Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

The Cardigan Observer and General Advertiser for the Counties of Cardigan Carmarthen and Pembroke

Nid yw statws neu berchnogaeth hawlfraint yr adnodd hwn yn hysbys.
Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

5 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

Advertising

!THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE TEA PARTY…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

DRUNKENNESS.—At the borough petty sessions on Monday last, before Dr. Thomas, P.C. John Richards. charged Thomas Davies, mariner, Mwl- dan, with being drunk on the 5th inst. Fined Is. and costs. FOOTBALL. -The return match between the town and country clubs was played on the Netpool ground, on Wednesday last. There was some good playing on both sides, but the country were rather wild in the scrummages. The match resulted in a draw," one gaol and two touches down being ob- tained by both sides. It is but fair to state that the town played with two men short. THE EISTEDDFOD.—We are pleased to find that a select choir has been formed in this town with the object of competing for the chief choral prizes at the forthcoming Eisteddfod. The choir meets for practice at the Board School, and is under the able leadership of Mr. Benjamin Lewis, of Blaen- anerch, who has distinguished himself of late as a choir conductor, and who possesses an advanced certificate in the Tonic Sol-fa, which no one else, as far as we are aware, holds in South Cardiganshire. The first practice was held last Thursday night week, and the prospects were beyond expectation. ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE TEA PARTY AND ENTERTAINMENT. The annual Tea Party and Entertainment in connection with the Royal Naval Reserve came off successfully on Tuesday evening last, at the Guild Hall, the room being prettily decorated for the oc- casion with flags by the men of the Reserve. Over 80 persons sat down to tea (a supply of tea and cake having been provided for double thatnumber), and amongst those on the platform were-Mr. J. Williams (Mayor), Mr. Frank Miles, Mr. J. Mor- gan, Custom House, Mr. Herod, Chief Officer, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Shuttle, Mr. Lewis Evans, Capt. Gillespie, Capt. Ellis, Rev. Lewis Beynon, &c. lea being over, and the tables cleared, a verv en- joyable entertainment followed, Mr. J. Morgan, k-USe' beinS v°ted to the chair. I he chairman, in his opening remarks, said he was glad to be present on that occasion, and com- mented strongly upon the action of the deacons of some places of worship prohibiting their members to attend. The Naval Reserve was the means of circulating annually between £ 18,000 and £ 20,000 in tne district, and it ought to be better supported y tne tradesmen and others of the town ana neigh- bourhood. Mr. Morgan concluded his remarks by saying that the number now training at the battery was 40, only 20 of whom had attended that eve- ning. The following programme was then gone through, consisting chiefly of sea songs onS (concertina), Mr. John Griffiths, Cilgerran; To JFAJt' ~^ePhen Lewis, Fishguard; song, Mr. A/TosaarL a? Cilgerran; drunkard's catechism, Mr ^°r8an ^vies, Pembroke Dock; song, se^ T^n J ass*ult of arms, by the Naval Re- S°ng (concertina), Mr. Wm. Thomas, J MtSfre" Watts & Jenkins, Cil- ffr shuttlA^' Thomas, Cardigan; recitation, Mr. Lewis Morgan; assault of Watts piio-or Reserve men; song, Mr. George T)a^ U son8.> Mr. George Daniels Mr. • soug' Mr- Welch song, Mr. Eli- ifo^vtlfpr S°n?' Capt James; song, Mr. Ethel Lowtlier; song, by a stranger; song Mr. John Lewis and party. The entertainment then termi- nated with a vote of thanks to the chairman. THE ATTEMPTED MURDER NEAR LAMPETER. ACQUITTAL OF THE PRISONER. 1 he above case, the facts of which were briefly S £ na{Uth/w-n5 1ST ?f the 0bserver> came oS Assizes at Swansea, on Satur- day last, before Mr. Justice Lush. Stephen Jones (27), farmer, was indicted for fel- oniously wounding John Griffiths, by cutting him November' lS?1 f.^P.'Mtmment on the 7th of vr n' 1^77, at Camckett, in the parish of Nantcwnlle, with intent to murder. A second d^Vv™?t u"lth wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Mr. Bowen Rowlands and Mr. W. D. Benson were counsel for the prosecution, and Mr. B. Fran- Mr R???", Mr" LIeweH.yn for the defence. Mr. Rowlands having opened the case, called the iollowing witnesses. John Griffiths, whose head was bandaged, and to be suffering acutely, deposed that wrT+raSd!Plg dealer' residi4 at Car- ncket. Went to Talsarn Fair, on the 7th Novem- ber last, and returned home about 6 o'clock with his brother. They went into the house, and sat down to tea in the kitchen, and he afterwards sent his brother home. Witness, his wife, three daugh- ters, and son, and Eleanor Jones afterwards sat d down to supper. Mary and Jenkin (the son) first ,t went to bed. Sarah and Ann did not leave the s room. Witness heard the front door open the kit- chen door was at that time open. It was open to the right hand. There was a light in the kitchen, a lamp-and the fire was burning. After he heard the door opened someone locked it from the inside. • They were all sitting by the fire except Ann, who was then in the scullery. Witness heard a shot, and then opened the door, and saw a man in the passage, from the light of the lamp in the middle • of the room. He came into the kitchen from the r passage "without anything about him." They tried to close the door to keep him out. When he } first saw the man in the passage, the latter was stooping, as if to pick something up or to put some- thing down. He tied a handkerchief over his eyes, and another handkerchief over his chin, tied be- hind. Did not take particular notice of his whis- kers. The man did not say anything to witness. He had nothing else on but his trousers, and he was naked from the waist up. When witness i pushed the door to try to keeep the man out, the 1 latter pushed and came in. Sarah and Ann had i run to the kitchen door before witness did. The women all went out of the house through the win- dow at the back, and witness was left by himself with the man. His daughter having come down stairs, she also escaped through the window. Im- > mediately the man came into the kitchen, he struck witness several times on the head with some in- strument, he did not know what,. which cut his head, and the blood ran from him. He fell to the floor. He was quite dead for a little while, and when he came to his senses the man was gone, and there was no one else in the kitchen but himself. Stephen Janes, farmer, was the man who struck him. Had known the prisoner since the latter was two years old. Knew it was the prisoner before the latter struck him. Prisoner lived within half a mile of his house. He had been asking witness for the loan of some money in October. He wanted about jE40, but witness did not lend him any. There was f68 in the house at the time the injury was inflicted, but none of it was touched. The money that night, the whole of it was in his wife's pocket. Witness was 70 years of age. Cross-examined Had no doubt whatever as to who the man was. His wife and brother told him not to say anything about it. Had said to a stran- ger he did not know who it was. He was not fit to say anything. He might have told three per- sons at Eden he did not know who it was. He was so bad he could not tell what he did say for about a week after. Had heard that three people were taken up on this charge. Did not hear the voice of the man that assaulted him. Had not said that it was partly of his voice that he recognised prisoner. The man did not ask for money. Colonel Lewis was the first person whom he told that prisoner was the man. That was about six days afterwards. Dr. Abel Evans, of Lampeter, proved going to Eden, on the morning of the 8th November, about three o'clock, to see the prosecutor. He was in bed, covered with blood, all over his clothes. He had not then been undressed. On examining his head', he found an incised wound, 4i inches in length, on the left side of the top of the head, through the scalp, and about a quarter of an inch into the bone. On the right hand side there was another wound 2\ inches m length also into the bone. There was another wound one inch in length at the back of the head-a downward slice, but the piece was not cut off. That did not touch the bone. There was another cut over the right cheek, and the top of the nose was cut through. The cuts on the head must have been done with a sharp, heavy instrumeut, such as the bill-hook produced, or a cleaver. Elizabeth Griffiths, wife of the prosecutor, and four of the prosecutor's children also gave similar evidence, each of whom thought Stephen Jones to be the person. P. C. Evan Evans proved visiting the house of Stephen Jones, on the 14th November, and finding the bill-book produced, concealed in the parlour between a press and a clock-case. The case for the prosecution was then closed, and the Court ad- journed until Monday morning. For the defence Mr. B. Francis Williams said he should establish a complete alibi, and called D. Davies, 15 years of age, living at Tynewydd, within about 150 yards from the prisoner's house, who said that he and his sister were in prisoner's mother's house, on the night in question, from 7 p.m. till 8 p.m., when the prisoner went to bed. Ann Davies, sister of the last witness, corrobor- ated his testimony. Mary Morgan, at that time servant at the pris- oner's mother's house, but now at Lampeter, re- membered Mrs. Jones and the prisoner coming home from Talsarn Fair. David Davies and his sister were at the house when they returned, about 7 o'clock. Prisoner went to bed about 8 o'clock. Witness, although a servant, did not sleep there that night. She left the house at about five min- utes to 9 o'clock. Did not hear anything immedi- ately before she left to indicate that prisoner was still upstairs, but saw his boots under the kitchen table. Cross-examined: She went home with a lantern. She met three men on the way. She saluted them, and asked them if they were not afraid of being fined for being there. Was ordered next morning by her mistress to wash the blankets on Stephen Jones's bed, and she did so. Re-examined: There were no marks of blood on the blankets, or on anything else she washed that day. The prisoner's boots the next morning were where he had left them on the previous night, and she was there when he came down stair and fetched them. Was accustomed to wash prisoner's linen. Prisoner had only one pair of boots at that time. 1 He had a pair of shoes, but at the time they were 3 at the shoemaker's to be tapped. When he came 1 down stairs in the morning prisoner looked the 1 same as usual. He came down between six and I seven o'clock, and afterwards went to his own ( farm. ] By the Judge: The prisoner's stockings, which f she washed, were not very dirty. < Eleanor Jones (mother of the prisoner) corrobo- ] rated the evidence of the other witnesses as to the movements of her son on the night in question. David Morgan, farmer, Rhydlais-uchaf; Daniel 1 Morgan, Hendraws; Thomas Joseph, Llanon; and William Morgan farmer, deposed to a conversation which took place between them and Griffiths after j the assault, about 10 o'clock on the night in ques- 1 tion, to the effect that he (Griffiths) did not know J the person that assaulted him, and that it was im- possible for any man to recognise him. 1 Mr. B. F. Williams, having summed up the pris- oner's case, and Mr. Bowen Rowlands havin re- 1 plied upon the whole case, His Lordship, in summing up, said this was one of the most extraordinary cases that had come be- A fore him in his many years experience on the 5 bench—a case which was surrounded with mystery The fact of the man, whoever he was, disguising himself in the way described, and taking off his clothes, led him to think it was no stranger who s committed the offence. If he were a tramp or a J stranger it wonld hardly enter into his mind that, ? in order to disguise himself, he would have to strip I. himself. There was a suspicion in his (the judge's) £ mind that the man, whoever he was, was afraid of being identified by his clothes. Another thing Ï was, that the person who did it could not be sup- posed to have gone roaming about the country in j* that state in the month of November; and, there- ] fore, the man must have some place to enter and deposit his clothing; and to which he would resort to put them on again. But, although there might a be a great suspicion in the case, he must tell them that no amount of suspicion, if the case rested oh P suspicion only, would justify them in finding the 11 prisoner guilty. There must be something in the v evidence itself which convinced their minds beyond 0 all doubt as reasonable men, that lie was the man" 11 before they convicted him. The defence certainly n did make out a strong case of alibi, and if the evi- e dence were true it was impossible that the crime s could have been committed by the prisoner but that, after all, was a question of credibility. If tliey believed the evidence with regard to the alibi there was an end of the case; if not, they must o back to the evidence for the prosecution, and be satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that the pris- ( oner was the man before they found him guilty and if they found him guilty they could have no murder Cnme WM °Ue of attempted The jury almost immediately returned a verdict seSdday °CCUpied tiU near1^ four o'ctyck of the 1

I SCHOOLMASTERS* ASSOCIATION.

Family Notices