A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press

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A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press Page 22

by Clay, Jeremy


  The scene that ensued was one of the wildest confusion. Everything the rioters could lay their hands upon was thrown about. Peas fell like hail, and squibs were directed at the parties on the platform, several persons being burned with them.

  The furniture was broken and thrown about, the noise and disorder became if possible more intense when the Lord Rector appeared, and after one ineffectual attempt to be heard he had to hold the address as read, and retired along with the members of the Senatus and others who accompanied him.

  The students then rushed to the various outlets, firing crackers and peas the while, and in the confusion several of the doors were smashed. Some members of the audience sustained slight injuries. After leaving the hall the students reformed in procession, and marched through the streets singing, shouting, and pelting persons with peas and flour. The police did not interfere.

  The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, November 18, 1882

  Stop Press

  At Maidenhead on Tuesday, the Mayoress of Henley, Mrs Wanker Simmons, was fined 5s and costs for riding a bicycle on the public footpath.

  Reynolds’s Newspaper, January 19, 1896

  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

  Like the claw machine at the fair, newspapers have an unappealing habit of dropping the things they’ve just picked up. For things, read people.

  Many of the men, women and children in these articles slipped straight back into obscurity, casual discards of an industry that hadn’t yet got the hang of the art of the follow-up story. But a few reappeared in print, if only because the mechanics of the justice system shoved them back in the public eye.

  Susan Cox, whose baby died in her arms as she wandered the streets of London in a fruitless search for her new home (p. 144), was reunited with her husband two days later. He had been in Croydon, searching for work, unaware of the unfolding tragedy. Mrs Cox, an inquest heard, had unwittingly walked past her house several times.

  There was a happier ending to the story of Mrs Lewsey and the phantom London hotel (p. 62). She had checked in with her four-year-old son, left him in a room to go shopping, then couldn’t find the address again. Nearly a week later, after an appeal in the press, the boy was discovered, being looked after by the owner of the hotel, which was several miles east of the streets she searched. Mrs Lewsey, who had been in ill-health after the death of a child three months earlier, was also robbed while she was staying in London.

  The ghastly tale of the Liberals who roasted and ate a dog to celebrate a school board election in West Bromwich (p. 73) turned stomachs across Britain. The original story was broken by the Birmingham Gazette. The rival Daily Post sent a reporter to the pub where the election feast had been staged, and heard a markedly different account. Three men had arrived at the inn with a dog, claimed the landlord. First they tried to sell it, but killed it when there were no takers. Before they buried the body, a man cut off one of the legs, the landlord said, and there was some ‘very disgusting larking with the limb’ before it was chucked into the fire. One of the three men was a Tory, said the Post, a paper edited by one of the founders of the National Liberal Foundation. The Gazette was staunchly Tory. Make of all that what you will.

  With mouths agape in Shropshire in November 1883 at the supernatural antics of servant girl Emma Davies (p. 187), the Daily News sent a reporter along to investigate. The teenager soon confessed it was all a trick, saying the other servants had put her up to it. ‘The little girl was hysterical at first but by-and-by she showed us how she made a bucket jump and a chair retreat at the double’, said the paper. ‘It was all effected by a slight jerk of the hand, and when once we knew there was nothing supernatural to be expected, it seemed very commonplace. The most remarkable part of this so-called mystery is the successful hoodwinking of the local public, and the more than nine days wonder which has been caused.’

  Thirteen years on from the Regent’s Park ice disaster of 1867 (p. 235), when 40 people drowned in water up to 12 feet deep, the calamity claimed one more victim. The father of a girl who had died took his own life after being ‘low-spirited for years’.

  In 1886, the ice broke again, with 100 skaters plunged suddenly into the water. But after the first tragedy, the depth of the lake had been reduced to around four feet. All that was lost this time round was a number of hats.

  The startling Dr William Price (p. 176), the druid arrested on a Welsh hilltop as he tried to burn the body of a dead baby, was a true eccentric: a champagne-quaffing, anti-smoking vegetarian with an inclination for nude picnics, who once fled the country dressed as a woman after instigating a Chartist revolt. It was his own son’s body he tried to burn that day in 1884: little Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ, in Welsh), fathered by Price at the age of 83 with his twentysomething housekeeper. He successfully defended himself at Glamorganshire Assizes in Cardiff, dressed in a white robe with a fox head-dress, and was discharged. The case paved the way for the act that legalised cremation in Britain.

  The tragedy at Sunderland’s Victoria Hall, which claimed the lives of 183 children, forced a change in the law that required all emergency exits to open outwards. Two inquiries were held, but no one was held responsible for bolting the door shut. The memorial to the victims in Mowbray Park was vandalised in 2009.

  The crushing truth about Wanker Simmons, alas, is that she never existed; it was nothing more than a newspaper cock-up. The Mayoress of Henley was actually Mrs W. Anker Simmons.

  INDEX

  Note: Hyperlinked page numbers in this electronic version of the index correspond to the page numbers in the printed edition. Since your e-reader may only show a portion of the printed page, you may need to scroll to find the index topic.

  Aberdeen 292–3

  The Aberdeen Journal 104

  Ajmere 13

  The Alnwick Mercury 87

  Amesbury 77

  Amsterdam 154

  Altoona 22

  Anderson 221

  Ashby St Ledgers 68

  Aston 122, 200

  Aston Villa 122–4, 200

  Austin 265–6

  Bad Beyhausen 88

  Barnsley 31

  Baschurch 189

  Bath 267

  Baltimore 53

  Bawtry 106

  Beckenham 6

  Bedminster 243–5

  Belfast 38

  Benicia 285

  Bennetsville 94

  Berlin 225

  Bermuda 155

  Berrow’s Worcester Journal 31, 210

  Bethnal Green 79

  Bidston 61–2

  Birkenhead 60

  Birmingham 59–60, 183, 196, 213

  Blackburn Rovers 126–8

  The Blackburn Standard and Weekly Express 222

  Blois 182

  Blythe 49

  Bomagny 40

  Bootle 174

  Boston, MA 98

  Bow 167

  Bradford 72

  Brazcka 182–3

  Brentford 169

  Brentwood 147

  Brimington 92

  Bristol 213–14, 257, 267–8

  Brixton Deverill 220

  Brooklyn 126, 139, 159–60

  Brookwood 137

  Buckholm 99

  Buckingham Palace Gate 279

  Budapest 43, 155

  Budingen 246

  Buire 80

  Burr Oak 230

  Bury St Edmunds 204

  Cambridge 204

  Canterbury 153, 276–7

  Cape de Gata 43

  Cardiff 222, 297

  Carlisle 258

  The Carlisle Journal 251

  Castlebar 195

  Châtre-Langlin 171

  Chelsea 206

  The Cheshire Observer 107, 125

  Chesterfield 92

  Christchurch, NZ 261

  Chicago 14, 44–5, 221, 245

  Cilli 284

  Cimarron 286

  Cincinatti 164

  The Citizen, Gloucester 53, 71, 86, 103, 106, 119, 131,
169, 185, 200, 204, 217, 224, 260, 270, 273, 282

  Cleckheaton 58

  Coleford 216

  Coney Island 3

  Constantinople 208

  Cork 269

  The Cork Examiner 152

  The Cornishman 148

  The Cornwall Royal Gazette 198

  Cossington 120

  Crewe 107

  Crystal Palace 6

  The Daily Mail, Hull 128, 161

  Darwen 126–8

  Daventry 69

  Dawley 19

  Deepwells 231

  Denver 8

  Deptford 202

  Derby 81

  Detroit 44, 281–2

  The Derby Daily Telegraph 118

  The Derbyshire and Chesterfield Herald 238

  The Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette 111, 154

  The Dundee Advertiser 179, 257

  The Dundee Courier and Argus 8, 19, 46, 49, 70, 148, 198, 207, 253, 258, 279, 287

  Dublin 261

  Dublin Bay 102

  Dunedin, NZ 276

  Dungannon 39

  Dyserth 103

  Eastbourne 85

  Edgware Road 280

  Edinburgh 124–5, 146

  The Edinburgh Evening News 14, 112, 147, 171, 179, 225, 243, 250, 276

  Elephant and Castle 144

  Elmira 45, 46

  Ely 107

  The Era 79

  Eransus 228

  The Evening News, Portsmouth 29, 86, 116, 136, 154, 155

  The Evening Post, Dundee 100

  The Evening Telegraph and Star, Sheffield, 99, 245, 250, 261, 286, 290

  The Evening Telegraph, Dundee 72, 97, 98, 105, 110

  Ewood 126

  The Falkirk Herald and Midland Counties Journal 120

  Falmouth 207

  Faversham 257

  Fecamp 142

  Flatbush 130

  Frankfurt 116

  Galashiels 99

  Glasgow 104, 243, 251

  Gloucester 197

  Goldsboro 27

  The Grantham Journal 19, 77, 90, 94, 107, 147, 153, 200

  Gravesend 181

  Great Dalby 272

  Greensburg 191, 198

  Guayana 140

  The Hampshire Advertiser 265

  The Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle 21, 133, 172

  Supplement to the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle 205

  Hampstead 181

  Hartlepool 242

  Heckfield Park 258

  Hedingham 177–9

  Helensburgh 104

  Henley 294, 297

  The Hereford Times 258

  The Hertford Mercury and Reformer 285

  Heywood 122

  High Wycombe 223

  Highgate 181

  Hirson 80

  Hockley Hill 59

  Holborn 34

  Homolitz 176

  Howth 102

  Hoxton 189

  The Huddersfield Chronicle and West Yorkshire Advertiser 240

  The Huddersfield Chronicle 64

  The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle 88, 176, 273, 290

  Hull 210–12

  Ilford 3

  Ilfracombe 17

  The Illustrated Police News 6, 13, 17, 26, 28, 42, 47, 48, 50, 56, 76, 119, 121, 140, 151, 159, 164, 239, 245, 248, 269, 280

  Indianapolis 258, 275

  Ingalls 286

  The Ipswich Journal, and Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire Advertiser 209

  Isigny 212

  The Isle of Wight Observer 25

  Jasper 145

  Java 96

  Javat 162–4

  Jump 31

  Kegworth 227

  The Kendal Mercury 62

  Kenilworth 128

  Kensal Green 149

  Keswick 63

  Kibworth 119

  Kinkley Junction 230

  Kirkcaldy 21

  Kirkee 286–7

  Kostroma 263, 280

  Kuschwarda 26

  The Lancaster Gazette 174

  Landport 28

  Laurel 139

  Las Vegas 36

  The Leamington Spa Courier 73

  Leeds 283–4

  The Leeds Intelligencer 268

  The Leeds Mercury 69

  The Leeds Times 42, 54, 116, 284

  Leicester 10, 58–9, 266, 272, 277–8

  The Leicester Chronicle 115, 249

  The Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury 63, 212, 228

  Supplement to the Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury 124

  The Leicester Journal 215

  The Leicestershire Mercury 59

  The Lincolnshire Chronicle 98

  The Lincolnshire Echo 109

  Littlemore 89

  Liverpool 18, 33, 70, 71, 291

  The Liverpool Echo 186

  Llandilo 7

  Llandrindod Wells 30–1

  Long Ashton 243–5

  Loughgall 186

  Los Angeles 79

  The Loughborough Herald and North Leicestershire Gazette 221

  Lugo 43

  Lyons 222

  Madrid 205

  Maidenhead 294

  Maldives 157

  The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 92, 197, 293

  Supplement to the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 57, 241, 226

  Supplement to the Manchester Courier 38

  The Manchester Evening News 4, 80, 91, 122, 125, 136, 143, 145, 170, 175, 184, 213, 228, 239, 243, 274, 275

  The Manchester Weekly Times 22

  Manxbridge 11

  Market Harborough 119

  Martin’s Valley 111

  Maryhill 104

  Mayhew, Henry 35

  Medway 92

  Melksham 90

  Middlesbrough 20

  The Midland Daily Telegraph, Coventry 44, 126, 146, 194, 226, 270

  Misson 106

  Montreal 67, 108

  The Morning Post 142, 173

  Mostar 183

  Mullahead 151–2

  Neath 30

  Neuendorf 78

  Neuilly 172, 214–15

  Nevers 52

  Newark, NJ 134

  New Bedford 131

  New York 44, 53, 86, 96, 108–9, 152, 259–60, 271

  Newport 63

  The North and South Shields Gazette and Daily Telegraph 71

  The North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Middlesbrough 10, 20, 202, 261

  Supplement to the Northampton Mercury 117

  The Northern Star and National Trades’ Journal, London 203

  Nottingham 19

  The Nottingham Evening Post 139, 164, 165, 230, 289

  The Nottinghamshire Guardian 278, 291

  Supplement to the Nottinghamshire Guardian 206

  Ocklawaha river 15

  Ohio 54

  Oklahoma 216

  Old Kent Road 73

  Orenburg 169

  Oswestry 47

  Owyhee 8

  Oxford Circus 9

  Palatka 15

  The Pall Mall Gazette 277

  Pampeluna [Pamplona] 228

  Paris 87, 99–100, 110, 132–3, 148, 160, 172, 212, 224–5, 226, 238, 240, 268, 270, 274, 287–9, 289–90

  Passy 69

  Peterborough 250

  Pheasant Hill 195

  Philadelphia 291

  Pickering 249

  Pittsburgh 119–20

  Pokur 13

  Pontypridd 176–7

  Potsdam 78

  Preesgweene 47

  Primrose Hill 181

  Raleigh 94

  Ratcliff Highway 22–5

  Rawtenstall 39

  Reading 115

  Reading, PA 147

  Regent Street 9

  Regent’s Park 235–8, 296

  Reichenberg 139

  Reynolds’s Newspaper 294

  Rhyl 103

  Rhymney 241

  Richmond, VA 291

  Ringsend 102
>
  Rochester 103, 154

  Rochester, PA 141

  Rock Ferry 125

  Romorantin 224

  Roslasin 175

  Roubaix 265

  Rouen 282–3

  The Royal Cornwall Gazette 32

  Rugby 68

  Rzeszow 184

  Saddington 119

  Salsau 26

  St Giles’s 180–1

  St Helens 37

  St George’s-in-the-East 22

  St Louis 45, 56, 196

  St Petersburg 169

  Samoa 118

  Sarnia 185

  Scarborough 249

  Sedbergh 292

  Sheffield 223

  The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent 40, 151, 223

  The Sheffield Daily Telegraph 207

  The Shields Daily Gazette and Shipping Telegraph 78, 81, 82, 105, 266, 292

  Seend 90

  Seven Dials 180

  Sherborne 186

  Shipley 72, 105

  Shrewsbury 187, 194

  Siberia 95–6

  Siepring 224

  Silesia 53

  Snainton 249

  Sockett’s Point 15

  Soho 151

  Southwark 144

  Stacksteads 39

  The Staffordshire Daily Sentinel 284

  The Standard, London 24

  The Star, Guernsey 103, 139, 160, 231

  Stepney 181, 204

  Stockwell Green 162

  Strood-next-Rochester 154

  Sunderland 233–5, 251–3, 297

  The Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette 30, 52, 95, 109, 153, 161, 177, 182, 189, 257, 283

  Szegedin 155

  Taganrog 248

  The Tamworth Herald 43, 170, 214

  Tandragee 151–2

  Tarnopol 201

  The Taunton Courier 135, 190, 187

  Thoissey 222

  Thurmaston 266

  Tourcoing 265

  Troy 135

  Tynemouth 153

  Underskiddaw 63

  Upper Heiduk 53

  Upton 106

  Utah 47

  Vienna 229–30, 287–8

  Vilna 165

  Washington 108

  Waterloo Town 79

  West Bromwich 25, 67, 73–6, 295–6

  West Bromwich Albion 122–4

  The West Middlesex Advertiser 73

  West Smithfield 109

  The Western Daily Press, Bristol, 81, 89, 96, 156, 160, 162, 222, 267, 269

  The Western Gazette, Yeovil 18, 52, 60, 272

  The Western Mail, Cardiff 37, 128, 142, 221

  The Western Times, Exeter 7, 18

  Westminster 209, 273

  The Westmorland Gazette and Kendal Advertiser 181

  Weston Fullenfield 187

  The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald 9, 15, 108

  Widnes 161

  Wigan 242–3

 

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