The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-20 00:00:00

IT `WHITE.

Sir Jonah Barring on in his Personal

Sketches, how an Irish lady, whose husband
kept a black servant, was delivered of a black
child, to the lady's own great consternation, and
to the still greater consternation of her husband
and relations. We quote the sequel of ti'e
stury. " Sufficient," says Sir Jonah, " could
be gathered to demonstrate that young 'Master
Washington had not one white, or even grey
spot on his entire body, and that some frizzled
hair was already beginning to show itself on his
little pate ; but that no nurse could be found
who would give him a drop of nourishment,
even were he famishing—all the women verily
believing, that, as Mrs. Washington was herself
an unexceptionable wife, it must be a son of
the d—l by a dream, and nothing else than an
imp
hubbub in any neighbourhood as now took place
in and about the town of Castle Durrow

Mr. Washington and the Lieutenant were by no
means at ease upon the subject of this freak of
nature Lieutenant Palmer was, of course,
high in blood for the honour of his sister, and
Mr. Washington cock-a-whoop for the honour
of his wife The father and uncle decided
calmly and properly to lay the whole affair before
a consultation of doctors to know if it was not
a regular imagination mark.-- All the doc-
tors in the neighbourhood were called in to
the consultation. Old Butler, the farrier, came
with all expedition to Dureen, and begged
leave to give his opinion and offer his ser-
vices, wishing to see Master Washington be-
fore the doctors arrived, as he had a secret
for turning any skin, ever so brown, as white as
milk. On seeing Master Washington, however,
he declared he was too black entirely for his
medicines, or any body else's. The first point
stated and unanimously agreed on, was, that the
child was black.' The reasons for that colour
being universal on the young gentleman were
not quite so clear. At length Dr. Bathron,
finding he had the lead . declared, with great
gravity, that he had read many authors upon the
subject of marks, and could take upon himself
positively to assert, that the child was (according
to all authority on such matters) a cases omissus.
The others, not being exactly sure either of the
shape, size, or colour of a cases omisszts, thought
it better to accede to what they did not compre-
hend, and all subscribed to the opinion, that the
child was a cases omissus. . . . Dr. Bathron,
however, having, by search of old book-stalls
in Dublin, (whither he went for the purpose,)
found an ancient treatise, translated from the
work of the high German Doctor Cratorious,
(who flourished in the fourteenth century,) on
skinning certain parts of the body to change the
colour or complexion, as effectually to disguise
criminals who had escaped from prison,—by
which means, likewise, disfiguring marks,
freckles, moles, &c. might be removed,—de-
cided, that, if this could be done partially,
why not on the entire body, by little and little,
and not skinning one spot till the last should be
healed ? He, therefore, stated to Mr. Wash-
ington, and all the good family of Dineen, that
he would take upon himself to whiten the child,
as he was perfectly satisfied that the black skin
was merely the outside, or scarf-skin, and that
the real skin and flesh underneath were the same
as any body else's. The mode of operating was
now the subject of difficulty. It was suggested,
and agreed on, to call in Mr. Knaggs, the Doc-
tor of Mount Melec The
state of practice in Ireland suggested but two
ways of performing this notable operation ; one
purely surgical, the other surgico-medical ;
namely, either by gradually flaying with the
knife, or by blisters. Most people inclined to
the blister, but the Doctors, conceiving a blis-
ter might not rise regularly, and would, in that
case, leave the child piebald, determined, as a
first experiment, to try both. Accordingly, a
strong blister, two inches by three, was placed on
the child's right arm, and, being properly co-
vered, remained there without inflicting any
torture for above half an hour. The left
arm was reserved for the scalpel and forceps, and
the operator entertained no doubt whatever of
complete success. The mode he pursued was
very scientific ; he made two parallel slashes as
deep as he could in reason, about three inches
down the upper part of the arm, and across one,
to introduce the forceps and strip the loose black
skin off, when he could snip it away at the bot-
tom, and leave the white, or rather red flesh,
underneath, to generate a new skin, and show
the proper colouring for a god-child of General
Washington. All eyes were now rivetted to the
spot. The women cried in an under key to
Master George, who roared. " Hush, hush, my
dear," said the doctor, " you don't know what's
good for you, my little innocent," whilst he ap-
plied the forceps, to strip off the skin like a sur-
tout. The skin was tight, and would not come
away cleverly with the first tug, as the doctor had
expected ; nor did anything white appear, though
a sufficiency of red blood manifested itself.—
The doctor was greatly surprised. " I see,"
said he, "it is somewhat deeper than we
had conceived. We have not got deep
enough." Another gash on each side ; but
the second gash had no better success.—
Doctor Bathron seemed desperate ; but con-
ceiving that, in so young a subject, one short
cut, be it ever so deep, could do no harm, his
hand shook, and he gave the scalpel its full force,
till he found it touch the bone. The experi-
ment was now complete ; he opened the wound,
and starting back, affected to be struck with
horror, threw down his knife, stamped and swore
the child was, in filet, either the devil or a haus
nat era, for that he could see the very bone, and
the child was actually coal-black to the bone, and
the bone black also, and that he would not have
taken a thousand guineas to have given a single
gash to a thing which was clearly supernatural—
actually dyed in grain. He appeared distracted ;
however, the child's arm was bound up, a good
poultice put over it, the blister hastily removed
from the other arm, and the young gentleman,
fortunately for Dr. Bathron, recovered from the
scarification, and lived with an old dry-nurse for
four or five years. He was then killed by a cow
of his father's horning him, and died with the
full reputation of having been a devil in
which was fully corroborated by a white sister.

MARY LEB ONE.

Yesterday Dr. Algernon Sidney Vandenburgh,
who had been represented to be a student in medi-
cine, but is ascertained to be a medical practitioner,
in the vicinity of Bethnal•green, and who failed to
answer his recognizance from Tuesday night, came
before Mr. HOSKINS, the Sitting Magistrate, by
summons.

Mr. HOSKINS, addressing Dr. Vandenburgh—
Why did you neglect to attend here yesterday, Sir ?
Defendant—l was taken ill with the cramp in my
stomach, Sir, and I could not come.
. .

MAGISTRATE—WeII, Sir, you are likely to feel
another kind of cramp, since your recognizance fur
201. is entreated by your non-attendance here.
The police constable D 127 (William Essex),
was upon his beat at the corner of Upper Baker-
street, Park-road, on Tuesday night, when called in
to assist the landlord of the -Volunteer tavern, who
was annoyed by the defendant's forcing his way into
the house, and quarrelling with the Marquis of
Hertford's servants. That Nobleman was giving
an entertainment, or fete, and had directed his
people to refresh themselves at the Volunteer; and
in trying to get the Doctor out, the latter knocked
three of the complainant's teeth into his mouth.
Defendant was takent with difficulty to the station-
house, where inspector Cresswell set him a tliberty on
his recognizance.

Dr. Vandenburgh, upon the day named,had been
dining with the Lumber Troop, at the Eyre Arms, St.
John's Wood, and must have been looking for a cabrio-
let on his return; but how he got into the volunteer
house,or what happened there, he was unconscious of.
MAGISTRATE—WeII, Sir, you are fined 3/. for this
assault on the constable.

Defendant paiu the penalty.
MARLBORO UGH-STREET.

Mrs. Molly Hill, an elderly lady weighing about
twenty stone, brought Mrs. Betsy and Miss Betsy
Grace, before Mr. DYER, for having, with malice
aforethought, inflicted a pinch on her left arm, and a
scratch on one of her ample cheeks.
From Mrs. Hill's version of the story, it appears
that Mrs. Betsy Grace had flung a pail of water
over her little boy Bobby, and upon her going to
demand an explanation of this proceeding, Miss
Betsy " kicked up a combustion," which eventu-
ally ended in one of them perpetrating the pinch,
and the other the scratch. To prove the truth of
her statement, she declared that she had brought a
whole volume of witnesses, who were waiting
outside.

Mrs. Betsy Grace, in explanation of the affair of
the pail of water, declared that as she was "slush-
ing" her door, the child " jumped quite promiscu-
ously through it. Whereupon," continued Mrs.
Grace, " Mrs. Hill, who was tosticated in liquor,
came flying over to my house like a roaring lion,'
and knocked successively at my door in a most vio-
lent manner. I went out, and says to her, 'Do, my
good woman, hear reason„ as I wanted to talk to her
in the most sensible manner; but no, your Worship,
she calls me every thing but a lady, and abuses my
darter, who came to hear the rumption,' with
everything she could lay her tongue to.
Mr. DYER, understanding they all lived in South-
ampton-court, inquired why they could not live
peaceably together ?
Why, your Worship, said Mrs. Grace, my hus-
band and her'n moves in werry different circ►es now,
for, now we've left off taking in washing, we keeps
the werry first society ; me and my family are parti-
cular intimate with Mr. Smith, the great muffin
maker, and my darter wisits the family of the
Jone,'s, as keeps a large wholesale green-grocer's at
the corner of our court, on terms of equal footing.
So as we ranks ourselves above low people, we
don't associate with Mrs. Hill and her family.

Mr. DYER recommended the parties to retire and
settle ; but Mrs. Hill, who felt the indignity offered
to the gentility of her family more than the assault,
proposed such unreasonable terms as the price of
conciliation, that they were all compelled to apply
to the Magistrate again, who at once dismissed the
warrant.