MR. CLEMENT SCOTT writes to us:- As you generously ventured to predict, the statement of your anonymous correspondent "G. W. S." is as incomprehensible to me as it is absolutely destitute of truth. I cannot be held responsible for the opinions of others, but I am prepared to defend my own in the proper place, at the proper time, and before those to whom I am alone responsible for what I write. Of the social position of "G. W. S." and his friends I know nothing and care less, but I trust that I know how to conduct a public controversy, if with the warmth of an advocate, at least with the manners of a gentleman. With the views of modern chivalry practised by my anonymous assailants I regret I cannot agree. Defenceless, I was insulted in a public theatre; unarmed, I was followed and threatened in the public streets. For at least 20 years past there has been no warmer defender of the pit and its privileges than I have been, in season and out of season. But I do not believe, and never have believed, that genorous playgoers and earnest pittites lend their countenance to a system of terrorism that jeopardises the interests of managers and authors alike, that has already added to the nervous apprehension on first nights of actresses who are entitled to our courtesy, and to actors who are worthy of our respect. What I have written, I have written; and I trust that however much I may be misjudged, misquoted, or insulted, I shall still have the courage of my opinions whatever they may be.
WE have received simultaneously a letter from Mr. F. W. Collins, which puts the other side of the case. "Considering the fact," writes Mr. Collins, "that 'The Dean's Daughter' was received unanimously on Saturday last, and that Miss Nethersole and Mr. Barrington were called before the curtain more than once at the end of the play, I cannot see that you have any cause to congratulate Mr. Barrington for overcoming difficulties not only of his own but of other people's making. As far as the audience were concerned Mr. Barrington has reason to congratulate himself on their friendly attitude towards him. It was after the ordinary proceedings of the evening that the pit and gallery audience testified their want of appreciation of Mr. Clement Scott, and a more fitting opportunity than the end of a performance could not possibly be chosen. With regard to your remark concerning the affair, I must remind you that, unlike The Star, the journals that publish the effusions of Mr. Scott will not print letters against the opinions of that writer. This especially applies to the Daily Telegraph, which paper invariably refuses to print letters from playgoers, no matter how roundly they are abused in its columns. Mr. Clement Scott has of late made himself conspicuous by his scurrilous and inaccurate observations on first-nighters, which are rendered more offensive by coming from a man who has been fond of declaring himself a pittite and a staunch supporter of the pit. No playgoer worth his weight in salt could allow such an individual to pen so many unsigned attacks without uttering an emphatic protest, which was done on Saturday night last with great effect."
HAVING thus allowed a spokesman on each side, we will express our own opinion. We adhere to the view we expressed yesterday, that even allowing the justice of the complaints of the pittites against Mr. Scott, they adopted the wrong method, the wrong place, and the wrong time for making them. It may be true that the Daily Telegraph would have refused to insert a reply to the strictures of their dramatic critic; but the columns of The Star were open; and through The Star the complainants would have reached nearly as large, if not as large, a circle of readers as through the Daily Telegraph. Mr. Barrington, as Mr. Collins says, and his excellent company did succeed in carrying the play to a successful end; but this success was imperilled by the noisy demonstrations of the pittites, and by difficulties which, we repeat, were of other's, and not of Mr. Barrington's own making.
AS to the general question, Mr. Scott may have expressed himself in inappropriate language. We have not read the article and cannot say; but was that a justification for hooting him in the theatre, and then following him in the streets with sticks, and even with bludgeons? If this method of argument be justifiable, why stop there? Why not go on to revolvers - as they used to do in the Western States of America when journalism was young?
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving.
MR. RICHARD MANSFIELD.
TO-NIGHT at 9, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. At 8, LESBIA.
Friday next, PRINCE KARL. Mr. Mansfield as Prince Karl, his original character. Performance for the benefit of the Poor at the East End of London.
Box-office (Mr. J. Hurst) open daily from 10 to 5.
Yesterday an inquest was held on the body of Alexander Schilozky, a butcher, of Spitalfields, who fatally injured himself while cutting up meat at his employer's shop. His employer heard him scream, and found blood running from his trousers. He said, "Oh, I'm done for; send me to the hospital." A police-constable who inquired how the accident happened, was told that as the man was carving a forequarter of beef his foot slipped, and the knife entered his thigh. The hospital surgeon said the man had cut one of the main vessels of the leg, and that before any operation could be performed he died from loss of blood. A verdict of accidental death was returned.
Yesterday, at the London Hospital, Coroner Baxter held an inquest respecting the death of Rebecca Sabotski, aged 22, a furrier, which occurred at the fire in Backchurch-lane on Saturday last. - Rosa Pentz, 63, Backchurch-lane, a married sister of the deceased, said she occupied the second floor back room. Her sister (the deceased) came to see her on Saturday at about two o'clock. Witness left her with a young man, a friend, while she went to fetch some beer. She was gone about five minutes. On her return she met a man in the passage, who sent her back, saying there was a fire. She found the passage in flames, and could get no further. In the room where the fire originated, there were
When she got into the street again she saw a man taking her sister to the hospital in a cart. - Isaac Green, 63, Backchurch-lane, a tailor, stated that he and his wife were in their room on Saturday, when two men opened their door and told them to come out, and there was a cry of "Fire!" On reaching the street witness saw some of the lodgers save themselves by jumping from the front windows. He saw nothing of the deceased, nor did he know how the fire originated. - Sarah Jacobs, living in the back room on the first floor, deposed that between one and two o'clock on Saturday afternoon she went into the yard to empty some ashes. She left a coke fire in the fireplace and some fancy paper hanging from the mantelpiece in representation of a curtain. When she returned the place was in flames, and she could not reach her room. - John Harrison, 38, Backchurch-lane, waterside laborer, said he was attracted to the fire, and went into the back yard and
through the passage. She was lying close to the back door, unconscious and moaning. She had not fallen where he found her. Ellen Amos, who called him, had dragged her there. - James Pearce, fireman, said that on the way with the engine before he reached the house he met the light cart with the deceased. The fire originated in the first floor back room. There was no doubt from the nature of the partition that the flames were going right across the passage when these people tried to get down. - Rosa Pentz, recalled, said that the young man's first name was Lewis, and he was keeping her company - not her sister's. She had told her that her sister had jumped out of the window. - The Coroner having summed up, the jury brought in a verdict of accidental death.
In reading an old number of Punch, dated 17 March, 1855, writes a correspondent, I came across the following: "Wanted another Detective Police Force to look after the present one."
Thomas Onley, 62, traveller, and Frank Hall, 20, seaman, both living at 66, Hornby-street, Peckham, were charged at Lambeth yesterday with attempting to murder Sarah Brett by cutting her throat with a carving-knife at 66, Hornby-street. The injured woman was unable to attend. She is in a dangerous condition at the hospital.
Inspector Taylor said on Monday night in the middle of the roadway in Hornby-street, opposite the door of 66, he found Sarah Brett lying on the ground. She was bleeding from a wound about four inches long, commencing from the left side of the neck and reaching the centre of the throat. He asked her who had done it, and she said "Frank the Sailor." In a back bedroom at No. 66, he found Hall lying on a bed with his trousers on, and endeavored to arouse him. He appeared to be drunk. In the front bedroom he found the other prisoner Onley, sitting on the side of the bed. Constable Bennett found a knife in the bed, and produced a large carving knife with wet blood upon the blade.
Mr. Biron: What had the prisoner to do with the woman? - Inspector Taylor: She was living with Oxley as his wife, and Hall lodged in the same house. - It was further stated that there was a deal of blood in the kitchen. Chairs and other articles had been overturned, and a lamp smashed.
Mr. Biron said the prisoners would be remanded. - Mr. Sydney asked that they might be admitted to bail. - Mr. Biron: Most decidedly not.
Will Soon Cut It with a Knife.
London is clothed in a pea-soup colored fog to-day. It had been gathering all night, and when sub-editors and market porters came out this morning it lay thick in the suburbs. Every hour it grows blacker, and the lights of London show through the opaque atmosphere with Whistlerian dimness.
Oswald McDougall, a clerk, who lived at 66, Abingdon-villas, West Kensington, took chlorodyne to relieve headache. The usual dose is 25 to 40 drops, McDougall drank a two-ounce bottle full. Death from misadventure was the verdict yesterday. McDougall was an energetic member of the South Kensington Radical Association.
The police are making a house to house visit amongst the Jews at the East-end. They demand admission to every room, look underneath the beds, and peer into the smallest cupboards. They ask for the production of knives, and examine them. In some cases they have been refused admittance until proof was produced of authority.
The police commence their work a early as ten o'clock in the morning. In some cases the police remain outside, and
Have you any lodgers?
How many?
What are their names?
How long have they been living with you?
Are they your friends, relatives, or assistants in your work?
Are they respectable?
Can you give the names of lodgers that left you, and the cause of leaving?
Did they leave friendly or otherwise?
Were they respectable?
All the answers to these questions are entered in a small note-book.
A Star reporter interviewed a Mrs. Andleman, of 7, Spellman-street, Whitechapel. She said: I came home from work yesterday, and as soon as I opened the street door, two men came up and said, "Do you live in this front room?" "Yes," I said. "We want to have a look at it." "Who are you, and what do you want?" "We are police officers, and we come to look for the murderer." "Do you think I keep the murderer here, or do you suggest that I associate with him?" I replied. They answered that it was their duty to inspect the rooms. I showed them into my room. They
and asked me to open the cupboards. I opened a small cupboard, where I keep plates and things. It is not more than two feet wide and about one in depth. They made an inspection of that also. "Do yo think," I said, "that it is possible for a man, or even a child, to be hidden in that small place?" They made no answer, and walked out. Then they went next door and inspected those premises.
A correspondent writes: - Shortly after midnight a suspicious-looking man was stopped in the Whitechapel-road by two detectives, and arrested. Followed by a large crowd he was taken to Leman-street Police-station.
A German named Ludwig, residing in the Leman-street district, who has already been in custody on suspicion of being concerned in the murders, and who was released after an exhaustive inquiry - it has been reported that this man has again been seen flourishing a knife and acting in a suspicious manner. The police are keeping him under surveillance at present, as there are some doubts as to the state of his mind. While the man was previously in custody a doctor declined to pronounce him insane. The additional police and detectives are still on night duty over the greater portion of the eastern police district.
At Clerkenwell Police-court yesterday, James Phillips and William Jarvis, cab washers, were charged on remand with cutting and wounding Detective-sergeant Robinson in Phoenix-place, and Jarvis also with assaulting and wounding Henry Doncaster. Michael Rainole, and Italian ice cream vendor, said he was with the detectives on the morning of the 9th watching "the man who was supposed to be the man who killed all the women" when the two prisoners came up and asked what they were doing. Robison took off the woman's hat which he was wearing and said "I am a police officer." Witness saw Jarvis strike Robinson in the face and cause it to bleed, and he also saw Jarvis, who had something in his hand, deal Doncaster a side blow in the face. Witness denied that the disturbance had begun by the prisoners asking Robinson and the others what they were doing near the cabs, and by Robinson replying, "Mind your own business," and thrusting Jarvis back by putting his fist against his chin. It was Jarvis who struck the first blow. He saw Jarvis on the ground, and heard some men cry out to Robinson, "Shame! Leave off hitting him." Jarvis was in a fainting condition, and was bleeding when taken to the police-station. - Giuseppe Molinari gave corroborative evidence. - Detective Charles Mather said he heard Robinson say, "I am a police constable; you know me. We are watching something." A voice then said, "Why, it's Robinson." The witness then described the assault, corroborating the previous witnesses. Witness admitted, in cross-examination, that none of the plain-clothes officers had shown their warrant cards to prove themselves detectives. They had, he said, no opportunity of doing so. The prisoners were committed for trial.
After Sir Charles Warren's letter upon the administration of the police had been read at yesterday's meeting of the Whitechapel District Board of Works, Mr. Catmur moved a resolution expressing the opinion that the police are not sufficient, either in numbers or efficiency, and asking that a committee of the House of Commons may be appointed to inquire into the whole subject. Mr. Harris, a member of the City Corporation, counselled patience to see whether better fortune attended the exertions which the police were undoubtedly making to track the criminal, or criminals. Mr. A. Turner, clerk to the Board, expressed his opinion that the resolution was a very unwise one. Mr. Robert Gladding (the chairman) said he had nothing like a case for submission to Parliament. It had been declared that crime had "culminated" in these atrocities; but the truth was that these atrocities were sui generis. Nothing of the kind had occurred before; they had a character peculiar to themselves, and that character made detection under any imaginable police system most unlikely. - In the end the Board rejected the resolution by 16 votes against 15.
A visitor to Brighton named Henry Lee Benson entered a barber's shop yesterday and asked to be allowed to shave himself. When the razor was given to him he cut his throat and died in a quarter of an hour. He had been staying at a temperance hotel.
Stealing Dead Bodies from Folkestone.
A vault in Folkestone churchyard has been broken into, and four coffins and their contents removed. The vault was that of Francis Macnamara Faulkner, a well-known shipping and customs agent. It contained the bodies of Mr. Faulkner, his two wives, and a daughter; and the first interment took place in 1853. The churchyard is in the centre of the town, and hundreds of persons pass through it daily.
Feed the Children.
SIR, - While public attention is drawn to the East-end may we, the day school teachers, hope for your co-operation in an effort to do something to provide penny dinners and country holidays for the little ones in some of our poorest schools?
Some of these children are so ill-fed and clad that it is difficult to teach them. Children suffering from actual cold and hunger need at least one good meal a day and a change of air and diet in the summer.
In order to raise funds for this very moderate wish, the Board school teachers are getting up a bazaar to be held at Morley Hall early in December. Some of the children in the Bethnal-green schools are working very earnestly to help their less fortunate school and playfellows. Nine of them in one class in the Portman-place School, Globe-road, have raised £2 7s. in pennies, halfpence and farthings. Much of this will bring in twice or three times the amount, as it will be spent in materials to be made up into articles for sale at the bazaar. Assistance in money or goods will be gratefully received by Miss Whitworth, Wilmot-street School; Miss Douglas, Hagre-street School; or Miss Benson, Portman-place School, Globe-road; or Blackfriars Mission, 33, New-cut, S.E. - Yours, &c.,
ONE WHO HAS SEEN THE POOR LITTLE ONES IN THEIR WRETCHED HOMES.
