The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-11-28 00:00:00

redmoloured tips. They contrasted well with thei
marble-like whiteness of the trunk, and resembled al
()oral grove. A few were hollow, and little delicate I
Jets of steam issued from their summits. Some
again were hollow throughont, but were closed at
• the top, so in removing them it was difficult to avoid
scalded fingers, the hot steam and hot rain together
rendering a close approach dangerous. The falling
water ran into a small pool, and a bottle full of it,
which one of the party brought away with him, had
a very bitter saline taste. A little beyond this pool
were two large basins or cauldrons, sunk some five
or six feet below the general level of the ground,
and quite 100 feet in diameter. Within these huge
cauldrons a blue paste is continually boiling up with
a dull murmur, emitting sulphurious vapours, and
throwing up bubbles which, when they burst, dis-
perse masses of mud all around. These kettles occa-
sionally boil over, and then the slimy matter runs
off towards the Salt Lake. We found the track of
one of these treams, not quite dry, a mile or so
from the "Salami."

-- -----
Oar visit WM a brief one. The day was fearfully
hot, and we bad a short supply of water—it would
only last three hours longer. The epilog which we
left yesterday was 30 miles distant—we dartfd not
remain to explore, so we took our course for the
south-west, and bad soon good reason to congratu-
late ourselves upon being clear of the drifting sand.

For the first few miles after leaving the "Sallies" I
the plain presented a flat, clear surface of sand and
blue clay, baked well by the heat of the sun, and
fissured all over. Round holes marked the escape of
gas where the ground was softened by water, and
volcanic cinders were plentiful About noon tbe
wind increased to a gale and, added by its soorohing
dryness to the intense heat. Our water bottles were
empty; we were ten miles from the watering-plaoe,
and two hours on the desert deprived of this element
can only be fully appreciated by those who have felt
it. About four o'clock we caught a sight of green
bushes, the rippling stream was at hand, and men
and horses plunged in."
FIREFLY.

THE " SHAPWICK MONSTER" CASE.
To the Editors.
As so much is being thought and written about
this poor labourer's persecution for taking an old
hurdle, 1 think it may be interesting to some of your
readers (if you can kindly find space) to give an
extract from a work of Charles Dickens, written
upwards of 20 years ago. Will Fern, a Dorset-
shire labourer, just come out of jail, walks into Sir
Joseph Howley's mansion at Christmas time, when a
quantity of poor people are being entertained. Fern
says :

"Gentlefolks I Look at me! You see I'm at the
worst. Beyond all hurt, or harm; beyond your help;
for the ti,ne when your kind words or kind actions
*mid have done me good," he struck his bend upon his
breast, and shook his head, "is gone, with the scent of
last year's beans or clover on the air. Let me say a
word for these," pointing to the labouring people in the
hall, "and when you're met together, hear the real
Truth spoke out for once."
"Gentlefolks, I've lived many • year in this place.
You may see the cottage from the sunk fence over )
yonder, I've seen the ladies draw it in their books •
hundred times. It looks well in a Mater, I've heard
say, but there an't weather in picters, and maybe 'tic
fitter for that, than for a place to live in. Well ! I
lived there. How hard—bow bitter hard, I lived there.
I won't say. Any day in the year, end every day, 3en
can judge for your own selves.
" 'Ti. harder than you think for, gentlefolks, to grow
up decent—commonly decent—in inch a place. That I
vowed up a man and not • brute, says something for
me—as I was then. As lam now, there's nothing can
be said for me or done for me. rill peat it."
" I am glad this man has entered," observed Sir
Joseph, looking round serenely. Don't disturb him.
It appears to be Ordained. He is an Example—a
living example. I hope and trust, sod confidently
expect, that it will not be lost upon my friends here.'
'IL dragged on," said Fern, after • moment's silence.
"Somehow. Neither me nor any other man knows
how, but so heavy, that I couldn't put a cheerful face
upon it, or make believe that I was anything but what
I was. Now, gentlemen—you gentlemen that sits at
Sessions—when you see a man with discontent writ on
his face, you says to one another' 'he's auspicious I
has my doubts, says you,'about Will Fern. Watch
thro fellow!' I don't say, gentlemen, it ain't quite
neeral but I say 'tis so, and from that hour, whatever
Will Fern does, or lets alone—all one—it goes against
"
Alderman Cute stuck his thumbs in his waistcoat
pockets, and leaning back in his chair' and smiling,,
winked at • neighbouring chandelier. As much as to
to say, "Of course I told you so. The Common
cry! Lord bless you, we are up to al this sort of thing
—myself and human nature."
"Now, gentlemen," said Will Fern' holding out his
hands, and flushing for an instant in his haggard face.
"See how your laws are made to trap and hunt us
when we're brought to this. I tries to live elsewhere.
And Fre a vagabond. To jail with him I I comes back
here. I goes a nutting in your woods, and breaks—
who dont I—a limber limb or two. To jail with him
O. .4 your keepers sees me in the broad day, near my
own patch of garden, with a gun. To jail with him !
I has a nat'rel angry word with that man, when I'm
free again. To jail with him I cuts a stick. To jail
with him 1 It's twenty mile away; and coming bask,
I begs a trifle on the rotd. Te jail with him I At laid,
the constable, the keepe!--saybody--finds me anywhere,
• doing anything. To Jail with him, for he's a vagrant,
and a jail-bird known; and jail's the only home he's
got."
The Alderman nodded sagaciously, as who should say
"Avery good home too 1"
"Do I say this to serve Me causer' cried Fern.
"Who am give-me beck ter liberty, who can give me
back my good name who can give me back my innocent
neise? Not all the Lord and Ladle' in wide England.
But gentlemen, gentlemen, dealing with other men like
me, begin at the right end. Give us us mercy, better
homes when we're lying in our cradles; give tie better
good when we're a working for our lives; give us ldader
laws to bring us back when we're a going wrong • and
don't set Jail, Jad, Jail, afore us, everywhere we km
There an't a condescension you can show the Labourer
I then, that he won't take, as ready and as grateful as a
man eau be; for he has a patient, peaceful, willing
heart. But you mart put his 'rightful spirit in him
find; for whether he's • wreck and ruin such as use, or is
like one of them that stand here now, his spirit is
divided from you at this time. Bring it back, gentle-
folks, bring it back Bring it back, afore the day
comes when even his Bible changes in his altered mind,
and the words seem to him to read, as they have some-
times read in my own eyes—in Jail: Whither thou
goest, I can Not go; where *lion lodgest, I do Not
lodge ; thy people are Not invgittople; Nor thy God my
God F"
By the bye,,it dosent seem so-easy to bring a rich
man to trial charged with embezzling many thou-
sands of ponnds, as it is a poor fellow who takes a
rabbit or • bit of fire•wood to feed or warm his
starving shivering family! !
lam,
Your obedient Servant,
hieINITAS.

REPLY TO THE Lerma or THE wats's hum&
To the Editors.
In the Dorset County Express of to-day is, among
other letters on Cross, the " Dorsetabire labourer's"
case, one from the man's master. Will you permit
me, through the same medium ia which that letter
appears, to offer the folloaiug remarks. In the first
plows, Mr. Bartlett seeks to somewhat modify your
reporter's savant of what occurred before the Bench.
I was present at the hearing, there was much said
that is not reported, but I can vouch that your
account was a remarably correct epitome of a case
which occupied some 20 minutes. Mr. Martin, I
perceive, seeks, through Mr. Bartlett, to shift from
his own shoulders to those of the police, the responsi-
• bility of prosecuting. This is an old evasion, and
one which might naturally be expected, seeing that
the OW has excited so great a notoriety. But Mr.
Martin was the real prosecutor and not the police-
man. When the man had pleaded guilty and stated
his case, the magistrates asked the policeman if Mr.
Martin insisted on prosecuting. The constable re-
plied in the affirmative. Mr. Martin was not
then present, but he was evidently on his
way to the station-house to prosecute, as
be entered the room but a minute or
two afterwards. He heard the man's statement
repeated, and tried to throw discredit on that
statement. Had he had the smallest amount of
commisseration for the man's poverty he might have
recommended the prisoner to mercy; but he did
not. As your report correctly states, the magis-
trates sent for Mr. Bartlett, the man's master. The
prisoner again repeated what he had before stated in
pregame of his master ' • and here one will at once
perceive how appropriate are some remarks you
yourself have made in your editorial article in
to-day's Express on " Justices' Justice" Had you
been acquainted with the facts, you could not bare
more admirably hit the right nail on the head. The
magistrates asked Mr. Bartlett respecting the man's
character. Mr. Bartlett replied he had never had
any fault to find with the man as a !shearer. In
some subsequent remarks he said, that Cross, being
a superior man of his class, i.e., a superior labourer,
he had all his thatching, hedging, and other tut
work; and, although he could net say what Id
average earnings were, he might venture to sax 1
earned as much as any other labourer in the parr
I perceive by his letter he now states "that
reference to his labour-book he finds that, at the'
Oros. was oommitted, be was paying him lie."
Mr. Bartlett carry on his business so loos.
regard to money matters that be can't *