The Star
Largest Circulation of Any Evening Paper in the Kingdom.
LONDON. MONDAY, 8 OCTOBER, 1888.
ONE HALFPENNY
Front Page
WHAT WE THINK.
MR. HENRY MATTHEWS appears to have what lawyers call a "common form" for expressing his views on the Whitechapel atrocities. He has been approached from half a dozen different directions on the subject of a reward, but all that can be got out of him is that he "does not believe," occasionally varied by "he is unable to perceive," that the ends of justice will be served by offering a reward. We have given Mr. Matthews a dozen reasons why a reward should be offered even though the ends of justice were not served by it; but, to adapt a famous repartee of Dr. Johnson, it is no use giving a Tory Minister a reason unless you can at the same time supply him with an understanding.
FORTUNATELY no artificial stimulus is required to awaken the population of East London to their duties in the present emergency. In every direction committees of working men and other residents are taking up the work which the police are unable to do, and for the last night or two the streets of Whitechapel have been patrolled so effectually that the miscreant has had a very slender chance of renewing his operations. The danger now is that these precautions will be relaxed as the excitement dies down, which it is sure to do after a very few days' immunity. All hope of working out any clue from the last crimes is now at an end. The only chance is to catch the murderer in the act of repeating, or on the point of repeating his butchery, and this can only be done by incessant vigilance maintained, it may be, for weeks and weeks.
WE observe that Messrs. Kelly and Peters have persuaded the Financial News to start a subscription for the purpose of providing funds, to be expanded by Messrs. Peters and Kelly, and some others in patrolling Whitechapel and Mile-end. Some seventy men, "full of courage and endurance" are to patrol these districts from ten o'clock at night until seven o'clock in the morning, and by their means Messrs. Peters and Kelly expect to capture the Whitechapel murderer. We regret that our contemporary should have lent its aid to this project. The people of the districts concerned have already taken the necessary steps to help the police, they are helping them, as becomes good citizens, without making any appeal to the public for funds, and they do not require the assistance of Messrs. Peters and Kelly - unless they choose to give that assistance without pay.
THE snuffling Spectator is always eager to draw a moral against the poor, but it has not often done a crueller thing than when, by way of meeting our point that prostitution and poverty broadly stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect, it urged that the slaughtered women took to bad ways because they liked vice, drink, and foulness better than virtue, temperance, and decent habits. Now it was proved in the case of the women Stride and Eddowes that they were driven on the streets, not that they went there of their own accord; and the same thing applied in a less conspicuous degree to the woman Chapman. Mrs Stride lost her bread-winner, and drifted on to the streets. The woman Eddowes did honest work when she could get it; when she could not she went wrong. Mrs. Chapman lost her annuity; and it was said of her that she lived honestly as long as the pittance was paid her. In any case these women sold their persons for board and bed; while fine ladies who read the Spectator sell theirs every day in Mayfair for a "position," a carriage, a rent-roll, and a box at the opera. The other difference is that the one kind of union is legalised and solemnised by Christian bishops and ministers; the other is not.
Page 2
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving.
MR. RICHARD MANSFIELD.
SPECIAL NOTICE. - In response to numerous requests, a limited number of representations of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE will be given.
TO-NIGHT (Monday), WEDNESDAY, and FRIDAY, at 9 o'clock, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Preceded, at 8, by LESBIA.
TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY EVENINGS at 9, and SATURDAY AFTERNOON at 2, A PARISIAN ROMANCE. At 8 LESBIA.
Box-office (Mr. J. Hurst) open 10 to 5. - LYCEUM.
Bad for Bogus Clubs.
The Working Men's Club and Institute Union have at last come to the conclusion that it is necessary for them to take some steps in the direction of suppressing those institutions which, under the name of "working men's clubs," are little better than dens for the sale of drink at all hours and the encouragement of gambling. At the last meeting of the council of the Union, Mr. Gibson, a delegate from the East London United Radical Club, formally called attention to the existence of these places, mentioning several in the neighborhood of Hackney and Hoxton by name, and said the police raids upon them would be far more frequent were it not that the police of the neighborhood were "fed," as he asserted they were. Mr. Gibson said he was prepared, as were several other clubmen, to furnish the Union with the names and addresses of some of these bogus clubs, in order that by influencing the Excise authorities, or by some other means, the Union might aid in crushing them out. The Legal and Parliamentary Committee of the Union are now acting energetically in the matter, and have come to the conclusion that the most effectual way of meeting the difficulty will be by a Bill, which shall prevent the establishment and aid in the suppression of bogus clubs. The secretary has been instructed to get proof copies of the draft of this Bill, which is nearly ready.
The Police Down on Newsboys.
A constable ordered a newsboy selling papers in Ludgate-circus on Saturday evening to move on. No reason was given, and the lad moved away somewhat reluctantly. While he was crossing the road, the policeman suddenly seized his arm and marched him off to the station. There he was charged with three specific offences:-
Causing obstruction;
Refusing to go away when ordered;
And refusing to give his name and address.
The first offence was of so trivial a nature that to base a charge of breaking the law was of course farcical. The lad did not refuse to go away when ordered; he was not, for all the spectators could see, asked his name and address. The sergeant heard these two last facts from Mr. Rowe, of 11, Northwood-road, Highgate, who followed the policeman and the newsboy to the station. The charge was not pressed, and the lad was released.
[Several cases of the police interfering with the sale of evening papers have recently been brought to our notice. We shall be glad if those who observe other instances will notify the facts to us, to prevent oppression and injustice. Send the number of the policeman.]
About Our Own Folks.
With shame we write it (says the Sporting Times), but it must be confessed that we Tories have inflicted on the nation the most incompetent Home Secretary on record. Up to now the Liberals took the pas with flabby Bruce, who was made a peer for incompetence, and that Bombastes Bullfrogoso Vernon Harcourt. Even dear, old stupid Cross would have been better than this Matthews who was pitchforked into the berth by a coup de theatre on getting the best of it in a dirty divorce case. We of the Pink 'Un have waited long and patiently not liking to say ought in discredit of our own folks. Mr, Matthews's apathy as to the geometrical progression of murders that are making our Home Administration the scoff of the world make it imperative that he and Sir Charles Warren and their respective methods, or want of method, should go, and go they must.
The Burglars Who Went to Church.
Detective Taylor and Detective-sergeant Ottway saw a man named Williams come out of a public-house in Euston-road last evening. Seeing his hand bandaged, and knowing something of him, they took him to the police-station. Father Ryan, who captured one of three men he found breaking into a safe in St. Aloysius Church, Clarendon-square, was sent for and identified in Williams one of the other two men. One of the choir boys also recognised him as a man who on the evening of the attempted robbery asked him whether there was any one in the church, and what time the service would begin. Williams's hand was found badly cut, and he acknowledged he received the injury in escaping from Father Ryan through the window. He added a devout wish that he had stayed in the church - he would not have cut his hand, and would have got off lighter. The third man is believed to be in custody on a charge of highway robbery. Williams was brought before the Clerkenwell magistrates to-day and remanded.
To-morrow (Tuesday) evening, a meeting is to be held at the Buxton-street School-rooms, Bethnal-green, to consider what steps can be taken for the better protection of the streets. The chair will be taken by Mr. E. H. Pickersgill, and the speakers include Mr. James Branch, the Rev. W. Harvey Smith, and other well-known gentlemen in the East-end.
The members of the Kennington Radical Club have passed unanimously resolutions demanding the dismissal of Sir Charles Warren and affirming the desirability of organising a demonstration to commemorate the brutality of the police last November, and to protest against the suppression of public meeting in Trafalgar-square.
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FIFTH EDITION.
WHITECHAPEL.
One or Two Arrests, but None of Any Importance.
Upon inquiry at the East-end police-stations this morning, a reporter was informed that no further arrests had been made in connection with the Whitechapel murders. A man arrested last night has been released, it having been ascertained that he is a Sunday-school teacher occupying a most respectable position. The razor found in his bag was that which he used for the ordinary purpose.
Revival of a Discredited Rumor.
The Central News Agency, which first gave publicity to the original "Jack the Ripper" letter and postcard now resuscitates the rumor - which has already been dismissed as false - that on a wall, within a few yards of the spot where he blood-stained part of an apron was found, were written the words, "The Jews shall not be blamed for nothing." The Agency adds that those who saw this writing recognised the same hand in the letter and postcard. The Agency declares that a third communication has been received, which it is deemed prudent to withhold for the present.
A Spiritualist's "Clue."
At another spiritualistic séance held at Bolton yesterday a medium claims to have had revealed the Whitechapel murderer. She describes him as having the appearance of a farmer, though dressed like a navvy, with a strap round his waist, and peculiar pockets. He wears a dark moustache and bears scars behind the ear and in other places. He will, says the medium, be caught in the act of committing another murder.
Seizing the Occasion.
A pavement artist attracted an immense crowd, and gathered not a few halfpence in Whitechapel-road on Saturday night by his horrible portraiture of incidents of the recent murders. His cartoon of the finding of the body in Mitre-square was certainly a masterpiece of sanguinary ghastliness. What it lacked in delineation and unity it made up in disgusting details, and there was a constant struggle among the crowds in the street to get a view of it.
Another Letter from the Home Secretary
has been received by the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee:-
"Whitehall, 6 Oct., 1888.
"Sir. - The Secretary of State for the Home Department has had the honor to lay before the Queen the petition signed by you, praying that a reward may be offered by the Government for the discovery of the perpetrator of the recent murders in Whitechapel, and he desires me to inform you that though he has given directions that no effort or expense should be spared in endeavoring to discover the person guilty of the murders, he has not been able to advise her Majesty that in his belief the ends of justice would be promoted by any departure from the direction already announced with regard to the proposal that a reward should be offered by Government. - I am, sir, your obedient servant, E. LEIGH PEMBERTON."
A Scare at Islington.
A man and woman were arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct at Chapel-street, Islington, last night, nearly a mile distant from the sub-divisional station. The prisoners were rather troublesome, and several policemen assisted in conveying them to the station. The rumor somehow got afloat that the man was "Jack the Ripper," and the woman his accomplice, the aforesaid mysterious individual having, by letter to the police, promised Goswell-road a visit. This rumor caused an immense crowd to congregate, which became larger as the party neared the station. A mounted patrol saw the mob approaching in the distance, and he galloped off to render further assistance. This fact appeared to give the arrest and element of importance, and by the time that the prisoners were inside the lock-up there were quite 2,000 people in Upper-street. A number of constables were sent out to clear the thoroughfare, and this was quickly effected on the people being assured that no important arrest had been made.
Rightly Tracked by a Bloodhound.
The suggestion that bloodhounds should be used to track the Whitechapel murderer recalls to the mind of J. B. Smedley, of Alford, Lincolnshire, a case in which to his own personal knowledge a dog marked a murderer down. A young farmer was discovered, one Sunday morning early, with his throat cut, his face horribly gashed, and his body pushed under the hedge of a bye-road leading from K - L - to the adjoining village, where he resided. While examining the body and listening to many conjectures respecting the murderer's designs and tracing him, I suggested to the coroner that my bloodhound Herod should be fetched to try his supposed instinct for tracking down a blood trail. My groom was there, and went for the hound, bringing him in a leash. He sniffed around the face and the ground saturated with blood. I then encouraged him to find a scent. He leaped over the hedge adjoining the lane into a large pasture, and worked steadily towards a gate leading to a similar field. He rose to the top rail of that gate, and again sniffing it over, he bounded across it, and went more rapidly and direct to another gate, which opened into the high road. He took the road, at the same pace, for about a quarter of a mile, and then halted and "cast back," perhaps a minute. He returned to the former scent, and, picking it up, he immediately leaped over a hand-gate into a private path through a shrubbery leading to a large house known as the Manor House, which, with a large farm, was occupied by a widow lady and a younger son. The hound had reached the side entrance, and was there, still holding up to an apparent scent, when I drew him away by the collar, convinced he was misleading us, which was the opinion of the coroner. But Herod was right, and we were mistaken, for that younger son was the murderer of Mr. C - . He was tried, condemned, and paid the penalty with his own life.
As a breeder of bloodhounds for 20 years Edwin Brough writes to the Times to advocate the restoration of this noble hound to his old position in the detection of crime. He says: If a few intelligent men who have had some experience in working hounds or in breaking dogs to the gun would take the matter up the capabilities of the bloodhound would be made so manifest that he would be constantly used by the police, and the deterrent effect would be incalculable. The bloodhound can hunt a lighter scent than any other hound, and when properly trained will stick to the line of the hunted man, although it may have been crossed by others. I doubt whether there are
ANY BLOODHOUNDS IN ENGLAND SUFFICIENTLY TRAINED
to have a good chance of tracking a man in crowded thoroughfares such as Whitechapel, and unless laid on at once the chances are that the hound might hit off the wrong trail; but if a well-trained bloodhound had been tried at Gateshead before the scene of the murder had been much trampled over he would have been very likely to run the man down. The great value of the pure bloodhound is that he can be trained to hunt the scent of a man through his boots and without any artificial aid such as blood.
THE WHITEHALL DISCOVERY.
If the police are not on the wrong scent, says the London correspondent of the Manchester Courier, they will trace the murder of the woman, whose mutilated remains have been found in Whitehall and other places, to a person occupying a much higher position in the social sphere than did Wainwright. Rumor at times like these invariably gets in advance of truth, but in what are known as Government circles highly sensational revelations are anticipated. The inquest will be held to-day.
The bones recently found at Guildford and brought to London on Friday by Inspector Marshall were examined on Saturday. Dr. Bond and Mr. Hibberd discovered conclusively that they are those of a bear, and therefore have no relation to the human remains found at Westminster. A feature in the case of the discovery of the mutilated body at Whitehall is the number of missing women brought to the notice of the authorities by persons making inquiries respecting the remains.
Threats of Slaughter.
Thomas Johnson, a travelling tailor, was sentenced to a month's imprisonment at Croydon to-day for threatening to injure Ellen White, the wife of a knife grinder. He tried to induce her to leave the public-house with him, but she refused, whereupon he threatened her, saying she would be a lucky woman if she slept at her lodgings that night. He also said to the detective who arrested him that he would mark him as a "dead un" when he got the chance. The apprehension caused great excitement, as it was thought the prisoner was the Whitechapel murderer.
Almost Dead Beneath a Barrack Window.
A Color-sergeant of the Black Watch, named Fay, was last night found lying seriously injured outside Chatham Barracks, having evidently fallen from a fourth storey window. He was taken to the hospital in a critical condition. The military authorities maintain the utmost reticence regarding the matter.
A pensioned police-constable named Futter hung himself at his residence, 17, Mansion-street, Camberwell, yesterday morning.
IN THE POLICE COURTS TO-DAY.
A Man of Many Asylums.
At the Thames Court George Sullivan, a man of peculiar appearance, was charged with threatening to stab Mrs. Ellen Jansen, staying at 42, Great Georges-street, E. - She said between ten and eleven o'clock on Saturday night prisoner came into the house - a beerhouse - and asked to be served. He seemed rather suspicious, and she would not serve him. Prisoner was walking up and down, and she told him not to annoy the customers. He had a long knife in his hand, and with it made an upward motion saying, "Look here, I'll do this to you." Prisoner went out, and she followed, but lost him. She found him again in a public-house, when he said, "You can't lock me up. I've only just come out of Colney Hatch. I was there two years." She gave him into custody. - Mr. Stacy, a relieving officer, said the prisoner had been in all the county asylums in Middlesex, and all the asylums in and around London. - Mr. Saunders remanded him.
Stabbed Five Times in the Neck.
A woman had her throat cut by a man in one of the lower parts of Newcastle on Saturday. Margaret Cooper lived in Back Marlborough-street, and had for some time resided with a man named Benjamin Dunhill [a.k.a. Dunnell], from whom she separated about a week ago. On Saturday afternoon Dunhill sought an interview with the woman, and half an hour later he was seen to jump out of the window of the room which she occupied on the ground floor and to run away. A neighbor, fearing that something was wrong, tried the door, and found it locked. The door having been broken open the woman Cooper was found lying on the floor with blood streaming from a wound in her throat. A doctor found that five wounds had been inflicted on the face and neck of the woman, the most dangerous being a wound on the left side of the neck four inches long and penetrating to the back of the throat, just missing the main artery. - Dunhill was apprehended.
Local Authorities and Vice Repression.
A circular, signed by the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of Meath, and Sir Robert N. Fowler, has been addressed from the Central Vigilance Society for the Repression of Immorality to various persons who are interested in the forthcoming "elections to municipal offices," with the view of enlisting their co-operation and authority in the prosecution of immorality and those who foster and encourage it in any form. It is pointed out that "hitherto there has not been any general effort for repression and prevention, and interference has been too often limited to the abatement of the nuisance, where it has become too open, by simply driving the perpetrators out of the district, rather than extended to such a punishment as may deter them from a repetition of the offence elsewhere." The present desire is to direct attention to the serious nature of the evil which prevails and to express a hope that, in seeking election to positions of local power, candidates will bring this matter prominently to the notice of electors, and in so doing receive their mandate that it shall not continue.
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THE THIMBLE LEAGUE.
An Association which Affords Poor Women Work Away from Sweaters.
The contrast between the East and the West is largely manifest in the poor of the two districts. There is no institution in the East-end like the Thimble League. It is an unpretentious little association enough. But its possibilities are great. Already employment is found for 300 women, and if more capital can be raised, 1,000 will be able to keep themselves by their needle. The idea first occurred to the Dowager Countess of Winchilsea. She started two years ago. Her only stock-in-trade was two hampers in which to send out the work. Shortly afterwards she took a room in West Kensington. Here she employed so many women and accumulated so much stock that she and a score of helpers, Lady Margaret Levett, Lady Mary Holland, Duchess of Grafton, Countess Winchilsea, Countess Darnley, Countess Chichester, Countess Mayo, Countess Brownlow, Lady George Hamilton, and others decided to take a shop. The central depot, where all the packing-up, cutting, and checking is done, is in Fulham-road, and it was hear that a Star reporter had a chat with the manageress.
"There are 15 centres," she said, "and each is under the care of a lady vice-president, who inspects all the work done in her district. To each of these districts we send a large hamper every month, full of ready cut out material. Every hamper costs us £17 - £12 for material and £5 for labor.
WE PAY AS MUCH AS WE CAN
for everything, and sell every article for far less than it costs. All the work is hand sewn."
"I suppose a woman must be a competent seamstress before she can get any work?"
"Not at all. We take the poorest and feeblest, and try to teach them. Some of the sewing is sometimes so bad that it has to be done over again. I hope we shall be able to do away with at least some of the sweating. A victim to that evil gets just 2s. 6d. for making a dozen shirts after they have been cut out. We pay 12s. 6d. They are not, of course, white shirts - only plain woollen ones. The patronesses take a great interest in the affair. Some of them can usually be seen here every day busily engaged in looking over and fixing the prices of things, and they are always buying themselves and distributing about among the poor. I had a lady in here the other day from the West-end who wanted some clothing for a family of seven. The father was out of work. She bought three articles for every one, including a dress for the mother, and a suit for each of the two boys. The sum total for all was £4, so you see it is cheap enough, and better than buying charity blankets. A short time ago Lady Winchilsea
SENT £10 WORTH OF CLOTHING
to the poor people flooded out in the Isle of Dogs, and two other ladies clubbed together and sent £22 worth."
"Of course," said our reporter, "a woman can only do a limited amount of work?"
"Exactly, or we should soon be at a standstill. We don't give work out either entirely indiscriminately. Every applicant has to bring a specimen of what she can do and a letter of recommendation, and when the ladies have satisfied themselves that she is honest they help her. We are in no way prejudiced in favor of one or another denomination. We don't examine the religious opinions of a candidate for work. Our only object is to help the poor to earn their bread, and to provide them with warm clothing at a cheap price. We have no relations whatever with any business house."
A Cry from the East End.
Did it need this to touch the hearts of men?
Was not our living death enough for pity?
Shadowing the life of London's o'ergrown city
This lurking fiend of blood has made his den,
And made you feel who felt not all these years
The terror of a greater fiend than he;
Stalking in dreadful guise as Poverty,
With fiercer looks that raise more awful fears.
Sin and much suffering is our world: the strife
Of our despair has long time been exprest;
You heard not, saw not, till the assassin's knife
Sends some poor few through horrors into rest.
If this has wakened you, then heed, we cry,
The lives we live as well as deaths we die.
