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