Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1884 — FRESH HAPPENINGS. [ARTICLE]

FRESH HAPPENINGS.

The Mignonette Cannibals Sentenced to Death in England. An Arkansas Train-Bobber’s Confession —Two Great Women in a Napoleonic View. • The Captain anil Mate of the Mignonette ( {Sentenced to Death. [Cable dispatch from London.] Capt. Dudley aud Mate Stephens, of the wrecked yacht Mignonette, who were found guilty of murder in killing the boy Parker for food to keep themselves alive, have been sentenced to death. It is believed they will certainly be pardoned. The scene during the pronoun«ing of sentence was most impressive. The room was crowded. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge read the judgment of court, citing authorities at length. The court declared that the taking of human life could only be justified on the plea of self-defense. The commission of murder for the sake of preserving one’s own life was unjustifiable. Of course it was a dfity to preserve one’s own life, but the duty often required one not to save but to sacrifice his own life. The court must apply the law and declare that the prisoners were guilty of willful murder, for which there was no justification. If this judgment was too severe the court must leave the prisoners to the clemency of the crown. The prisoners were asked what they had to say before sentence was pronounced. Both Copt. Dudley and Mate Stephens pleaded for mercy, in view of their terrible situation when the deed was done. Lord Coleridge said it was the jury’s privilege to recommend prisoners to mercy, and then he sentenced them to be hanged, but without the black cap. The Secretary of State for the Home Department advises the Queen to respite Captain Dudley and Mate Stephens. [The yacht Mignonette, thirty-three tons burden, sailed from Southampton for Australia May 19, 1884. June 11 she foundered during a storm in the Indian Ocean. Capt. Dudley, two seamen, and a boy named Parker escaped in a boat, but had no provisions except a few turnips, and were wholly without water. By th# twelfth day their food, including a turtle which they had caught, was exhausted, and their sufferings from thirst were maddening. The boy Parker was wasting away, and the others hungrily watched his approaching dissolution. The twentieth day, after the party had beeu without food for eight days, the Captain hastened young Parker’s -death by opening a vein in his arm.—The three survivors eagerly drank the boy’s blood as it gushed from his arm,, and they cut his flesh from his arm and ate it uncooked. but with some degree of moderation. The Captain kept the body and served out to himself and the two sailors such rations as w-ere necessary to preserve their lives. They prolonged their wretched existence in this way until July 5, when they were rescued.]

An Arkansas Train-Kobber Confesses. [Little Rock spectal.l The confession of Joseph Cook, the ringleader of the train-robbers who suc-cessfully'side-trackedntHe passenger Train and plundered the seventy-five passengers on the Arkansas Valley Railroad in the outskirts of the city Saturday night, tells the story of the latest daring train-robbery. “There were four in the party—Clifford, Parker, Frank Kline, and myself. We first commenced to plan the robbery a week ago. We studied out and arranged matters in Kline’s room on Centre street. I was chosen Captain. After the robbery we walked straight to Little Rock, stopping on the way to burn pur masks. Reaching the city we separated. I accompanied Kline to his room, Where the swag was divided. We placed it in small sacks and hid it.” He then named a coal-shed and a vacant building, where it was concealed. The officers easily found the plunder, which consisted of twelve gold and silver watches and $526 in bills and silver. Tho property is being returned to the owners as fast as identified. Cook has resided hero some time, and is well known. He is a native of Austin, Tex. Clifford is a railroad man, and came here three weeks ago from Chicago. His home is at Nashville, Tenn. Parker is a boy 16 years old. His parents are esteemed residents of Little Rock. Frank Kline, whp effected his escape, is a car-riage-trimmer, and belongs at Logansport, Ind. At the preliminary examination the prisoners were remanded to jail, and bail fixed at SIO,OOO each. The penalty for the crime in the State is seventy-seven years’ imprisonment. Six Persons Cremated. fPottsville, (Pa.) telelzram.] Fire broke out last night in the house occupied by Frank Barlow in Park Place, a small mining village sixteen miles from this city. All efforts to arouse the sleeping family from their slumbers were in vain. Several miners, who ran from their work at th colliery, brokee open the door, but were driven back by the heat of the now raging lire. All hopes of reaching the sleeping apartments of the Barlow family were then cutoff. While Barlow’s house was burning the spectators were obliged to stand there and witness a most heartrending sight. In the vain attempt of Frank Barlow to save his two children the father in his night clothes appeared at the secondstory window. He raised the sash and threw one of them —a boy 9 years of age —to the ground below. He attempted to then save the others, but was overcome by the heat and smoke. The heroic father swayed to and fro for a moment and then, with the child still held in one arm and clinging to the window sash with the other, he 6ank down into a seethihg mass of flames. The horrorstricken spectators watched the doomed man grasping the window sill until his arm burned off at the wrist and his body disappeared from sight. When the building fell it was the fiery sepulcher of six unfortunate victims. * . „ r

The Attorney Generalship. [Washington special.] A meeting of the Missouri delegation to Congress was held to take action in the direction of urging Broadhead for Attorney General tinder Cleveland, bnt it was practically a failure. Senator Cockrell opposed the movement, saying he had joined with the other Democratic Senators in recommending Senator Garland for Attorney General, and, therefore, he could not indorse Broadhead or any other man for that place. The delegation could not be brought to any harmonious action, and it was finally decided to defer action upon the matter for several weeks. Beating the Becord. [Chattanooga (Tenn.) dispatch.] Less than twelve months ago Mrs. Hugh Blair, of this , county, gave birth to three children, all of whom are living and in good health. Saturday evening the same lady gave birth to two boys and a girl, making six children bom to her in less than a year. [Quebec (Ontario) dtspatch.] Mme. Pidele Vaillancourt, of Kamouraska, Ontario, lias just given birth to her thirty-seventh child# You can buy human steak and chops in Dahomey butcher shops.