308
stewardess into the other cabin, took the rifle with him. He meant to use it, if necessary, as a olub, to protect himself; and was not aware that it was loaded. It went off as he was walking down the saloon towards the cabin. Marshall concluded his statement by saying that he did not use the words, Captain Pillsbnry, I will kill you," and did not hit the captain on the forehead with the barrel of the rifle. When asked to do so at th Police Court, Captain Pillsbury could nɔt show any marks.
SO
The Acting Attorney-General, in the add ress to the jury, laid stress on the fact that one hour elapsed between the first struggle and the actual shooting, which to his mind showed conclusively that the prisoner, when he went along to the stewardess's cabiu, did
with in cold blood, and intent. As to the relations that he said existed between the captain and the steward ess, she was a woman of ago, and so far as they knew, beyond the nnsupported statement of the prisoner, made no complaint of the attentions alleged to be paid her by Captain Pillsbury. She apparently was not averse to these atten- tions, and what right had the prisoner to constitute himself a champion of innocence and follow any man up with a rifle?
His Lordship sammed up at great length," and the jury retired at five minutes to twelve to consider their verdict. They returned a quarter of an hour later, wlie the Foreman intimated that they unanimously found the prisoner guilty of attempted murder, strongly recommended him to mercy.
but
After Mr. Slade had drawn at'ention to the fact that the prisoner had already been two months in gaol, his Lordship said Albert Marshall, you have been found guilty, and I think on very clear evidence, of shooting the captain on board the steamer on which you were steward with intent to murder him. If that bullet you fired and ent his shoulder with had gone into his brain or into his heart, neither of them very many inches away from the spot where it did go, you been tried for would undoubtedly have murder. I wish to say nothing to aggravate the distressing position in which you now find yourself, but I find it my painful duty to pass a severe sentence upon yon, in spite of the recommendation of the jury to mercy, which I take into consideration. The maximum punishment for the crime of which yon have been found guilty is penal servitude for life. I bear in mind in your case that you were probably somewhat excited by drink on the occasion, but having regard to the extremely serious nature of the crime of which you have been found guilty, I sentence you to imprisonment with hard labour for four years.
The Court adjourned.
Friday, 18th April.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION,
BEFORE HIS HONOUR W. MEIGH GOODMAN (CHIEF JUSTICE).
THE CALENDAR.
There were four cases on the calendar-Li Kung Cheong, charged on three counts with selling, uttering, and having in his possession counterfeit silver coin; Cheng Chau, rape; Fung Fu alias Sa Cheong, disobeying an order of barishment; Robert M'Cann, forging a cheque.
RETURNING FROM BANISHMENT. Fung Fu alias Sa Cheong was charged with disobeying an order of banishment. He pleaded not guilty.
R.
The following jury was empanelled Innes, C. de Silva, P. S. James n. F. F. Barretto, M. da Silva Guimaraes, P, H. Murray and H. J. M. de Carvalho.
TheActing Attorney-General (Mr. A. G.Wise, K.C.), said the case was simply one of identity. The prisoner was banished from the Colony on 6th May, 1897, for five years, and was found here on 27th March of this year. This was less than a couple of months from the expiry of the period of banishment, but the prisoner did not set up any defence of having made - a mistake; he simply stated that he was not banished at all.s
A warder in the gaol and a lance-sergeant of police gave evidence of identity. The former
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
was recalled by his Lordship, and stated that he recognised the prisoner immediately he was bronght into the prison, and without the uid of a photograph.
The jury, without leaving the box, nani- mously found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to twelve months' hard labour. •
COUNTERFEIT COIN.
Li Kung Cheong, who wept as he was placed in the dock, was charged with (1) selling counterfeit silver coin. (2) uttering counterfeit silver coin, and (3) having in his possession counterfeit silver coin. He pleaded not guilty, and was tried by the same jury,
The Acting Attorney-General said an in- former was sent with some marked coins to the prisoner, and his story was that he bought from the prisoner sixteen five-cent pieces, the face | value of which was 90 cents, for 50 cents,
the transaction being completed the police constable who had sent the informer appeared on the scene, and the prisoner ran away. The informer joined in the pursuit, and in the struggle with the prisoner dropp d the coins, and picked up only thirteen of them, losing three. The constable searched the prisoner and found some more bad money, which to a certain extent proved intent on the part of the prisoner. The jury found the prisoner guilty on the first and third counts, and he was sentenced to five years hard labour.
INDECENT ASSAULT.
Cheng Chan pleaded not guilty to committing an indecent assault upon a married woman of sixteen years..
The following jury was empanelled -F. Esram, J. T. de Souza, G. F. da Roza, J. Ross, A. Mill, J. A. da C. N Ribeiro, and L. A. Musso. After the hearing of evidence, the prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment. with hard labour.
The Court adjourned till Monday at ten o'clock.
(April 21, 1902.
EPIDEMICS.
Mr. H. K. Dhabhar, Canton, sends us the following instructive essay by Charles Dickens, which is taken from Household Words of 10th May, 1856:-
In some European towns, when pestilence has entered and will not be driven forth by prayers or genuflexions, the people take their saints from their shrines in the churches and flog them about the streets. Weary of fair words, which have occupied a great deal of time to no good result, they try what coercion will do; proving the medical inefficiency of incense they put their trust in stripes. If the wind should come down and cool the fiery air, or-if the deluge should cease and the noxions vapours be all drawn up-whatsoever the atmospheric change that may alter the sanitary condition of the population, the glory is ascribed to the timely flagellation of the wooden saints in lace and satin; and the cause was whip-cord, not nature.
We laugh at this. We call it very childish and very shocking. We wonder at the per- tinacity of superstition, and think that in this liberal nineteenth century it ought to be driven out of its fastnesses, ignorance and barbarism. We thank God that we are enlightened, and not as these men are; and then an omnipotent Government and an addled Parliament vote a Fast Day, because cholera is raging in the land,
We find no fault with Fast Days as spiritual exercises: wo merely object to their being placed in the room of deeds; and protest against the impious idea that becanse a man abstains from meats, and goes to church twice on a certain week-day, he should therefore be saved all for- ther trouble about his open drains and uncleansed ditches; that, in a word, we should charge the Majesty of Heaven with the care of our own idleness, and call that a visitation from God, which is the result of human uncleanliness and carelessness. Yet, in the face of all science and of all fact, it is still asserted that disease is a
H.K.C.C. TENNIS TOURNAMENT. sign of Divine wrath, and not the consequence of certain fixed physical laws. An easier way of getting rid of responsibility and trouble than What the phy- even the castigation of saints. sical laws Pre, and how they are to be dealt with. Dr. Southwood Smith's Lectures on Epidemics will help na to nuderstand.
We are favoured with the following additional 3cores in the above tournament:
PROFESSIONAL PAIRS-2ND ROUND. Pontifex and Grist beat Yeats aud Deacon 6-4, 6-3.
One unvarying character of epidemies is, that
Humphres and Jupp beat Clapham and they are all fovers. The Black Death of the Fanshawe−6-4, 6-2.
and
PROFESSIONAL PAIRS-18T ROUND. Wynne and Waymouth beat Scott Hodson-6-4, 6-2.
Brayne and Wei Ou scratched to Tyrwhilt and Ram.
"A" (LASS SINGLES-3RD ROUND, Atkinson beat Clapham 8-6, 6-4. Sercombe Smith beat Hayhurst-2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Trimingham beat Hooper, 6-2, 6-4.
"B
CLASS SINGLES 2ND ROUND. Libeand beat Stevens-6-3, 6-2. Chater beat Lammert-6-4, 6-2.
*B
CLASS SINGLES -3RD ROUND. Gerrard beat Gale--6-3, 6-2.
DOUBLE HANDICAP-2ND ROUND. Caulfield and Stevens beat Tibbey and Hooper ---6-4, 6-1.
Garnett and Buttaushaw beat Trimingham and, Woodcock-6-3, 6-4.
Humphreys and Jupp beat Yeats and Slade -9-7, 1-6, 6-4.
DOUBLY HANDICAP-1-T ROUND. Wei On and Brayne scratched to Barrett and Rutherford.
Richards and Bertie scratched to Carter and Solfleet.
The following played on Wednesday
A
CLASS HANDICAP.
France Hayhurst v. Humphreys, Beresford Ash v. Deacon. Trimingham v. Huskinson.
"B
+4
CLASS HANDICAP.
Caulfield v. Ward.
DOUBLE HANDICAP.
Worcester and Gerrard v. Atkinson and Smith. Scott and Hudson v. Lee and Main, On Thursday the games were as follows :-- "B CLAES SINGLES.
Libeaud r. Chater,
" A CLASS SINGLES. Humphreys v. Yeats.
The annual tennis match with the Ladies' Recreation Club took place on the 19th inst.
fourteenth century, an aggravated form of the Oriental or Bubo plague, was a fever, deriving its name from effusions of black blood forming spots on the arms, face, and neck. The Oriental Plaguo, still in existence in Egypt and Eastern Europe, and the Sweating Bickness of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, were both fevers; and even the cholers of the present day, in the last or perfect stages of its development, is a fever. All the ordinary epidemics, such as typhus, scarlet fever, measles, and smallpox, are recognised fevers.
A second likeness of epidemics with each other is the extent of their rage. The Black Death extended from China to Greenland, desolating Asia. Europe, and Africa. The Bubo Plague often left its own region to spread westward and northward. In the fifteenth cen- tury it spread seventeen times over Europe to the most northerly countries. The Sweiting Sickness burst out simultaneously in England, France, Germany, Prussia. Poland, Russia, Norway, and Sweden. It extended like a violent conflagration which spread in all direc- tions; yet the flames did not issue from the focus, but rose up everywhere as if self-ignited. The influenza of the middle ages had a universal range; and, in our own day, we have seen it in almost every family of every city, then rush over the whole of Europe and leap the Atlantic to America. Alike in essential character, and in the extent of their range, epidemics are also alike in the rapidity of their course. The cholera of eighteen hundred and thirty-one extended in five days from Cairo, where it first appeared, over the whole of Lower Egypt; in eighteen hundred and thirty-two it made a bound from London to Paris, and in five days spread over four-fifths of the city. The in- fluenza of eighteen hundred and forty-one flashed ov. r London in one day, and upwards of five hundred thousand were struck. We have already Been that the earlier epidemics were as rapid as they were extensive.
Epidemics are generally preceded by two