The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-20 00:00:00

CARD SHARPERS.

At the Manchester Borough Court, on Monday, a
respectable-looking young man, named Patrick
M'Ginnis, was charged with being one of a party
who had deluded a person out of 51. The com-
plainant, Henry Ingle, of Great Heaton, stated that
on Saturday evening he was met in Miller's-lane,
by a man whom he took to be a farmer's servant,
and who asked him what time the train started
for Ashton ; adding that he had come from Stret-
ford about a pony that was stolen. He desired
witness to go into a public-house with him, and he
would give him his master's address, so that if he
should happen to see the pony, he might send the
information to Stretford. They went into the Crown
and Cushion, where there were three men playing at
cards. They asked him to play ;he did not
understand cards, but he played first for Ss.,
which he lost. They had three cards, one of
which was a king of some kind, and he who drew
the king out of the three was to win. The man
who went in with him turned up the corner of one
of the cards, so that it might be recognised by wit-
ness, and then told him to bet 2/., and he would be
sure to win. He simply did as he was told, and the
card he drew was not a king, and the prisoner took up
the 21. He was led to try again, but lost another 21.
Perceiving then that the men were all acting in con-
cert, and that the farmer's servant had only been the
" decay bird," he went and .informed the police,
but the men were gone when they arrived. An
officer stated that he apprehended the prisoner, and
found three cards upon him, U. ls. in money, and
three flash coins, being imitations of sovereigns and
half-sovereigns. Mr. Maude pointed oat to the com-
plainant the folly of his being so easily deluded. He
intimated to the prisoner that had the evidence against
him been a little more conclusive, he would have been
sent to the sessions. He was discharged.

PRIESTS AT A DEATH-BED.
(From Marryat's "Midshipman Easy.")
" This is stupid work," thought Jack, "I may
have more fun outside :" so Jack put on his cloak,
left the masquerade, and went out in search of ad-
ventures. He walked into the open country about
half-a-mile, until he came unto a splendid house,
standing in a garden of orange trees, which he
determined to reconnoitre. lie observed that a
window was open, and lights were in the room; and
he climbed up to the window, and juit opened the
white curtain and looked in. On a bed Jay an elderly
person, evidently dying, and by the side of the bed
were three priests, one of whom held the crucifix in
his hand, another the censer, and a third was sitting
at a table with a paper, pen, and ink. As Jack un-
derstood Spanish, he listened, and heard one of the
priests Say—

Your sins have been enormous, my son, and I
cannot give you extreme unction or absolution unless
you make some amends."
" I have," answered the moribund, " left money
for ten thousand masses to be said for my soul."
" Five hundred thousand misses are not sufficient.
How have you gained your enormous wealth—by
usury and robbing the poor ?"
"1 have left a thousand dollars to be distributed
among the poor on the day of my funeral."
" One thousand dollars is nothing—you must leave
all your property to holy church."
" And my children ? " replied the dying man
_

faintly.
$' What are your children compared to your salva-
tion ? Reply not ; either consent, or not only do I
refuse yon the consolation of the dying, but I excom-
muicate -."

" Mercy, holy father, mercy !" said the old man in
a dying voice.
" There is EU mercy, you are damned for ever
and ever. Amen. Now hear : excommunicabo
IC

" Stop—stop. Have you the paper ready ?"
" 'Tis here—all ready, by wh'eh you revoke all
former wills, and endow the holy church with your
property. We will read it, for God forbid that it
should be said that the holy church received an in-
voluntary gift."_

" I will sign it," replied the dying man ; " but my
sight fails me. Be quick—absolve me." And the
paper was signed with difficulty as the priests sup-
ported the dying man. "And now absolve me."
"I do absolve thee," replied the priest, who then
went through the ceremony.
" Now, this is a confoundedly rascally piece of
business," said Jack to himself, who then dropped
his cloak, jumped up on the window-sill, opened wide
the window curtains with both hands, and uttered a
yelling kind of " Ha! ha! ha! ha !"
The priests turned round, saw the demon, as they
imagined, dropped the paper on the table, and threw
themselves with their faces on the floor.
" Exorciso te," stammered one. " Ha! ha! hal
ha !" repeated Jack, entering the room, and taking
up the paper, which be burnt by the flame of the
candle. Our hero looked at the old man on the bed;
his jaw had fallen, his eyes were turned; he was
dead. Jack then gave one more "Hal ha! ha I
ha !" to keep the priests in their places, blew out the
candles, made a spring out of the window, caught up
his cloak, and disappeared as fast as his legs could
carry him.

ele chair.
pinacthe
ASYLUM FJB IDIOTS.-The third anniversary
in a very eloquent speech, proposed the chief
night, at
The
tdiiinenLeronodfotnhiTs
abrenerenv;olethnet iiisartiltuotfiocnartloioslke
toast of the evening, observing that there
Noble Earl,
were few forms of
human Buffering more entitled to generous sympathy and
active assistance than that they proposed to alleviate.
Few
classes were more exposed to the cold neglect and the brute
ridicule of uncultivated minds. Even taping it - at the best,i
that family decencies and affections had gathered round
them, guided their path and smoothed the i
was the lot awarded to them in this life. rlVllow, how hard
Fay that their institution already afforded e was happy to
assistance to 183
patients, and there were still 174 applications requiring im.
mediate assistance. It was the des
to erect a building capable of containing this number, and
they felt that they could not
make this effort without a
sufficient sum to start with. '
They,
anxiously to the contributions therefore, looked forward
which might be made that
night to promote such a laudable enterprise. The secretary
announced that a sum of 2
the course of the 'S"L had been subscribed during
evening to promote the objects of the
charity.
DEATH FROM TIGHT LACING.-011 Monday Mr.
Grindon, coroner of Bristol, held an inquest in that city on
the body of a young woman, aged 22, whose death was
caused or at least much accelerated, by the pernicious
practice of tight lacing, in which so many of her sex fool-
ishly indulge. The coroner directed that a very careful post
mortem examination should be made, and the medical testi-
mony clearly showed that the deceased was perfetly free
from disease, and that there was no visible cause of death
except the compression of the stomach and viscera from
tight lacing. The jury returned as their verdict that death
was caused by idiopathic asphyxia, hastened by tight lacing
Loss OF LIFE BY FIRE.—A fire happened on
Tuesday night, at No. 16, Broadway. St. Thornas.street,
Southwark, belonging to Mr. W. Archer, a commercial
trader. Violent screams proceeding from the kitchen, the
inmates, on running thither, found Mrs. Archer completely.
enveloped in flames. They were soon extinguished, when it
was found that the unfortunate woman was so frightfully
burned that it was necessary to remove her to Guy's
Hospital, where she died in the course of a short time, hav-
ing stated previously that the accident was caused by her
clothes catching tire,
The Shipowners' Association of Liverpool are
making efforts to procure the total abolition of fees on chip-,
ping taken by British consuls abroad, and inettad 14 rellltts
aerate them by fixed ligazies.