North Carolina Newspapers

THE , JLTZ EXCELLENT ) ADVEKTISING MEDIUM.1 Offislal Organ of Washington County. FIRST OF ALI THE NEWS. Circulates exlenslvily in lba CounlSss el V Washinitan, Martin. Tyrrsli snd Biiufort lofcPrlntlng In ItsYarlous Branches. l.OO A yKAR IV ADVANCE. ) V " " FOR GOD. FPU CPUS THY, AND FOR TRUTH." SINGLE COPT, 5 CENTS. VOL. X. 1 PLYMOUTH, N. C., FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1899. NO. 46. THE TRUTH ABOUT The Blue-Diamond Robbery. Those who pay attention to the rec ords of criminal cases, as reported by the newspapers, and who have a good memory for such matters, will recollect years ago, by the trial of one Eobort Morris for what was known aa "The Blue-Diamond Bobbery." In the minds of some, perhaps, the details of this crime may be still fresh. But for the benefit of that infinitely greater number of persons whose memorial faculty is only a nine days' affair, it -will be as well to recapitulate all the facts of the case before proceeding to the elucida tion of one very mysterious point, which at the time battled the cleverest detectives in London. First, then, for the recapitulation of the facts, as disclosed before the Bight Honorable the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House and subsequently before the Recorder of London at the Old Bailey. The victim of the rob bery was one Jacob Blumefeeld, an Anglo-German Jew and a well-known diamond merchant in Hatton Garden. This gentlement, in the oourse of a visit to the Dutch East Indies, with a view to the purchase of pearls (in which also he dealt) had picked up from a native Sumatran, for a song, six stones, which the vendor supposed to be small, pale and therefore com paratively worthless sapphires, but which Blumefeeld's practised eye told In' in of nnnt xraYtx IlinDA rnrent, nnd costliest stones in the markot, viz., blue diamonds. It was stated in court, I recollect, by expert witnesses, that 'there were not more than 80 blue dia monds known to exist and that the ratio of their value to ordinary dia monds of the same size and water was at least 100 to 1. On this basis the six stones referred to, despite their insignificant size, were worth fully 20,000; indeed, at the time wheu they were stolen Blumefeeld was ne gotiating a sale of them to Messrs. Bostron, the Bond street jewelers, for a sum several thousands in excess of that amount. It may ba readily imag ined, therefore, that the theft of such gems excited no small sensation. The circumstances of the theft were, or appeared to be, sufficiently com monplace. On the day of the robbery Blumefeeld had carefully locked the diamonds in his safe when li9 quitted hi3 office at 6 o'clock. A't about 8 or ,9 the watchman who was on duty, and who had received particular instruc tions to keep an eye on Blumefeeld's office, happened to catch the flash of a light through the keyho'e, and push ing open the door, which he fo.ind unfastened, made his way ius:de and actually caught the thief red-handed in Blumefeeld's room. He at once collared the fellow a small, weak man, who made little resistance to his stal wart captor and raised the alarm. In a minute or two several coustab'es were on the Bcene.and a little later an inspector arrived, who lost no time in ctespatcning a special uiesseui;er w Blumefeeld's private residence in Pembridge square. On the diamond merchant's arrival a thorough examination of the prem ises was made, disclosing the fact that his safe had been opeued with a duplicate key, which, in fact, was still in the lock, and that, whi'e every thing else had been left uutouched, the most valuable contents, namely, the blue diamonds, ha I been ab stracted. The thief, of course, was then conveyed, without de'ay, to the nearest police station and duly charged by Blumefeeld, who now rec ognized him as a man who had called upon him at his office a few days pre viously in reference to a propose! purchase of gems, which had fallen through. He recollected, also, that he had had occasion to leave the stranger alone in his office for a min ute or two, when, probably, the lattsr had managed to get an impression of the lock of his safe. The prisoner did not deny this. Nor, in spite of the usual caution, did he make any secret of the fact that he had broken into the office for the purpose of steal ing the blue diamonds.- But that he had stolen them he stubbornly denieJ. "Someone else had forestalled me," he said. "Iioundtbe safe open and a key already in the lock. I'd got my own" duplicate, but I didn't have to use it If you search me you'll find it in my waistcoat pocket." In confessing he had entered the office with felonious intent he was, of aourse, only admitting as much as the circumstances of his capture rendered obvious and incontrovertible and, 60 far as that went, was doing himself neither harm nor good. But his slate ment'that he had been forestalled was so clearly of the cock-and-bull type that no credence whatever wa3 nat urally attached to it. He was subjected to the usual rigorous search. The du plicate key, as he had said, was in his waistcoat pocket, and in his coat pock ets there Avere one or two other felo nious instruments. Yet not a sign of a blue diamond, nor any other jewel or valuable, was found upon him. His flotV'i, his boots, hia hat, his person, eve ," J the inside of his month, vere ngiti'iV and again examine1. Not a trans nf tlio mianinep etona;! rnX tliis was the more remarkable because he had been collared red-handed, and from that moment had no chance whatever allowed him of throwing away or other wise disposing of the stones. "I tell you I haven't got them," he kept persisting. "I'd have prigged 'em if I'd had the chance, I don't deny, and it would be no use if I did. But I was forestalled, I tell you. Some other chap must have got in just be fore me aud lifted 'em. You're only wasting time aud trouble in searching me. You are, indeed." Of course, no attention was paid to this ridiculous assertion, and after the process of search had been repeated again and again, Blumefeeld returned with two of the police to his office in Hatton Garden, where it was thought possible that the thief might have managed to drop the stones. But the most careful scrutiny of every nook, cranny and corner failed to discover them. Blumefeeld, very naturally.fell into a fine state of mind. In the interval between the arrest and his trial Blumefeeld obtained leave to flee the prisoner in Newgate. "Look here," he said to him (I am condeusing the evidence subsequently given by a warder at the trial), "I'll make you an ofl'er. If you'll tell me what you've done with those dia monds, and enable me to recover them, I'll pay 2000 to any representative of yours you like to name. The money shall be paid to him in cash here, in your presence, and then you can have it when you come out. You're not making matters a bit better for your self by sticking to that absurd and in credible story. If anything, rather worse, for you'll get dropped on more heavily by taking that line than if you do your best to restore me my stolen property. Now, then, you'll be a fool if you refuse; you will, upon my word." "If I had stolen the diamonds, or knew where they were, I'd close with you like a shot, Mr. Blumefeeld, for I know very well that I'm in for five years, anyhow. But I didn't steal them, aud I don't know where they are any more than you do," answered Moll is. "My story sounds unlikely enough, I'm well aware. Maybe the judge and jury won't believe it, either; but it's true, and that's all abont it." From this position true or false nothing could induce him to budge. The day of his trial arrived. The case excited great interest, and tho recorder's court was packed. There were two counts in the indictment, the one (I'm not a lawyer, aud I only quote from memory, therefore I will crave indulgence in case ray legal phraseology be incorrect) the one of "feloniously breaking into" Blume feeld's premises in Hatton Garden; the other of "diealing therefrom diamouds to the valr.e of u0,000." To the for mer the prisoner pleaded guilty, to the latter not guilty, and the prosecution, in the hope of procuring a more ex emplary sentence, proceeded with the hargeof stea iug the jewels. But this was a difficult matter to prove. Everybody, of course, was convinced that Morris had stolen the diamonds; but to establish it by the tech lical rules of evidence was another affair. Against the fact that he was cauahton the premises, admittedly with the in teution of stealing the diamonds, had to be set the fact that no sign of a diamond, or any - ther stolen article, was found upon him when caught. Furthermore, the circumstance of his having refused Blumefeeld's offer of 200O,which was elicited by his coun sel in evidence, went to some slight extent in his favor. But this the prosecution tried to discount by ad vancing the theory that he must have hod an accomplice who had made off with the jewels and that the prisoner would be hardly likely to give away 20,000 for 2000. On the other hand, the defence urged that there was ab solutely no evidence of ,the existence of any accomplice; and, besides, after the manner in which the theft of the blue diamonds had been bruited abroad aud advertised, it would be impossible for the thief or thieves to dispose of them for a quarter of their real value, if indeed at all. In which contention, of course, there was some truth. The recorder summed up at consid erable length a careful, equipoised summing up, as I remember thinkiug at the time, balanced, like the sen tences in a Greek dialogue, with per petual "on the onehauu"and "on the other hand;" impartial, no doubt, but colorless, and affording no assistance whatever to the jury. The Iatter.after considering their verdict for an hour or so, at length brought the prisoner in "not guilty" on this indictmeut. He was theu sentenced on the other in dictment to 20 months' hard labor, the recorder observing that if anything p; evous had Leen known against him, which apparently there was not, he nhould have sent him iuto penal servi tude. Such is a brief a very brief re capitulation of Hubert Morris's trial and sentence in connection with the theft of the bfae diamonds. . I now coma to the important point in mv storv.the onlv Dart of it which is not mere recapitulation, namely the elucidation of the mystery as imparted to me only a few weeks ago by Morris himself. I may take this opportunity of saying that I am the doctor who at tended the ex-convict in his last ill ness, of which the fatal termination came so recently as a fortnight eijee. He died in a lodging in Bloomsbfl,ry, in miserably poor circumstances, and being unable to pay me any fee, im parted to me his secret to do what I could with, as a sort of last acknowledg ment of my services. "Doctor," he said to me one day, about a week before he died, "I shan't leave any effects behind me to pay your bill. But I can leave you a lit tle secret, which you might turn into a nice sum of ready, if you set about it the right way. Ah! what a fool I was to go and make ducks and drakes of all that oof 1 Do you know, doctor, after I came out of shop I was worth 8000?" "Eight thousand!" I exclaimed. "Then, you did steal the blue dia monds? How did you manage to hide them?", "That's the secret I'm going to tell you. Ah, doctor (he chuckled glee fully; I'm not writing a moral tale; I'm telling the truth, and the truth is that Robert Morris was not in the least penitent), "I had the diamonds on me when I was caught; I had them on me when I was searched at the sta tion; I had them on me when I went before the lord mayor; I had them on me when I was tried at the Old Bailey, I had them on me all the 20 months I was in the stone jug aye, all the blessed time." "Impossible!" I cried. "You could not have concealed them." "Couldn't I, though? Ah, doctor, I'll show you. Bring me that cup off the washstand, - now. Do you see what's in it?" "Your grinders," I said, looking down at the double set of false teeth tying in the cup, "what about 'em?" "Nice oues, eh?" he asked with a leer and a wink. "Very," I 'answered. "Made 'em myself," he said, with another chuckle. "The p'leere knew I was a dentist's assistant, "to. Wonder they never guessed." "Guessed what?" "Take 'em out of the c ap," he told me. I did so. "There's a little mark at the side of the plate," he went on. "It's a spring. Press it with your thumb nail." I obeyed his instruction. In an in stant all the top grinders sprang open, revealing to me the fact that each of them was simply a small hollow re ceptacle, contrived, as I saw on closer examination, with the most artful skill and workmanship. The sick man broke into a yet more gleeful chuckle as he watched the amazed wonder with which I was gaz ing at .this marvellously clever effort of skill and cunning. "There!" he said, chuckling till he couched himself speechless. "Not so impossible after all eh, doctor?" Subsequent inquiries which I ad dressed to Morris himself elict6d the following facts: That.recossnizingthe extreme risk he ran of being caught, he had had two duplicate keys of the safe made, in order thai, by leaving one of them in the lock, some color might be lent to his assertion that he had been anticipated by another thief. The extremely clever contrivance of his false teeth, however, was, of course, his chef-d'oeuvre, aud he had put the blue diamonds into those marvellously contrived receptacles the momeut he took them. Hardly were the teeth safely back in his mouth before the risk which he feared eventuated, and he was pounced on by the watchman. "But it was worth it," this impen itent sinner told me. "Aye, if I'd got five years, it would have been worth it. They had my teeth out, too, so as to examine my mouth more carefully. I felt nervous jost then,I can tell you. But it was O. K. For, sharp as the fellows were, they never thought of looking inside the teeth." London Truth. Fox Nearly Caused a Tragedy. Mrs. Beaupre, au aged French woman of St. Denis, Me., was sitting at the door of her home when a fox, pursued by dogs, went under her chair for safety. Believing it to be a loup-garou, she screamed and fainted away, whereupon the fox ran to the fireplace and sought shelter in the wide chimney. When Mrs. Beaupre'a grandson arrived he found her uncon scious with four strange dogs in the room. Believing the dogs had killed his grandmother he slew two of them with an ase. As the survivors ran out the door the fox escaped from tin chimney aud hurried off to the woods, New York Suu. Saved From Drowning by an 8-Year-Old. Annie, the four-year-old daughtei of Frank Hoeninf?, narrowly escaped drowning in the Blue Grass at Audu bon, Iowa. She was returning from church with two other girls when sh slipped off the narrow improvised foot bridge over the dam and slid down tin chutes into the deep eddy below. Lit tle Joe Allen, a lad eight years of age, who was nearby, jumped in and pulled her out after she had gone below the surface the first time. HINTS FOR HOUSEWIVES. Keeping Ire from Melting. However procured, even if it be ice that has been put up by the user, ice has cost something and should be made to last as long as possible. Keep the ice in a large piece so long as you can, and wrap it in something that ia a poor conductor of heat. Woolen cloths are better than cotton, for they conduct the heat less rapidly, Fapet is better than woolen as it will not admit air. If newspapers are used to wrap ice in they can be thrown away after they have served this purxiose without any loss. A Frequent Cause of Fire. An unexpected but frequent cause of fire is due to cleaning carpets on the floor without taking them up. Nearly all the preparations guaran teed to make carpets good as new without making it necessary to lift them from the floor contain naphtha, which has inflammable qualities in a disagreeable degree. When used fox cleaning carpets on the floor it soaks into the floor boards to a greater oi less extent, aud contact with an over heated steam, hot air or hot water pipe will do the rest. To Clean and Preserve Oilcloth. An oilcloth may be cleaned and made to last as long again if treated in the following manner : Cut into pieces half an ounce of beeswax, put in a faucer, cover entirely with tur pentine and pl-ice in an oven until melted. After washing the oilcloth thoroughly with warm water and soap, dry it and rub the whole surface lightly with a bit of flannel dipped in the melted wax and turpentine. Then rub with a dry cloth. A polish is pro duced and the surface is lightly coat ed with the wax. When the floor re quires to be cleauedthe wax is washed off, together with the dust or dirt that may have gathered, while the oilcloth is preserved. In halls and rooms where no grease falls on the floor it is not necessary to wash the oilcloth after the first application, but simply to dust it well and polish it again with the wax and turpentine. To Have a Cosy Veranda. Those people who have picturesque verandas, where in summer much of their time is spent, will find the low willow couches, the broad, luxurious armchairs and their dainty tables just the things to turn the outdoor nooks into habitable apartments. The ve randa should be as much shaded by vines as possible and then hung with bamboo porch blinds. The floor of the veranda is best stained aud polished and ornamented with one of the bright jute rugs that exposure to the weather does not spoil. A table in the centre of the veranda for afternoon tea or maga zines and books may be had in sev eral shapes. Some of them are pro vided with little uudershelves and are made entirely of the wickerwork. The couches are of various shapes. Some of them are straight-backed affairs covered wiih an upholstered fitted mattress. Over this any quantity of soft cushious may find a resting place, to be used to prop up tired heads or weary backs. Recipes. Spiced Veal Three pounds of veal, chopped fine, eight crackers, rolled, two eggs, one tablespoonful each ol salt and pepper, one small onion, minced, a piece of salt pork, chopped fine. Mix well together and bake for two hours. Scalloped Cauliflower Boil a medium-sized cauliflower in slightly Baited water until tender, make a bed of the leaves, break up the flower aud place it on top, covered with a sauce made of one heaping tablespsoonful of butter (melted), two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of milk, pepper and salt to taste, and one beaten egg. Spi inkle with bread crumbs and bake until a light brown. Saratoga Potatoes Pare several potatoes. Cut in very thin slices or slice with a vegetable slicer. Put them immediately iuto ice water fot twenty minutes. Drain them and dry on a towel. Put a few slices at a time iuto the frying basket. Lower the basket into the hot fat carefully and slowly. When a delicate brown turn them into a paper to drains Sprinkle with salt. Fry only a few at a time. Frozen Kentucky Cream Take three pints of rich cream, sweeten it very sweet with powdered sugar, whip it to a stiff froth with a cream whip, put it in a freezer, packed in an ice tub, turn the crank until the cream is half frozen, then stir through the cream a pound of raisins which have been stoned, chopped fiue and dredged with a little corn starch tc keep them from sticking together in a mass. Serve the cream in glass cups. Canning Pineapple Pare and shred the fruit into pieces of moderate size, weigh and allow half a pound of sugai to every pound of fruit. Put the fruit with a little water into a porcelain lined or graniteware preserving kettle, cover closely, brinj? to a boil and cook slowly for half an hour. At the ex piration of that time add the sugar, which has been previously heated in the oven, and cook together ten min utes. Fill the jars to overflowing an QUAINT AND CURIOUS. A family comprising seven persons left Scranton, Peon., the other day, the whole party trsve'ing ou one full fare railroad ticket. There were the mother and her three pairs of twins, none of the children being up to the half-fare age of five years. A curious case is reported by a Ger man dentist, Dr. Muhl Kuhner. One of his patients was a woman of 24, whose right arm and right side of the neck had been paralyzed for two years and a half as a result, it wa3 supposed, of a fall and broken arm, and he filled several of her teeth and extracted the much-decayed third molar or wisdom tooth of the right side. The patient returned next day to state that her paralysis had disappeared. Here are a few n imes taken at ran dom from the delinquent tax list of Hawaii for 1898, as printed in one of the Honolulu papers: Alapaki, Bila Alapai, Ah Kui, Ah You, C. S. Ah Fat. Boo Tau Tong, Bow Din, Doi, As Goo, lokepa, Ellen Kahaunaela. Lukia Kaholoholo, Leihulu Keohokaloe, Ka hakumakalani, Not At aud B. Se. The "Ks" take up three columns of space, being three times as numerous as the delinquents under any other letter. In reference to a recent paragraph on mermaidens, a correspondent of the London Telegraph writes: "It may not be generally known that Ja pan exports these shams in assorted sizes, in glass cases, at so much per foot-run. They are made of the body of a fish and the dried head of a mon key, so skillfully united that it is diffi cult to detect where one begins and the other ends. Of late the market for mermaidens has been flat; at one time they were fairly common in the curiosity shops. In 1550 a remarkable lamp was found near Atestes, Padua, by a rustic, who unearthed a terra-eotla urn contain ing another urn in which was a lamp placed between two cylindrical vessels, one of gold and the other silver. Each was full of a very pure liquid by whose virtue the lamp had been kept shining upward of fifteen hundred years. This curious lamp was not meant to scare away evil spirits from a tomb, but was an attempt to perpetuate the pro found knowledge of Maximus Olybius, who effected this wonder by his skill in the chemical art. An Eug'ish agriculturist has been experimenting with bees as letter car riers. Having conveyed a hive to a house four miles distant, he let out a few of them in a room where a plate of houey was placed to attract them. When they had settled upon this feast the experimenter fastened tiny dis patches upon their baoks with a drop of paste, taking care at. the same time that the motion of their wings was not interfered with. He then set them free, whereupon they immedi ately set out for their old home, where the writing was read with a magnify ing glass. SULTAN'S GIFTS TO UNCLE SAM. Tltey Were Sent to President Van Buren and Caused No End of Trouble. On the sevenlh day of the month of Schawwal, in the year 1254 of the Hegira which is the Arabian way of writing Dec. 25, 1839 the Sultan of Oman, whose name was Seyyid Saood, Bin Sultan Bin Ahmed, addressed a gracious letter to "His Excellency, Martin Vau Bureu, President of the United States of North America," in which he informed the president that he had sent him by the Boyal ship Sultanee a few trifles as a token of friendship and good feeling. These trifles consisted of two Arabian horses and their groom, one bottle of attar of roses, two pieces of gold, five dem ijohns of rose water, one Persian car pet, one gold ornament with a silk tassel, four camel's-bair shawls, one gold-mounted sword, two large pearls, a string of one hundred and fifty pearls, one gold plate, one bottle of diamonds, one gold snuff-box studded with precious stones, and one box of mixed pearls and diamouds. Under the constitution, the president is pro hibited from accepting a personal gift from any foreign state or power, and as the Sultan's gifts had arrived in New York aud the commander of the Sultanee would not leave the country without presenting his master's offer ings, an embarrassing complication was the outcome. The matter was finally referred to Congress, and after three months of correspondence, red tape, diplomacy aud legislation the Sultan's Christmas presents were fi nally accepted; and then the presi dent was put to the trouble of selling the horses, the shawls and the rose water, while Uncle Sam was given the further trouble of finding a suitable place to store the remaining gifts.and was afterward put to great expense in capturing the thief who carried off the entire collection in a baa; and was only caught after a long chase. Ladies Home Journal. Prudence. "A prudent man," says a witty Frenchman, "is like a pin. His head prevents him from going too far," Tit Bits.. A-PUTTIN' UP THE HAY. When hayin' time oomes round I go And git the water jus Lad take it over to the barn And Kit a corn-cob plus; Then go down to the pasture lot And bridle Ma's old Gray, and carry water for the men A-puttin' up the hay. I ride the horse down to the spring And plump the jug right in and if you put it down too deep It bobs right ap ag'iu ! And then it '-bubble-bubble bubs," It goes jest that a-way. Tour wrist It gits as cold as ice A-puttia' up the hay, Then, when it's full, I fasten It To Uncle Bill's plow line And drag it round. Fa says as that's A lazy scheme of mine. But you just bet I'd rather drag A jug round any day Then have to hold it on a horse A-puttia' up the hay. One day the doggoned jug it hit A stone broke all to mash ! Then Pa he got a willow branch And said that he would thrash . Me good; but Uncle Bill said "Aw! The boy must have some play." By gosh i a' feller don't have much . A-puttin' up the hay. Harold Douglas Robins, ia Puck. HUMOROUS. 'In my business," said the coun terfeiter, "I do not expert to lose any thing on bad bill?." "Didn't he once say he would never speak to you again?" "Yes; but he saw I had a cold, and he couldn't re sist the temptation to tell me of a sure cure. "Doesn't your mother-in-law take any interest in your domestic affairs?" "Oh, yes; she backs up my wife and the cook when I find fault with - the dinner." r , Popper That boy of mine is a regular phenomenon." Batcheller (wearily) In what way? Popper Six years old, and never said a bright thing in his life. Tommy Paw, what-is the differ ence between economy and stinginess? Mr. Flagg Saviug on my own clothes, is economy and saving on your mother's is stinginess. "Why the dickens don't you stop?" asked the angry householder. "The fire is all out." "I allow it is," ad mitted the leader of the hose company, "but they is three winders not broke yet." Cleverton I want to consult y&ur opinion on a point of etiquette. When I take a girl to luncheon, is it proper to ask her what she wants to eat? ' Dashaway It is if you have money enough. "Don't touch me," said the chry santhemum, as it leaned away from, the rose. "I would be foolish to at tempt it," replied the rose; "it's , a well-known fact that you haven't got a scent." Teacher What are marsupials? Boy Animals which have pouches in their stomachs. Teacher And what, do they have pouches for? Boy To crawl into and conceal themselves ia when they are pursued. Miss Prim Don't let your dog bite me, little boy. Boy He won't bite, ma'am. Miss Prim But he is show ing his teeth. Boy (with pride) Cer tainly he is, ma'am; and if you had as good teeth as he has you'd show 'em, too. Weary Willy (thoughtfully) Ah, lady! you are so young, so good, so beautiful and so true, dat Mrs. Just wed That what? Weary Willy Dat it would be de height of rashness to try and eat any of your cooking! so I won't stop! Young Housekeeper Have you any nice ducks this morning? "Yes, here are some nice canvas-backs." Young Housekeeper Oh. dear! I am so in experienced! I think I would rather , have the old-fashioned kind that have feathers on. "Uncle," said the scientific youth, "don't you know that you ought to have your drinking water boiled, so as to kill the microbes?" "Well," ans wered the oid gentleman, thought fully, "I believe I would as lief be an, aquarium as a cemetery." The Other Side. Optimists are pleasant people to meet, but those who have business dealings with them sometimes regret the easy cheerfulness of thtir views. Somebody once asked a distin guished English barrister whom he met at a railway station, where each was waiting for a train, how he managed when he was called in two ways at the same time. "Of course I can't be intwc places at once," said the barrister, easily "so I have to make a choice. For in? stance: today two cases in which I am concerned were" called in different courts. One was in the interests of a clergyman, and the other of a railway company. "Ou the whole, it seemed wise for me to stick to the railway company, and leave the clergyman toprovidence. And I won ray case."- "Will yon allow vie to add," said a mild-individnal, who had stood close at hand during this conversation, "may I be permitted to sny, sir, that we lost ours." The Liverpool doekR, one of the wonders of modern commerce, extend along the Mersey a distance of six and a halt' miles.