The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-07 00:00:00

THE AZTECS.

Prior to their departure for Italy these very in-
teresting personages are holding a series of public
receptions daily, at the Queen's Concert Rooms,
Hanover-square. The marriage of the Aztecs caused
a new sensation, and at the same time a very great
desire appeared to exist amongst a great number of
persons who delight in natural curiosities to wish
them joy before commencing their wedding tour.
To meet this wish the happy pair at once
consented to receive company, and for the last
week or so their drawing-room has been very fully
and fashionably attended. The Aztecs are unques-
tionably the greatest human curiosities ever seen,
and although the peculiarity of their conformation
would lead to the belief that sense and reason were
strangers to them, yet both receive their company
in the most affable and cordial manner, and enter-
tain them in a variety of ways. The departure of
the Aztecs is fixed for an early period, so the pre-
sent attractive receptions cannot be continued for
longer than a few days at the outset.

The Murder and Suicide in Bermondsey.

- -,--

This morning Mr. Carter held an inquest on the
bodies of Eliza Catford, aged 37, and George Cat-
ford, aged four.
Mr. Catford said on Tuesday morning he left•his
home to act as a juror on an inquest held by Mr.
Carter in the neighbourhood. He resided at 23,
Grange-road, Bermondsey, where, with his wife
and children, he occupied the ground floor. His
wife appeared in her usual health, but expressed
some dissatisfaction at the loss of time resulting from
the inquest. He told her the case could not "occupy
the jury long, and that he should be back to dinner.
On his return at a quarter to one o'clock he found
the wretched woman and her son lying on the bed
quite dead, with their throats cut in the most shock-
ing manner. The child's head was nearly severed
from the body, and the wound on the neck of the
woman, although not so formidable in extent, was
deep enough to divide all the respiratory passages.
The deceased woman, it was said, was subject to
fits of depression and symptoms indicating aberra-
tion of intellect.

The jury returned a verdict of temporary in
sanity.

MADAME VIARDOT.—It is true that Modes
music, written originally for Guadagni, a male contralto,
and afterwards altered for M. Legros, one of the high nasal
French tenors, of which the race is, unhappily, not yet ex-
tinct, had never before such a perfect exponent as it found
in the sister of Malitran—the accomplished and impas-
sioned Madame Viardot. Art on the musical stage
can go further, and rise no higher, than in her imperso-
nation. Who that saw her will ever forget her absorbing
sorrow at the tomb of Eurydice, the rapture which burst
into every feature, animated every fibre of her
frame, and thrilled in every tone of her voice, when she
was permitted to hope that the beloved one might still bo
rescued back to life—the pleading grace, blent with indo-
mitable resolution, with which she cleft her way among
the grim wardens of Death's prison-house, subduing them
by the charm of song—the anxious, eager questioning
step with which she went to and fro among the spirits of
the Elysian fields—the inexpressible triumph of the
moment of recognition, with its celestial music, when her
hand closed on the well-known hand of the wife so bit-
terly mourned, so courageously sought—the desperate
after-conflict and despair, when hope was all but wrecked
by her disobedience of the condition of ransom ? Taking
every circumstance and difficulty into account, it may be
truly said that there has been no such personation on the
opera stage in our time—not forgetting nor undervaluing
the Medea, the Semiramis, the Romeo, of Queen Pasta.—
' Dickoneti " All 04 lear Round,"