train, which leaves the Bath station at 20 minutes past ten, was Mr Charles Shaw, who has been performing in the pantomime at the Theatres, Bath and Bristol.

It is believed that he was not tipsy, and it is said that he is a steady, sober man; but he must have been seized with some delirium, for the train had got to within three or four miles of Bristol, when he made a sudden leap through the window of the carriage in which he was riding, and disappeared from his alarmed fellow-passengers.

Of course the train could not be stopped, but upon its arrival at the Bristol station, the officials immediately sent back an engine to ascertain the fate of the man. He was found on the siding, alive, and without having sustained any fracture, but suffering from many contusions and from concussion of his brain. He was at once brought into Bristol and conveyed to the infirmary, where he now lies.

It is a remarkable fact, that in one of the scenes in the pantomime in which he has been playing, the clown, pantaloon, and sprite have to jump through the window of a Great Western Railway train while in motion, and that the scene is then immediately changed to the Bristol Royal Infirmary. It is not improbable that these circumstances might have had some influence on a diseased mind.

The Leeds Intelligencer
, February 18, 1854

Lilliputian Exhibition of Tiger Taming

From Paris the other day came a story, half-grotesque and half-revolting, of a cruelly ingenious showman to whom there had occurred the idea of getting up a Lilliputian exhibition of tiger-taming.

He procured four cats, whose bodies he painted orange-tawny, with black stripes, so as to be closely imitative of the hide of
felis tigris
, and then he engaged a little boy, who clad in tights and spangles, was to enact the part of a beast tamer, but who, prior to his appearance in public, was shut up in a cage with the cats and instructed to reduce them to subjection and to teach them a variety of tricks by means of rigorous chastisement.

If, however, the poor little tiger king was provided with a switch, the four Lilliputian tigers had been endowed by nature with a due complement of claws; and they so worried and tore the unfortunate lad that, had he not been able to make his escape from the cage, fatal results might have followed.

He ran shrieking into the street, pursued by his master; but the police interfered, and the Correctional Tribunal may possibly have something very serious to say to the barbarous promoter of Lilliputian tiger-taming exhibitions.

The Illustrated Police News
, January 29, 1876

Rival Bands

A serious riot occurred on Sunday in Cork. The disturbance originated in a difference between two bands belonging to the north part of the city. The Blackpool Band accused the Fair Lane Band of receiving money, which they did not divide fairly, and, attacking them, broke their musical instruments.

The members of the latter and their friends took reprisals on Saturday night by attacking the quarter of the rival band and wrecking their houses. On Sunday the riot was resumed with greater vigour. One party gave battle to the other in the street, and for over an hour a fierce conflict raged with stones and other missiles. The whole available police force of the city was summoned to the scene, and the rioters were not dispersed before 11 o’clock. The casualties during the two nights were 40 scalp wounds, including four fractures of the skull. Among the seriously wounded was a policeman named Rooney.

The Western Daily Press
, Bristol, May 6, 1879

Pelted with Cabbage.

Scene in a Paris Theatre

An extraordinary scene took place at the Opera Comique, Paris, during the production of M. Saint-Saens’ opera ‘Phryne.’

The title
role
was given by Mlle. Jeanne Hading, who when she made her appearance on the stage was received with an outburst of hissing and hooting by several persons in the stalls and boxes.

One of these was occupied by a lady, who evidently came provided for the occasion, as she immediately began to throw cabbages, potatoes, and similar missiles at the actress. It is said that Mlle. Hading had captivated the lady’s husband, and that, owing to the relations between them, she therefore took this opportunity of revenging herself.

The Midland Daily Telegraph
, Coventry, February 24, 1894

Sarah Bernhardt’s Leg

Madame Sarah Bernhardt has had a gruesome and startling offer from an American showman. A Paris correspondent says that when she was seriously laid up with a bad leg there was a report that amputation might be found necessary.

This piece of news was promptly cabled to the United States, and the notion at once occurred to a showman to buy, embalm, and exhibit the limb in the event of its being amputated. A large sum was offered, with a share in the profits of the exhibition.

The Citizen
, Gloucester, June 16, 1890

A Human Monkey.

Curious Story of a Child’s Life

A reporter made enquiries on Tuesday at the offices of the Salvation Army with regard to a report in an American paper, stating that a girl, who was found in a Kentish hop-field dressed in the skin of a monkey, had arrived in New York with a Salvation Army officer.

According to the Salvation Army officers the parents of the child are unknown, but when about two years of age she was stolen by an itinerant minstrel who travelled about all parts of the country. This man, it seems, procured an old skin of a monkey and stuck it on the child, to whom he administered repeated doses of gin, so as to stop her growth. The gin produced this effect, and even now the girl is little bigger than a midget.

In the course of time the skin came to fit the child like a glove. The face and hands only were exposed, and these, never being cleansed, soon became grimy. In this condition it is evident the child remained for over a year before her identity was discovered by Miss Swift, one of the Salvation Army slum officers.

The child was taken by the minstrel all over the country. She was dressed in the usual red coat, and carried a shell, with which she had been taught to beg for alms. She was never washed, and in order that the deception might be maintained her head had been shaved. Her nails grew long, and her hands and feet were so emaciated and dirty that it is marvellous how the discovery of her identity was made at all.

Miss Swift states that in winter the child travelled with a company, made up of men chiefly, who played a sort of pantomime. There were various odd characters in the piece, but the only ones she remembers were the devil and the monkey. The trained monkey was the star performer. She could climb up on a table, going up one of the legs, with as much agility as any real monkey.