The Star
Largest Circulation of Any Evening Paper in the Kingdom.
LONDON. WEDNESDAY, 24 OCTOBER, 1888.
ONE HALFPENNY.
Front Page
MAINLY ABOUT PEOPLE.
One of the most wonderful and skilful surgeons of the day is Mr. Victor A. H. Horsley, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., &c., &c. He is the son of Mr. Horsley, R.A., and the son-in-law of Sir Frederick Bramwell. He is an assistant surgeon at the University Hospital, and though only 29 has already performed some of the most marvellous operations ever attempted by medical science. His special branch is disease of the spine and brain, and he thinks nothing of tapping the brain and removing a spoonful or so of undesirable matter. He performs successfully operations to attempt which some years ago would have been regarded as wilful murder. At present he is in America attending the great Doctors' Conference.
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The Effect of a "Star" Report.
The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, M.A., addressed a great public meeting at Scarborough on Monday night, his speech dealing at length with the "forward" movement in the Wesleyan denomination. He rejoiced in the fact that at the St. James's Hall Mission the reporters used the accommodation provided for them. They had, he said, grossly neglected the press. In America they were much wiser than they were. They forgot that journalism was the mightiest engine of influence in England. God grant that it would be entirely used on the side of human progress, purity, peace, and brotherly love! So far as the press gave them any notice they were very thankful. A new newspaper had recently been started in London which had an enormous circulation amongst the artisan class. For some reason The Star - (loud applause) - sent a reporter to their mission at St. James's Hall, and he gave a long and very flattering account of the services. The only thing that was not flattering was the picture of the preacher. (Hear, hear.) However, they would see the advantage of publicity through unusual channels. On Sunday night a woman came to the hall and told Mrs. Hughes that she had been led there by the notice in The Star. That woman was a backslider, but she returned as a result of that report.
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FIFTH EDITION.
A Whitechapel Arrest of No Importance.
About half-past twelve o'clock this morning a man who was in the company of a woman in Whitechapel-road, and who seemed to be behaving in a suspicious manner, was given in charge by some persons who had been watching the couple. The man, who seemed half intoxicated, refused to give any account of himself, and was detained at Leman-street station. The police attach no importance whatever to the arrest.
More Friends of the Costers.
The Gladstone Radical Club, Bethnal-green, has passed a resolution endorsing the remarks of Montagu Williams, in the case of the coster whose barrow was seized by a vestry inspector, and asks that the pending prosecutions of street vendors and shopkeepers, under the street regulation with regard to Sunday trading, shall be dropped.
The members of the Mildmay Radical Club have passed a resolution strongly protesting against the continuance in office of Incapable Warren, and "Helpless, Heedless, Useless Matthews," and have decided to call a public meeting on the matter.
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NEWS OF ALL SORTS.
A Murderer Disturbed by a Passing Coffin.
The inquest on the body of the boy murdered in a wood at Pontadawe was opened yesterday. It is stated that the murderer was interrupted in his supposed design to disembowel his victim by a party carrying a coffin passing at the time the murder was committed. Across the child's body is a scratch, evidently done with a knife. Another boy had been lured into the wood by the prisoner, but, on being ordered to take off his clothes, ran away in fright.
The Malady That Is Upon Us.
Influenza, known in France as the grippe, is just now epidemic in London, says the Medical Press and Circular, and possibly elsewhere in the British Isles. It is quite distinct from the ordinary "cold in the head," to which it stands in much the same relation as cholera does to summer diarrhoea. It is not, strictly speaking, infectious, although it occurs in epidemic form. The victims are stricken down simultaneously, often by hundreds and even thousands. The first great epidemic occurred as far back as 1580, and spread all over Europe. Since that time epidemics have broken out at irregular intervals. The most marked feature of this malady is the intensity of the nervous phenomena. Some years since the entire crew of a man-of-war cruising in the Channel were incapacitated within a few hours, to such an extent, and with such impartiality, that the vessel had to hoist signals of distress and obtain assistance to navigate it. When it invades a town the disease conquers the whole population at one fell swoop. The epidemic of 1847 in one month skipped from Spain to Newfoundland, and from New Zealand to Valparaiso, Syria, Africa, and even to Hong Kong. It usually travels from east to west. Apart from the ordinary symptoms of catarrh, respiration is often extremely embarrassed, and sometimes death results from positive "paralysis of the lungs."
The Wandering Girl.
Edith Gray, aged 16, who was found wandering in Hyde-park without any visible means of subsistence, and made several statements which turned out to be untrue, has been discovered to be the daughter of a man living at Henley-on-Thames. At the police-court yesterday it was stated that a man had visited the girl in the House of Detention, and stated that he was her cousin. That statement, however, turned out to be untrue. Mr. Hannay ordered the girl to be discharged, with the view of her being removed to a "home."
THE PEOPLE'S POST BOX.
The Demonstration Against Mr. Scott.
SIR. - In reference to your remarks in noticing a letter from "G.W.S." to you relating to the demonstration against Mr. C. Scott, at the St. James's, you are quite right in remarking that hissing Mr. Scott in public was not the proper way to retaliate for his insulting critique against first-nighters, but what are first-nighters to do when he absolutely ignores any letters which have been addressed to him. Many on reading his critique wrote to the Daily Telegraph, but not the slightest notice was taken - in fact, he added to what he had already written endorsing his previous remarks. A critic who does this, and who refuses to write the truth after he has many letters to convince him of the real grievance first-nighters had at the Court Theatre, is, I think, not deserving of much pity for the hissing he got, and I hardly think it is the editor's opinion of the paper for which Mr. Scott writes that his readers should be insulted. As to Mr. Barrington, it certainly was rather rough on him that the demonstration should have taken place at his theatre, but first-nighters took care that the demonstration should not interfere with him, and as it took place after the performance was over, I don't see where it harmed any one except the individual against whom it was directed. Mr. Scott has certainly had the sense not to say anything about it; had he done so, he might only have made matters worse, and might, perhaps, have had a similar demonstration elsewhere, and he certainly has not bettered his position by saying in the hearing of several when he came out that he did not care a d - for the lot of them. First-nighters don't mind being criticised, but they like to have the truth told, and not a pack of lies. I should think Mr. C. Scott ought to know that because a first-nighter happens to go in the gallery he isn't a cad and a wrecker. - Yours, &c.,
C.
Save Your Stars.
SIR. - Your paper is most rigidly boycotted in all the southern counties, but I suppose that financially you are indifferent to such Tory antics, seeing that the phenomenal demand for the "Little Twinkler" in London alone is already more than you can cope with.
There is, however, one way in which you can get the paper circulated among the poor frightened serfs whom these southern squires and parsons keep in disgraceful ignorance. Let each of your subscribers preserve their copies daily, and despatch the copies when read and done with to Liberal friends or acquaintances living in those benighted regions. Three old Stars can go by post for a penny.
The copies that were sent me by a London friend I distributed about when at the seaside, and I found that the poor laborers devoured the contents even as I do. I can't say more than that.
The morning papers are too prosy and long-winded for these poor people. They want the bright, short paragraphs of the "Little Twinkler" to enable them to understand how they are being swindled by the Tories - Yours, &c.,
L. L. G.
17 Oct.
