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'Newport
First Stop' - 100 Years of News Stories Newport
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1851
Merlin 25th January, 1851 Michael Welsh, a pugnacious Hibernian, who is in the habit of trailing his coat along the ground when drunk, and crying out "who dares tread on the tail of me coat?" was today charged with being drunk and disorderly and was ordered to pay three shillings and six pence and costs.
A Welsh tailor, from North Wales, last Saturday morning walked up into commercial Street from Friar's Fields stripped of all his clothes, and talking as stupidly and strangely, as if he had been drugged. He said he had "been taken in and done for" at some house in Friar's Fields, but his head was too bewildered apparently, to lead the police officer to the particular den, and so his plunderers escaped detection.
Last Saturday just after Wooke's Grand Equestrian Show proceeded through Commercial Street, a young man named Parsons, fell off a scaffold in front of the Westgate Hotel, and although those who ran to the spot expected to find him a corpse, they were agreeably surprised to find that with the exception of a slight cut on the temple, and a little bruising, he was scarcely injured.
Mr. Booth, the extensive butcher of Newport, was the purchaser of two fine St Albans oxen, which topped the late fair. One met its fate this week, and the other will close its career next for the delectation of the lovers of roast beef.
Mr. Job Evans, ironmonger, of Commercial Street, has completed a very neat railing around the statue of Sir Charles Morgan in Victoria Square.
Mr. Bernardo Eagle and his witching daughter, the clairvoyant, have been creating quite a sensation in the town during the present week. So powerfully have the public been excited by facts and rumour that crowded audiences have nightly assembled at the Town Hall, and there testified by their expressions of wonder and delight how deeply interested they were in what they saw. Miss Glorianna Eagle a young lady of superior personal attraction and grace is the clairvoyant; and really the more difficult the problem she may be called upon to solve, while in a state of coma, the more readily and correctly does she reply. A gentleman in the audience, one on whom the strictest reliance might be placed, desired on Wednesday evening to know what he was at that moment thinking upon; and the answer was "the Mersey Stakes at the Liverpool Races this afternoon." At this the astonished querist declared and allowed it to be true to the very letter. The desire for further public exhibitions and private seances appears to be daily increasing.
Last Monday while the truck of Mr. Bateson, the celebrated ginger-beer manufacturer, was standing near the canal at the Screw Packet Wharf, "Old Tom" the sagacious horse, finding the weather oppressively warm, or being desirous of filling the empty bottles behind him with canal water, made a retrograde movement, tilted the cart and contents over, and of course followed them also into the water. "Old Tom" scarcely knew what to make of his venturous plunge at first, but hearing his master's voice shouting in loud alarm, was recalled to active consciousness and in a short time was got safely ashore again.
Last Friday afternoon a select party of ladies and gentlemen assembled
at the King's Head Hotel at a private seance to hear the extraordinary
revelation of the clairvoyant Miss Eagle and to investigate as far as
possible, the truthfulness of the young lady's pretentions, as put forth
by her father Bernardo Eagle, the celebrated conjuror.
Some few days since, as the gravedigger of the Ebenezer chapel was preparing the resting place of a female inhabitant of this town, who had gone the dreary road marked out for all, he found on removing the covering stone of the tomb, a bundle tied up. The honest delver became nervous, and hobbled away to communicate the discovery to some friends, who, on investigation found that the parcel contained a pair of boots, which although apparently never worn, were quite rotten, together with a leather purse containing some coins some of Louis XVI, a five shilling piece of George III, a pair of ear drops, and three silk handkerchiefs quite fresh and new. After much investigation it was learned beyond doubt, that the goods so mysteriously found, belonged to a Mrs. Ford who carried on a baking business in Hill Street, from whose house the property was stolen some time since. The thief in fear of the police, had no doubt planted the articles in a place not likely to be searched, and made his escape.
A decent and well conducted mechanic, residing on the canal side, one day this week rushed out of his house followed by his four screaming and terrified children and flung himself into the water. A French Captain, who was passing at the moment, leaped in after him and rescued the foolish would-be suicide from a watery grave. The poor fellow intimated that a turbulent and provoking wife drove him to think he had better be out of the world than suffer a continuance of his domestic unhappiness.
On Monday last the Monmouth & Glamorgan Bank suspended business followed by Messrs Williams Old Bank. The news was received in Newport when the Times newspaper reached the Commercial Reading Room in the evening. Several mercantile and other gentlemen were startled and excited by the announcement that the bills of the Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire Banking Company had been returned that morning by their London agents unpaid. This alarming intelligence immediately spread like wildfire throughout Newport and neighbourhood. On Tuesday morning, long before the usual bank hour, crowds of anxious depositors were assembled around the Bank's premises in the fond hope of having their cheques cashed on the opening. But before ten o'clock a notice was placed on the door stating that in consequence of the long and continued depression of the iron trade, the Bank was forced to suspend payments until the situation was clarified. This announcement was greedily read and the expressions of disappointment
on the faces of every class will long be remembered. Not many minutes
had elapsed after this heavy blow when Messrs Williams & Sons of the
Old Bank deemed it expedient to close their establishment also. The general
gloom thickened and gave greater intensity to the panic. We must admit
that these events are of the most grave character, casting a dismal cloud
over the Port and neighbourhood. [ Back ] |
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'Newport
First Stop' - 100 Years of News Stories Newport
Past |
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