Killed by a cobweb

Lisburn Herald & Antrim & Down Advertiser Saturday 23 April 1892

KILLED BY A COBWEB. Some peculiar evidence was given during an inquest held this week before the Liverpool Coroner touching the death of Martha Robarts. Six or seven weeks ago deceased cut her hand, and, to stop the bleeding, she adopted the housewife’s plan of using a cobweb. Blood poisoning set in-presumably because there was dirt on the cobweb-and the woman died. The doctor stated that death was due to blood poisoning arising from the wound on the hand, and the jury returned a verdict in accordance with this evidence.

Shocking accident

Northampton Mercury Friday 29 July 1904

LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL. SHOCKING ACCIDENT. On Friday a shocking accident happened to Henry Harris, groom, in the employ Mr. A. J. Robarts, Tile House, Buckingham. The man lives at the lodge, and he was given a "lift" in Mr. Reynolds's grocery wagon. Whilst the man in charge of the wagon had gone into a house Harris attempted to knock the flies off the horses. The horses started off, and he fell between the spring and the wheel, and one of his legs was so caught that it acted as a brake on the wheel, with the result that before the horses could be stopped the wheel had ground off the whole the fleshy part of the calf the leg, and he presented a shocking appearance.

A family poisoned

A frightful consequence of the practice of allowing poison to lie about in private dwellings occurred at Kensall Green.

Thomas Hickman, thirty-four years of age, occupied a small cottage in Penton Villas, with his wife and six children. On Sunday morning, Caroline Bonamy, Mrs. Hickman's sister, arrived to spend the day; having occasion for a piece of paper to light a fire, she took up a bag which she supposed to contain flour, and which had long stood untouched in a cupboard, and, having turned the contents into the flour tub, burnt the bag - the contents were, in fact, arsenic, and with the fatal mixture thus formed a pudding was made for dinner.

The whole nine persons ate heartily of it. Soon afterwards they were seized with sickness,  accompanied by a burning sensation in the throat and stomach. Mr. Abercrombie, a surgeon, was called in, and was soon convinced by the symptoms that the family had swallowed arsenic.

Mrs. Hickman's sister said it must have been the powder she found in the bag; on which Hickman exclaimed that must have been the white arsenic which he had had in the house so many years. The poison, it appeared, had been originally kept in a bottle; but the bottle having been broken, the powder was placed in a flour-bag, and put in the cupboard!

Notwithstanding the efforts of several medical men, the poison soon exhibited its mortal effects. At six o'clock, a boy of nine years old died; then a child three years old; and by eleven three more children had perished. The father lingered till noon the following day, and then became the sixth victim. The others recovered.

Fatal explosion near Dover

A great loss of life occurred on the line of the South-Eastern Railway, near Dover, by the headstrong wilfulness of the sufferers.

About two miles from Dover, where the railway is cut through the cliffs, a small cave, five feet in height by six in length, had been excavated in the chalk to be used as a magazine for the gunpowder used in blasting: it was secured by a door, which was locked. A gang of labourers employed in repairing the line endeavoured, on Saturday, to force open the door, that they might obtain shelter from the rain: they were then warned that powder was stored in the place, and the danger and impropriety of their conduct were pointed out.

Between 12 and 1 o'clock this day, however, for the sake of shelter from a shower, thirteen men, having broken open the door, got into the cave.

Directly afterwards, two barrels of powder exploded, and the men were blown from the excavation as from a mortar. Eleven were killed on the spot, one died in a few hours, the survivor in a few days.

It is reported that one of the men, after lighting his pipe, had thrown down the match, which falling upon some loose powder, ignited it, and the contents of the barrels instantly exploded. The bodies of the unfortunate men were projected from the cave with great violence, and thrown over the railway works, some falling on to the beach, and some into the sea, a distance of 150 yards.

The cave itself was little damaged, and no interruption occurred in the traffic on the railway.

Fate of a pseudo King

Monsieur Thiery, who attempted to establish himself as an independent sovereign in New Zealand, having disappointed or given umbrage to his barbarous subjects, was recently killed, cooked, and eaten by them at a solemn public banquet.

Fatal accidents from firearms

Mr. Crump who occupies a farm near Evesham, called Mount Pleasant, fetched his gun which was loaded, down stairs for the purpose of shooting rooks, &c., on his farm. In the kitchen he encountered his eldest child, a girl about five years of age; and while attending to her infantine talk, lodged the gun against the wall, to which another child unable to walk, crawled and threw it down; the concussion caused it to explode, and the contents were unhappily lodged in the shoulder of the little girl, who died from the injury about a quarter of an hour after the accident.

Also today, at a road-side public-house, at Llwynderw, near Welchpool, a boy had been permitted to have a gun to shoot sparrows, and the juvenile sportsman being unsuccessful in his efforts to kill birds, was good-humouredly taunted by a little girl (daughter of Mr. John Farmer, of the Golſa) about his want of skill, saying that she doubted whether he could even shoot her at the distance at which he then stood. The taunt, unfortunately, could not be brooked; thoughtless of consequences, the boy directed the gun towards the child, drew the trigger, and in an instant the poor child's head was shattered to atoms. An inquest was subsequently held, when a verdict of “Accidental death" was recorded.

Frightful accident in a paper mill

A shocking fatality occurred at the paper manufactory of Mrs. Mary Crompton, at Collyhurst, Manchester. The sufferers were Eliza Jenkinson, twenty-eight years of age, house-servant to Mrs. Crompton, who was killed on the spot, her body being literally torn in pieces, and Mrs. Crompton herself, who lost her left arm.

It appears, that Mrs. Crompton was at the time engaged in “putting in " to one of the calendars, for Ann Horrocks, a female in her employ, who had just gone to dinner; the deceased servant came into the room to deliver a message. The room is nearly filled with the machinery.

On the left of the entrance was a large water-wheel, and on the right was the calendar at which Mrs. Crompton was employed, a narrow avenue, only sufficient for a person to pass, being left between them. Up to this avenue came two cog-wheels, and in passing the cog-wheels the deceased's clothes were caught by the teeth of the lower wheel. The wheels going at the rate of twelve to fifteen revolutions in a minute, the poor creature was instantly drawn into the hole under the wheel.

Mrs. Crompton perceiving her danger, ran to render what assistance she could, but she also became entangled. The assistance of some of the men being procured, the wheels were reversed, and Mrs. Crompton, who was found laid upon the deceased, was extricated.

She was severely injured, and her left arm was torn from her body, She was conveyed home, and efforts were then made to release the poor girl. The body presented a most frightful spectacle; she was lying under the hole of the wheel; all her clothes were torn off; her body was literally cut in two, from the lower part to the head; her entrails were torn out, and lay upon the floor; part of her face was torn away, and almost every bone in her body was broken. One of her legs was found on the opposite side of the wheel. The body, thus shockingly mangled, was conveyed to the Andrew's Arms, where an inquest was held on the same day before the borough coroner.

Evidence of the occurrence was given, but there was no proof of blameable neglect, except that the cog-wheels might have been partitioned off. The jury found that the deceased “died from lacerations and fractures accidentally received from a cog-wheel,” stating that had it not been for the injuries received by Mrs. Crompton in trying to extricate the deceased, they should have imposed a very heavy deodand on the machinery.