Washington standard. [volume], March 25, 1871, Image 1

About Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921

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VOL. XI.-NO. 21.1
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Orricic—Corner of Second and Washington
Streets.
(MTHEIUNUS liY TIIU WAYSIDE.
—Either havo mind enough to speak
veil, or judgment enough to keep silent.
—Seventy three thousand horses were
slaughtered and eaten in Paris during the
siege.
—An inexporinccd farmer tried lo make
corned beef by glviug his owu oxen whis
key.
—Why is a pig with a twisted tail like
the ghost of Hamlet ? Because it could a
tail unfold.
—ln a game of cards, n good deal de
pends on good playing, and good playing
on a good deal.
—An old toper being ivqucstcd to define
liard drinking, said : " It is sitting on a
rock and sipping cold water."
—A Chinese thief having stolen a mis
sionary's watch, brought it back the next
day to be shown how to wind it up.
—An lowa school teacher, a woman,
lias been discharged for forcing a big boy
to show her how he kissed the girls in the
wood hoyse.
—A cotemporary ungallantly makes the
observation that tho leading champions of
" women's rights," are generally found to
bo " men's lefts."
\ witty writer says: "Lawyers and
clients remind me of tho two rows of peo
ple at a tire; otic passing full buckets and
the other empty ones."
—ln the St. Joseph County Court, In
diana, lately, thoro was a case in which a
wife of eighteen was divorced from n hus
band of eighty. They had lived together
four weeks.
—" Did any of you ever sec an elephant
skin?" inquired u teacher of an infant
class. " I have, exclaimed one. " Wliere ?"
asked the teacher. "Oa tho elephant,"
said the boy.
—Appropos of the effects of a diet of
horseflesh, excuse is bciug found for the
l'aris Natiouul Guards, who ran away at
Cretiel, on tho plea that they had lately
bcea fed exclusively on race-horses.
—lt is remarked as a singular occurrence
that sinco Theodore Tilton retired from tho
Independent, two religious items have crept
into its columns some way or another. In
making up a largo paper great care has to
be exercised, or such errors will occur.
—A Pennsylvania editor having stated
that there was a man in the place who had
been drunk thirty-fivo years, was called
upon by twenty different persons, who de
manded a retraction, each one insisting
that the intent was a personal attack.
—Josh Billings says: "A man who can
draw New Orleans molasses through a half
inch sugar hole in January, and sing
' Home, Sweet Homo' while the molasses
ia running, may have a clear conscience,
but he ain't sudden enough for tho year
1870. 3
—Two one-armed soldiers were arrested
in New Haven, lately, for selling blacking
without a license* One of the soldiers re
ceived nine ballets iu his body in front of
Petersburg, one of which entered his
windpipe and almost deprived him of
speech.
_ —Thackary tells of an Irish woman beg
ging of him, who, when she saw him put
ting his hand in his pocket, cried out:
" May the blessing of God follow you all
the days of your life"—but when he pulled
out his snuff-box, immediately added—
" and never overtake you."
—" Why do you show favor to your en
em.'o8 ' j nstea d of destroying them r" said a
chieftain to the Emperor Sigismund. 41 Do
I not destroy my enemies by making them
my friends ?" was the Emperor's nuble re-
P'j; Kindness is the best weapon with
whioh to beat an adversary.
■ The following is the conclusion of an
epitaph on a tombstone in East Tennessee :
" » life of virtue and died of
cholera morbus, caused by eating green
fruit in the full hope of a blessed immor
tality at the early age of 21 years, 7
months, and 16 days. Reader, go thou
and do likewise.
Scrotal (o Items, Jjolitics, tin; gisscmiuiilimi of Istfnl Jnfaijuiittian, mtd the gemote sj thq gtst Jittajtsta ef IBajhiugfon l^rrilorj.
Marked for the KnlfS.
About two years before the startling
revelations respocting the dissecting trade
in Edinburgh had placed the legal supply
of " subjects" upon its present satisfactory
footing, there occurred to my elder brother,
at that time a delicate boy of about 14, a
singular adventure, involving such a shock
to his nerves as, the doctors believed, very
much hastened his death, which occurred
in less than a year after it.
Wo then resided in a large white house,
with a row of poplars in front, close to one
of our canals. Within a stone's throw of
our hall door was a lock and a lock-house,
and then followed, in the London direction,
one of the longest and most solitary levels
to be met with in the United Kingdom.
The canal, at a point about 70 yards
from the lock, makes a slight deflection.
The consequence is that neither the lock
nor our house is visible from the long,
straight level that follows, and which is
closely fenced between tall hedges and old
trees.
My brother had been ordered walking
exercise, atid my father generally appoint
ed the path beside the level I have de
scribed for his walk. The traffic, never
very active, was at that time in a state
littlo better than extinct. Not uiorc thau
three or four boats passed in a day, and
chiefly owing to its perfect quietude it
had been chosen for the walk of our solita
ry invalid.
It was now Summer, and the hour of
his daily walk was from sto 7; the ear
lier hours of the afternoon being pronounc
ed too hot for exercise.
On the eveuing in question he set out
ulone. Ilis usual walk was to a point two
miles up the level, where there was a stone
Mock, on which he used to sit and rest a
little before setting out for home.
While he was taking his case on this
stone bench, and listlessly looking up and
down the long aud deserted reach of water,
there emerged a few hundred yards to his
left, from a sequestered path, a singular
figure which approached slowly and passed
him by with only the narrow tow-path be
tween them. It was moving in the direc
tion of our home, and was that of an ema
ciated man, with a complexion dark as
very old box-wood, limping, as it seemed,
painfully, verv much stooped, and with a
big angular lump upon his back. His
hair was long and sooty-black ; he had
prominent dark eyes, under thick black
brows, and his face and chin wercstubbled
with a week's growth of beard. He was
leaning heavily on a long stick and walked
with a kind of hitch, which resembled a
spasm, and gave one the idea that each
step was accompanted by a separate sting
of pain.
The face of this man expressed extreme
weakness and suffering, and might almost
be that of a man dragging himself away,
with a mortal wound, to some spot where
he might lie down and die in quiet.
He had a loug and heavy bottle-green
coat, which had grown to be, indeed, a
coat of many colors; for over the thread
bare and greasy ground it was overlaid,
with fantastic and extraordinary industry,
with a tcssclation of patches, of every
imaginable color, in which yellow, anil
led, aud blue, and black were disceruablc,
under a varnish of grease and toned with
a variety of dirt; aud eveu these patches
were patched again, and had broken here
and there into rents and fissures and
bunches of shreds and tatters. Around
his body was buckled a broad dih-colorcd
leathern strap, and he wore a wide-leafed
felt hat, with a rather conical crown,
brown and grimmed by time and ill treat
ment.
This figure, with long gaiters of rabbit
skin, and shapeless " brogues," limped
past my brother without taking tho slight
est notice of him; and uttering now and
then a short groan, as if of suppressed
pain, he excited the wonder, and, in some
degree, the Compassion of the boy.
lie watched the progress of this man,
who was moving with great difiiculty, and
with many halts, in the direction of our
home. It was not until he had got on
dearly a quarter of a mile that my brother
got up, not quite rested, to follow in tho
same direction.
As this strange, crooked man, with the
stick, got on, he appeared to grow more
and more exhausted, and at length he tot
tered into a little recess at the edge of the
path, and fell helplossly on his side amonc
the bushes. °
The boy quickened his paoe. and as he
approached the spot he passed the head of
a narrow lane, in which ho saw a donkey
and cart standing. The cart had in it,
upon some straw, a piece of old carpet,
from under which emerged some folds of
coarse canvas, like a part of an old sack;
but he could not sco any one in charge of
this conveyance, though being anxious to
obtain help, he called repeatedly.
Despairing of succor, he went on, and
reached the point where he had seen the
man fall. Here he found him. He had
crept a little further in among the bushes.
He was supporting himself feebly on the
ground upon his elbow, hiseyes turning up
as if he were on the point of swooning, and
he moaned faintly.
The boy's courage almost failed him;
but the sick man seemed to perceive him,
turned his eyes upon him imploringly,
and extending his hand toward him, so
evidently signaled for aid, that my brother
could not help drawing near.
OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 25, 1871.
The faititing man told him, in a whis
per, that if he would take his hand, and
draw him gently toward him, he would,
perhaps, be able to turn himself a little, to
his great relief.
My brother did give him his hand, ac
cordingly, and the fainting man, instead of
taking it, seized his arm above the elbow,
with a gigautic hand, in a gripe like a
vice, and jerking him under* sprang over
him, so as to pinion him fast, lie had
carried in his hand the end of the belt,
which he had removed from around his
own body whilo waiting for his prey, and
with a dexterity acquired, no doubt, by
long practice, in a moment, with the now
disengaged hand, he drew it and buckled
it around the boy's arms and body at a
single jerk, with a pressure so powerful
that he could scarcely breathe, much less
disengage his arms.
In another moment, with his knee on
the boy's chest, and one broad hand placed
right across his mouth, so as to stifle his
screams effectually, he hitched round what
had ecemcd to be his hump, but what
proved to be, in fact, a bundle, from which,
with the other hand, ho took out, with the
quickness and neatness of a skilled mani
pulator, two things, one a sort of cushion
about eight inches square, covered with
chamois-leather—l have that horrible
relic, no doubt intended to aid in the pro
cess of suffocation, still in my possession ;
the other was the renowned pitch-plaster.
My brother had no idea what he intend
ed, for the disclosure in Edinburgh had
not yet enlightened and terrified people of
all ages throughout England.
The miscreant kept his face close to his
victim's, with his powerful eyes fixed on
his. His dark lean features and long beak,
and the thick hair that hung forward liko
a sooty plumage round them, and the long
sinewy-neck that arched over my poor
brother as he lay at his assailant's mercy,
gave him, in the fascinated gaze of the
boy, the appearance of a monstrous bird of
prey.
I dare say this ghoul had an actual pow
er, such as many men are said to possess
of controlling the springs of action, mental
and bodily, by some occult power of the
eye. To my brother, it seemed that it
needoil a perpetual and desperate struggle
of will to prevent a frightful trance from
stealing over him.
For a moment tho wretch's hand was
slightly raised from tho boy's mouth. He
intended, no doubt, at this instant, to in
troduce the pitch J plastcr, which was to
stop both mouth and nostrils. But my
brother, now struggling frantically, utter
ed two piercing yells, which compelled the
murderer to replace his hand before he
hud accomplished his purpose. lie was
evidently now transported with fury. Up
to this he had been operating as methodi
cally as a spider. He looked so fiendish
that my brother fancied lie would cut his
throat, or otherwise dispatch him at the
moment.
Ilis plans, however, were different. He
had no idea of losing sight of his interests,
much less of his safety. No principle of
his nefarious trade was better established
than the absolute necessity of leaving no
trace of actual violence upon tho persons
of his victims. Kven the knee with which
he held his prey was padded so carefully
that this young boy's breast did not ex
hibit the slightest contusion, although so
long under a pressure which held him at
the verge of suffocation.
Rapidly, and with more success, the
villain again essayed his final sleight.
One dreadful yell escaped, and tho deadly
pitch-plaster was fixed on mouth and nose,
and another sound or respiratioD became
impossible.
The leafy bushes above and about him,
the figure, the face of the specter, began
to swim beforo his eyes. He saw the man,
still on his knees, rise with a start and
Eause, with his eyes askance, and his dark
and to his ear. ID the next instant he
had disappeared.
In his struggle the boy now rolled from
the lair in which he had been attacked
into the open path, where he lay perfectly
insensible.
When consoionsness returned, which
was not for some minutes, three men were
about him, drenching his head with water,
and all endeavoring to extract a word of
explanation; but for long time after he could
not speak a syllable, nor for some time
even hear distinctly what they said.
Not a moment was lost, so soon as he
was able to describe what had happened,
in directing pursuit, wherever any results
were the least likely. All my brother
could say as to the point toward which the
assassin had directed his flight was that, as
his sight failed, he thought, though very
distinctly, he saw him pass away obliquely
in the direction of the lane in which he
had observed the donkey cart.
It must have belonged to an accomplice
who was there by arrangement. Every
thing had been prepared to carry away
the body of the poor fellow, which would
have been secured in the sack, enveloped
in the carpet, and covered with straw, and
thus secreted in somo lonely lock-up yard,
until at dead of night it would have been
carted away to tho dissecting-room. Tho
boy's hat thrown upon the water would
have turned inquiry off the scent and in
duced delay.
The strap, still buckled with cruel force
about the poor fellow's arms and ribs, the
chamois cushion I have montioned, and
the pitch-plaster fixed ovfcr the lower part
of his face, were the only " properties"
of the vidian left to indicate his visit.
Tile cool old assassin had carried off
every other trace of his presence, and he
and his comrade, taking the donkey-cart
with them, had decamped with a celerity
and managed their diguise with an art
which, as matters then were, and with a
fall hour's start, had baffled pursuit.
Jfo dotfbt, with the police fortfe now at
our command, the res tilt might have been
different. As it was, no clue whatever was
discovered; and this was positively mar
velous, considering the marked peculiari
ties of dress and of person that belonged
to the culprit. The persons best acquaint
ed with the Ways of otfr criminals at that
period were of opinion that the strange de
tails of the dress, the gait, the hair, the
complexion, and the distortion of the fig
ure, were parts of an elaborate pieoe of
masquerading.
There was some controversy as to the
object of the projected crime. It was not
until the terrific exposure at Edinburgh
had made all the World horribly familiar
with the machinery of that peculiar spe
cies of murder that all the debate upon
the matter ceased, and the pitch-plaster
was accepted as conclusive evidence that
the body was intended for sale to the sur
geons.
No doubt these poachers on a great scale
were thoroughly skilled in all the finesse
and strategy of their contraband art. The
regularity of toy poof brother's solitary
walk, its favorable hour, and the easy sug
gestion of drowning as the cause of his
disappearance, had all been noted, and the
enterprise was, as I have told you, very
nearly accomplished, when an unexpected
interruption saved him.
My brother was ailing at the time this
dreadful attempt was made upon his life.
He survived it little more than ten months,
and the able physician who attended him
attributed his death to the awful shock
which his system had received.
HORRORS or THE TEXAS FRONTIER.—
We know nothing in the records of Indian
barbarities, says the Galveston Civilian,
since the settlement of America, exceeding
some of recent occurrence on the Texas
frontier. The following are some further
detaile of the recent massacro of a family in
Wise county:
In the night the Indians entered the
house. Mrs. Paschal sprung from the
bed, where they were all sleeping, fell on
her knees and commenced praying, " Good
Indians, spare me with my children."
They shot her in the mouth and killed her
with knives, shooting the bed full of ar
rows, the children twisting and writhing
in blood, taking pome of them and dashing
their heads against the wall, window ana
door facings; they killed with knives and
clubs, as they thought, all the children.
They then shot three arrows deop into the
breast of Mrs. Keenan, dragged her on
the door-shutter they had cut down, cut
around the edge of her hair and tore off her
scalp! She was cognizant of all that
passed, and lay in that state, with the dead
and dying all scattered around her. One
of the children had its bowels cut out, and
arm, with the shoulder, severed from his
body with a knife, and his body dashed out
into the yard. One of the women slipped
an infant between the beds, and another
small one was secreted as to lie very quiet
next to the infant. These were the only
two that escaped unhurt. One of the little
boys, about eight years old, after being
severely wounded, jumped out of the win
dow in the midst of the tumult and hid,
and after the Indians left he carried water
from a lake, about two hundred yards dis
tant, and gave to the wounded all night.
Mrs. Keenan tried to pull the arrows from
her breast and twisted one off. She could
not move her baby, and kept her place on
the door shutter all night without eovering.
She lived twelve days. The sufferings
she endured cannot be expressed. This
child that carried the water could be trail
ed the next day by th 6 blood. One of the
little girls, about six years old, was found
holding the little infant near the embers
next morning, and was crying, saying
"The Indians had killed Ma and little
Willie!" That same evening the little
girl who was nursing died.
A revenue offioer at Toledo (Ohio)
pursued a man with a keg of whisky across
the river and greatly terrified the fellow
by pointing oat the fact that there was no
stamp on the keg. Suddenly, however,
his countenance lighted up, and clapping
both hands upon the seat of his pants,
he exclaimed: " See there! ain't that a
stamp ? I sat on that keg when I came
over the river." Sure enough, there was
the stamp. The adhesive power of the
varnish with which the stamp was covered
was greater than that of the paste which
attached it to the keg, and when the man
left his seat he was stamped ! The officer
returned home after an all night's ohase,
much chagrined at the result of his ad
venture.
MERCY. —The merciful shall find mercy.
This is because every msn finds what he
himself is, and has measured back to him
what he haa meted out to others. Good
ness nevor fails of its reward; and injus
tice never fails to come home to the house
and upon the head of the unjutt. Though
justice has leaden legs, it finally overtakes
each one.
The Bewitched Clock.
About half-past 11 o'clock, on Saturday
night, a human leg, enveloped in broad
cloth, might have been seen entering
Cephas Bafbttry's k itches window. The
leg was ft/llowed, finally, by the ecrtlfe per
son of a lively Yankee, attired in his Sun
day go-to-meeting clothes. It was, in
short, Joe Mayweed, who thus burglarious
ly, in the dead of night, won his way to
the deacon's kitchen.
" Wonder how much the old deveta*
made hy ordcrrin' me not to darted mi
door again 7" sofiloqtrited the young man.
" Promised him I wouldn't, but didn't say
nothing about winders. Winders is just
as good as doors, if there ain't no nails to
tear your trowsers onto. Wonder if Sal'll
come down? The eritter promised me.
I'm afraid to move here, came I might
brtiak my shins over sumthin' or other,
and wake up the old folks. Gold etaocrgh
to freeze a polar bear here. Oh, here
comes Sallyl
The beautiful maiden descended with a
pleasant smile, a tallow candle, and a box
of matches.
Aftffr receiving a rupturons greeting,
she made up a roaring fire in the cooking
stove, and the happy couple sat down to
enjoy the sweet interchange of views and
hopes. But the course of true love ran
no smootherjin old Barberry's kitchen than
it did elsewhere, and Joe, who was making
up his mind to tfeat himself to a kiss, was
startled by the voice of the deacon, her
father shouting from his chamber door:
" Sally, what are you getting up in the
middle of the night for ?"
" Tell him it's most morning," whisper
ed Joe.
" I can't tell a fib," said Sally.
" I'll make it truth then," said Joe,
and, running to the huge, old-fashioned
clock that stood in the corner, he set it at
five.
" It's five by the clock," answared Sally
and corroborating the Word*; the clock,
struck five.
The lovers sat down again and resumed
the conversation. Suddenly the staircase
began to creak.
" Good gracious ? it's father."
*' The deacon, by thunder ?" eried Joe.
" Hide me Sal ?"
" Were can I hide you I'' eried the dis
tracted girl.
" Oh, I know," said he, " I'll squeeze
into the clock casc."
And, without another word, he conceal
ed himself in the case, and drew the door
behind him.
The deacon was dressed, and sitting
himself down by the cooking stove, pulled
out his pipe, lighted it, and commenced
smoking very deliberately and calmly.
" Five o'clock, eh f" said he. " Well, I
shall have time to smoke three or four
pipes ; then I'll go and feod tho critters."
11 Hadn't you better go and feed the
critters first, sir, and smoke afterwards ?"
suggested tho dutiful Sally.
" No; smokin' clears my head and
wakes me up," answered the deacon, who
seemed not a whit disposed to hurry his
enjoyment.
Bur-r-r-r-r —whins-ding! went tho
clock.
" Tormented lightening!" cried the dea
con, starting up and dropping his pipe on
the stove. " What in creation is that 1"
" It'a only the clock striking five," said
Sally tremulously.
Whis 1 ding f ding! ding 1 went the
old clock furiously.
" Powers of mercy r cried the deacon.
" Striking five 1 It'a struck a hundred al
ready."
" Deacon Barberry !" cried the deacon's
better-half, who had hastily robed herself,
and now came plunging down the staircase
ia the wildest state of alarm. " What is
the matter with the clock 1"
" Goodness only knows," replied the old
mao.
" It's been in the family these hundred
▼ears, and never did I know it to carry on
ao before."
Whis 1 bang! bang 1 bang 1 went the
elock.
" It'll burst itself I" cried the old lady
shedding a flood of tears, "and there won't
bo nothing left of it."
" It's bewitched," said the deacon, who
retained a leaven of New England super
stition in his nature. "Anyhow," he
said, after a pause, advancing resolutely to
ward the clock, " I'll see what'a got into
it."
"Oh, don't?' cried the daughter affec
tionately, seising one of his coat tails, while
his faithful wife hang to the other.
" Don't!" chorused both the women to
gether."
"Let off my raiment!" shouted the
deacon " I ain't afraid of the powers of
darkness."
But the Women would not let go, so the
deacon slipped off his ooat, and while,
from the sudden cessation of resistance,
they fell heavily oa the floor, he darted
forward and laid his hand on the door of
the clock-case. But no human power
could open it, Joe was holding it inside
with a death grasp. The desoon began to
be dreadfully frightened. He gave one
more tug, and an unearthly yell, as of a
fiend iu distress, came front the inside, and
the dock case pitched hand formoston the
floor, smashed it* lace, and wrecked its
proportions.
The current of air eltinguiahea the
light, tho deacon, the old lady, and Sally
i WHOLE NO. 541.
fled ap stairs, and <?oe Mayweed, extricat
ing himself from the dock, effected his
retreat in the same Way that he entered.
The next day all Appleton was alive with
the stofy of how Deacon Barberry's clock
had been bewitched; and though many
believed its version, some, and especially
Joe Mayweed, affeoted to discredit the
whole affair, hinting that the deacon had
been trying the experiment of tasting
, frozen cider, and that the v&geries of the
j clock case only existed in a distempered
imagination.. i
FUTURE WEALTH OF THE UNITED
STATES. —E. P. Whipple contributes to
the March number of the Atlantic Month
ly a very readable essay which be styles
"Shoddy." It will be seen that Mr.
Whipple takes a hopeful view of the fu
ture :
Of the enormous undeveloped resources
of the United States it is difficult to speak
without an appearance of exaggeration.
The taxable Talue, which all men of prop
erty well know is always far below the ex-
Changeable talue, of all the property in the
United States was, in 1860, in round num-.
bers, $16,000,000,000, showing a rate of
increase, in ten years, of a fraction over
one hundred and twenty-six per cent. It
has been computed that if this rate is pre
served through the next four decades, the
taxable value of the United States would,
in 1870, be $36,500,000,000; in ISBO,
$82,800,000,000; in 1890, 187,300,000,-
000; in 1900, $423,800,000,000—an in
crease of wealth which will be over eight
times our estimated increase in population.
Vast as these sums appear, drowning in
their sounds all shoddy groans over our
Eredicted financial ruin, and making our
ig debt of two billions and a half shrink
by comparison into dwarf-like dimensions,
there is no reason that they shall not be
realized provided the brain of the nation
adequately seconds it hands. Massachu
setts, with an area of only 7,800 square
miles, now owns a seventeenth of the whole
taxable property of the nation. If the
other States, with greater natural advan
tages, should increaso, during the next
thirty years, so that their wealth should
bear the samo proportion to the square
mile of territory which the wealth of Mas
sachusetts now does, the property of the
nation in 1900 will be $415,000,0^0,000.
NATIONAL FINANCES. —The New fork
Nation furnishes the following:
In no point is the superiority of the
Germans moro striking than it is 'in their
finances. While the French are onablo
to raise any more money, and talk of re
turning to assignats, the recent North
German loan, in spite of much grumbling
at the method of its introduction, main
tains itself at a premium, and money at
Frankfort is reported-" a drug," and the
bank rato has been reduced to three per
cent. There is, however, aecording to
late cable advices, an unexplained drain of
specie from England to Germany, which
may indicate preparations for peaco, or
may be the first indication of flnanoial de
pression. The total debt of the North
German Confederation amounts to less than
$150,000,000 in coin, while that of Prus
sia proper, including all the States annexed
in 1866, amounts to about 1300.000,000,
one-half representing the ooet. of railways
built by the State, which, unlike some of
our State roads, are worth their cost, and
are even paying off the principal of the debt
at the rate ortwo ana one-half per cent,
per annum. While on the subject of for
eign finance, we may mention that the
kingdom of Spain, over whioh the young
Italian now reins, has a floating deficit, to
tally unprovided for, of nearlv 970,000,000
in addition to its funded debt, and eaten
on the new year with a farther deficit in
prospect of about $20,000,000, and with
out the cash fb pay nine or ten millions of
interest just maturing. It is, after all, no
wonder that, with all onr mismanagement*
American securities oontinne to advanoa
abroad;
SHOWING THE DRAD.— A. WRITER TKU
describes a curious custom in Hmni of
laying out bodies in state during the night
before burial. They are placed close to
an opeu window fronting the street, on • -
couch four or fire feet from the ground.
The corpse is surrounded bj high wax
tapers, and the whole room illuminated.
Frequently when returning from atertulia
or ball, I have been startled to see the
fixed and rigid features of some old gentle
man or lady, dressed in their beat attirO
and apparently reclining before the win
dow. It used to appear an unnecessary
mockery of death, dressing ont a eorpee id
a new suit of ciotbes, with tight patent
leather boots, and white neck-eloth. I re
member one night in particular. I waa
returning home through one of the by
streets, when, seeing the lower window!
of a house illuminated, and oonelnded that
there was a body lying in atate, I Mat
toward it. There, close to the window, so
close that I could have touched it through
the bars, lay the body of a young gm
about fifteen yean of age. She waa dressed
as for a ball, with fiowara in her hair, and
white satin shoes on her feet; bar handa
crossed on her breaat, her eyes eloeed, and
her mouth slightly opened ; and altogether,
her face and expression waa ene of the
most beautiful I ever aaw.
*» • •
10" The Princess of Prussia stakes he*
own dresses and bonnets.