Transcribed by Ann Selchick. Geo. <Note, I've gleaned the more unusual or interesting items from a series of six emails posted by Ann under the 'General News Items' heading for that date and put them into a single message.> THE NORTHERN NEWS, OCTOBER 9, 1897. GENERAL NEWS ITEMS # ____ The body of an aged woman named RICHARDSON has been found cut to pieces on the railway near Belfast. ** There will be a run on corsets in New Jersey. A corset steel has saved the life of a woman who was accosted and stabbed by a beggar. ** According to reports from the Italian provinces a serious agitation is being raised against the severity of the taxation. In Sicily especially a number of merchants are said to be preparing to emigrate, being unable to support the heavy imposts by which their business is handicapped. It is stated that the Government is attempting to find some means of affording relief to the taxpayers. ** Mrs. ATHERTON declares in the “Woman at Home” that the immemorial freedom of the American girl is lost. This is what happens now: - After a large wedding morning a man, by mistake, was put into a carriage alone with a girl. The girl went off into a state bordering on hysterics, and the man had to get out and walk. Yet they were old friends, and the girl was one of the greatest flirts in California. ** George Thomas WILSON better known as Buffalo Bill, was charged at Glossop with the willful murder of George COWLEY, butcher’s manager. Prisoner shot deceased in the head, and exclaimed, “Good God; have I shot him?” He rendered every assistance and made no attempt to get away. Prisoner, when arrested, said it was an accident. He was committed to take his trial at the Derby Assizes for manslaughter. ** The Lancaster magistrates have fined John SINGLETON, Lancaster and Maracaibo £5 and costs for selling fireworks to childen. Two boys aged ten and one aged seven spoke to the offence. The defence was that there were none of the fireworks in question (Chinese crackers) in stock for several days before and after the date in question. An order was made prohibiting defendant from supplying children upon pain of imprisonment. ** At a meeting held at the Liverpool Town Hall it was reported that the Diamond Jubilee Commemoration Fund raised in the city amounted to £23,472. The fund is now closed, and a scheme has been adopted by which the present system of relieving the sick poor in their own homes will be extended and rendered more efficient, the institution having charge of the work to be called the Queen Victoria District Nursing Institution. ** An inquest was held at High Wycombe on the body of an elderly man named James COLLINS, who died suddenly at a religious service the previous night when in the act of prayer. It was stated in evidence that during the earlier part of the service he had discussed for a quarter of an hour in a heated manner a certain portion of the Scriptures that had been read, and the medical evidence was that death was due to syncope caused by excitement. A verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was returned. ** A verdict of manslaughter was returned by a Birminham coroner’s jury on Monday evening against Emily COLE, the wife of an artisan, in respect of the death of her infant child. The woman was addicted to drink, and so neglected the infant, that although it was born healthy, it wasted away literally from starvation. Instead of weighing 10 lb or 11 lb., as it should have done at the age of four months, it weighed only 3 ½ lbs. The mother had been cautioned by the officer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She was committed to the Assizes. ** A meeting of medical men was held at Birmingham in support of Sir Walter FOSTER’s candidature for the General Medical Council. Sir Walter referred to the hard conditions under which the medical pro labour through the abuse of hospitals and the extension of medical aid associations, and said he would endeavour to remove this grievance. He strongly opposed the registration of midwives to practice midwifery as being a contravention of the Medical Act, and repudiated the suggestion of a recent circular that he was responsible for the adoption of Lord BELPER’s Bill by the General Medical Council. A unanimous vote of confidence was carried. ** An accident, happily unattended by serious consequences, occurred on Monday to Mr. BARRIE, the author.. Mr. BARRIE was directing as usual the rehearsal of a play founded on his book “The Little Minister” at the Haymarket Theatre, and was sitting on a platform which is built out over the orchestra at the rehearsals, when the handrail round the platform, against which Mr. BARRIE’s chair was leaning, gave way, and he fell backwards into the orchestra stalls. Medical aid was summoned immediately, and although Mr. BARRIE was unconscious for some time, nothing more serious is likely to ensue than shock to the system consequent upon such a fall. ** Annie BERLINET, the Jewish plaintiff in a New York breach of promise action for £10,000, is a deaf mute. The defendant, Jacob SCHARLIN, the son of a millionaire, is a deaf mute and the schatchen who arranged the marriage is also a deaf mute. The evidence had all to be interpreted. _____________