Mysterious Stone Throwing.
The idle, mischievous practice of stone throwing has been developed into an art in the unromantic hamlet of Smethwick. These are not days for original ghosts, they have ceased to trouble our busy people for a good many years; but there are yet many living – and not a few in Birmingham – who would dearly love some good ghost story to be propagated. But as industry and learning have driven away the unsubstantial unrealities of former days, the ghostly favouring faculties of human nature must fain put up with a mystery. There are few things that people love better than a mystery; and Smethwick of all other places, has really produced a good one. Few persons would have gone to the busy hamlet to look for a haunted house or a fairy dell. There’s nothing at all weirdish about the place – except the bull, and he does good service, or he would not be tolerated.
Yet during the past week the house of a well-to-do and most respectable man has been visited with a plague of stones so grievous that sixty-two panes of glass have been broken, and yet the cause of the wanton destruction has not been clearly traced. The house in question is a most plain and unpretending place. It does not even stand by itself, but is one of five facing Broomfield Street. Mr George Sheldon, the occupier, is stock-taker at the Crown Forge Works, and owns the house in which he lives and one or more of those adjoining; so that it is at once conclusive that he could have no object to serve in what has taken place. In the district every one speaks well of him. He has occupied an important position in the Crown Forge Works for many years, and is a general favourite with the men, none of whom have been discharged by him recently.
As the stone throwing has only been carried on during the day while the works have been open, and as the damage is comparatively trifling, it can hardly be supposed that any of the workmen under Mr Sheldon have had a hand in it. The whole affair appears to be a foolish series of pranks, done out of mere mischievous thoughtlessness. The mysterious part of the affair is the manner in which it has been carried on. All the glass destroyed is in the rear of the house. There is a nice, long, narrow slip of ground at the back of the house, which is used as a garden; and there are an unusual number of small out-houses in it. The first of these is used as a brewhouse; and the panes in the window which looks into the garden have all been broken. Next to this is the tool-house; and the panes in that window are also broken. Further down is the hot-house: and here, singular to relate, no glass has been broken.
In the yard, opposite to the tool-house, is a small cucumber frame, all the glass in which is broken. In the back of the house are three windows, one to a kitchen on the ground floor, one to a bed room, and the third at the end of a passage on the first floor. The glass in nearly the whole of these windows has been destroyed. Stones have been thrown while shrewd policemen were on the watch in the yard, and while more than a hundred people have been on the look-out from all points in the neighbourhood.
The family in the house consisted of Mr and Mrs Sheldon, Mr Sheldon’s sister, a boy about four years of age, and an infant. During the day a little nurse girl was engaged in the house to take care of the baby. This little missy was about thirteen years of age, and is described as a very sharp, shrewd child. Next door, at the house of Mr Middleton, is another little nurse girl of about the same age; and about forty yards from the house, in another direction, a third child, of about the same age, lives with a family. Suspicion has fallen upon these three little girls at last, and since Mr Sheldon’s nurse has been discharged, which took place on Saturday, no stones have been thrown, and no glass has been broken. It is only fair to say that it is on suspicion only, though well grounded, that the damage which has been done is attributed to the agency of these children. The girls have been acquainted with each other, have gone out for walks together, and may very easily have concocted the scheme in the execution of which they have baffled hundreds of sharp eyes.
The stone throwing seems to have commenced on Monday last, and has continued during the major portion of each day up to Saturday. On Monday, about eleven o’clock, Mrs Sheldon’s nurse girl was in the yard when a stone fell upon her hand. She complained of this to her mistress, who sent her to see whether any boys were throwing in the front street. No one was to be seen, and the girl resumed her work in the open air when more stones were thrown, some of which struck her. This was the origin of the whole matter.
From whence these stones came it is impossible to say. They may have been accidentally thrown. At any rate the mysteriousness of the matter and the annoyance manifested by Mr and Mrs Sheldon resulted in the repetition of the offence. The police were at once communicated with, and Sergeant Passey, of the Smethwick Police Station, proceeded to investigate the matter. From Monday to Saturday he has had men on or about the premises, and Major McKnight has also examined the whole of the ground; but they have all failed to discover the source of the mischief. While the officers have been standing in the yard stones have been thrown on the roof of the house, and have rolled down at their feet. Panes have been shattered by stones, and the glass has fallen on those who have been on the watch, and the stones have been thrown with such force that it has been impossible to tell from what direction they have come. In all probability some of them have been projected from a catapult, so many of which are in the hands of our juveniles. Others, however, had been simply thrown in the air, and quietly fallen on to the cucumber frame.
On Tuesday, there were no fewer than 150 people visited the premises, and remained on the watch throughout portions of the day. The occasional smashing of the glass and rolling of the stones afforded to these people a considerable amount of satisfaction, and on each succeeding day the crowd has grown in numbers, until we were informed that yesterday no fewer than 5,000 people visited the place.
No suspicion seemed to have fallen on the nurse girl until Saturday. As the back room windows were so constantly broken, she was told to remain with the baby in the front room, and had ample opportunity for very greatly assisting at the damage which was done. On Friday, a smash was heard upstairs, and a man who was in the house on the watch ran up. He met the girl coming down, and on examining the room could not find any stone, and the major portion of the glass had fallen outwards. On Friday afternoon another man, who was on the watch, distinctly saw the child throw a stone into one of the windows.
The greater portion of the garden is so screened by out-buildings on the one side, and a high wall on the other, that anyone in any of the gardens, having once got the distance, could easily pepper away with stones without being seen. The majority of the stones picked up are small and round, just such as are used for catapults.
On Saturday afternoon, Mrs Sheldon’s nurse girl was sent into the garden to feed the pigs, and a number of stones were laid in the tool house where she would have to go for the food. On coming out of the tool house, a pane in the window was smashed and the fragments of glass flew into the garden. This pane must therefore have been broken from the inside; but when the stones were counted which had been placed there none were missing.
Another suspicious circumstance is that no glass was broken before the child went to the house in the morning, or after she left at night. She was accused of being the author of the mischief on Saturday, but stoutly denied it, and turned her pocket out to show that she had no stones upon her. On leaving that night, however, she was told not to come again; and yesterday, the plague ceased. Whether it will be resumed or not remains to be seen.
If the little nurse girls have done it, they have been remarkably clever. If any persons of older growth are implicated, they have a most cunning hiding place, but we may hope they will be unearthed. The annoyance to Mr Sheldon can hardly be conceived.
Yesterday, the people came on foot, and in vehicles of every description. As soon as they entered Smethwick, they enquired for the “Haunted House;” and many expressed their belief in unmistakeable language as to some one who in polite society does not wear a tail doing all the mischief. The affair at present has been a seven days’ mystery; it will probably be a ten days’ laughter; and then will be treasured amongst the old women’s stories of the district.
Birmingham Daily Post, 8th October 1866.
The Mysterious Stone-Throwing Case at Smethwick.
To the Editor of the Daily Post.
Sir, – In your article upon the above subject, in your impression of to-day, there are several statements calculated to bring about a too hasty condemnation of the girls upon whom suspicion has fallen, and which has already been injuriously felt by the parents of one of the girls.
It is somewhat difficult to offer a defence of the whole of the girls, as one of them is only hinted at in your statement, for reasons which are no doubt securely locked up in the cogitative organs of those remarkably “shrewd policemen” who have made this wonderful discovery.
I can testify of my own personal knowledge, that the accused girl of Mr Middleton has been watched and kept within doors by her mistress ever since she has been considered one of the guilty party. The stone throwing, however, continued after these precautionary had been taken.
Your report very properly makes a distinction between the concoction and execution of this wanton piece of mischief. In order fully to understand these difficulties it must be remembered that the neighbours of Mr Sheldon have rendered all the aid they could furnish, that “shrewd police” have been kept upon the watch, both in and out of the house, and that hundreds of sight-seers have been present, both in the garden and in the adjoining streets; and yet, for four or five days, these mere infants, in addition to their ordinary work, have managed to smash nearly the whole of the panes in the rear of the house, to baffle the watchfulness of neighbours, sight-seers, and the vigilance of the “elite” of the Smethwick police. It is the old story of the mountain in labour, with the mouse-hill result. It is important to remark that stones have been thrown when these girls have been out together a distance away.
Your report states that in all probability some of them (the stones) have been projected from a catapult. Now, assuming that this supposition is one put forward by the “shrewd police,” there is a strange want of consistency in their theory, unless they can prove that one of these instruments has been in the possession of the unfortunate objects of their suspicion.
The fact that the throwing has ceased since the dismissal of the girl in Mr Sheldon’s employ should be looked upon rather as a coincidence than a positive proof of guilt, as it is hardly possible that it could have continued ad infinitum. Your own report states that at least once she has been struck on the hand by a stone; and, if human testimony is worth anything at all, it goes to establish the fact that in several other cases, she could not possibly have been the author of the mischief.
Extraordinary as it would have been for one girl to have planned this singular episode in the history of stone throwing, it is rendered still more improbable by the introduction of three parties to the transaction, as, after severe examination and cross-examination, neither of them can be made to confess individually, or implicate her accomplice.
It is pertinent to ask, Why, supposing there to be three parties to the transaction, they have agreed to give vent to their mischievous propensities on Mr Sheldon, when by selecting two or three different scenes for their operations they would have been more likely to have escaped detection.
Apologising for trespassing so much on your space, I am yours respectfully, A Looker- On.
Birmingham Daily Post, 11th October 1866.
Smethwick. Who Broke The Windows?
To the Editor of the Birmingham Daily Post.
Sir, The letter of “A Looker-on” in your yesterday’s issue, expresses the sentiments of the majority of the thoughtful people of Smethwick. To imagine for a moment that the crowds of sightseers who thronged the premises during the week were deceived and outwitted by a simple little girl is childish. It needs no great stretch of imagination to conceive that the detectives were baffled: for, if report be true, their efforts were directed to those parts where there was little likelihood of the offender being concealed, but which suggested to their calculating minds a probable hiding place.
Their confession is truly humiliating to themselves, and anything but complimentary to those persons who, like myself, have carefully watched the proceedings, and who still maintain that the stones which struck the windows from outside were not thrown by a child’s hand. I can corroborate the statement of your correspondent in regard to the servant girl of Mrs Middleton. It appears that the modern Alexanders, who so summarily solve mysteries, based their accusation of this child on the fact that she had been seen to speak to Mr Sheldon’s girl. Remarkable perspicacity! Let it be duly honoured.
It is needless to add, that the sympathy of those who exercise common sense in the enquiry, is unanimously in favour of the girls. I would just say that if the detectives persist in their confession, then by all means let us have a change; and in place of the present stalwart “guardians of the law,” a dozen of the clever little girls who have so distinctly shown their superiority.
Yours obediently, Veni-Vidi. October 11, 1866.
(A correspondent writes to say that two or three years ago, a similar occurrence, equally mysterious, took place in Birmingham. For a long time the police were baffled; but at last it was discovered that a little servant girl, not more than thirteen years old, was at the bottom of the mischief. – Ed. D.P.)
Birmingham Daily Post, 15th October 1866.