The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-23 00:00:00

CONVICTIO

OP BERNARD CA,VA.NAGII, THE
PASTING" IMPOSTOR.

(Brom

e Berkshire Chronicle.)

This well-known personage, whose professed powers of
total abstinence from mortal food" have imposed upon
;ullibility of thousands of persons, both in
n Ireland (whence Cavanagh came), has at
that punishment and exposure which he
On Friday evening last Cavanagh, accom-
man named Tiernan (who, it would ap-
of showman t , this " wonderful natural
homo), arrived in this town, and took
k Boy public-house, Broad-street,
t day by his brother, a paek-man.
of his arrival by the distribution of
cards and handbills on the following morning, one of

Itonned

forth Cavanagh's pretensions, we subjoin:—
UNARY PHENOMENON. -The celebrated
igh, from the county of Mayo, who has ex-
ttention from the medical and scientific world,
is excessive powers of abstinence, which are
all doubt, is now i❑ this town, and invites

of so singular a phenomenon to
pay him a visit at the Black Boy, Reading, during his stay.
A few cf his philosophical friends in London, wishing to
gain some additional light upon this case, have advised him
to give this general invitation, and make no distinct charge

all inquireri i

for admissions ; but as the expenses of travelling about the
country with his brother, who eats like other men, will be
beyond their means, any friendly donation will be thankfully

received

During the week a considerable number of persons visited
Cavanagh, but, as there was no direct charge for admittance,
although all were expected to give something for beholding
such an extraordinary spectacle, the amount of plunder col-
lected by the fasting crew was not perhaps so large as might
have been expected. Numerous questions were put to him

by many of these visitors ; and as he appeared rather reserved
in answering them, and evidently anxious to avoid saying
more than he was compelled to do, suspicion was naturally
excited that his pretended " miraculous gift" was a gross
imposture. Among the visitors on Wednesday evening was
a woman named Hatt, the wife of a labourer, residing in
Crown-street, in this borough, who went with some friends
to see Cavanagh, and question him respecting his wonderful
existence without partaking of any description of food. The
replies to these questions were not considered satisfactory by
Mrs. Hatt ; and to this circumstance the detection of Cava-
nagh, which is rather of a singular character, is entirely
owing. On the next morning Mrs. Hatt went to a shop in
Southampton-street, which many of our readers will recollect
is in quite a distant part of the town, where provisions are
sold, and, while conversing with the shopkeeper in a room
at the back of the shop, a person, whom she instantly recog-
nised as Cavanagh, with a handkerchief tied nearly over his
eyes, and a black patch on his nose to disguise himself as
much as possible, entered the shop and asked for "a quarter
of a pound of ham cut fat, a saveloy, and three-pennyworth
of bread," which this famous "faster" having received and
paid for, he departed no doubt for the purpose of secretly par-
taking of them. I t now being plain that " creature comforts"
were as essential to his existence as to that of other mortals,
his detector determined to unmask the hypocrite, and imme-
diately proceeded to tha Black Boy, where she ascertained
that Cavanagh was gone out for a walk and had not returned,
upon which she patiently waited an hour and a half, when he
made his appearance, though not disguised as before. The
landlord of the public-house was made acquainted with the
facts of the case, and the police were sent for, Mr. Houlton,
the superintendent, with assistants, promptly repaired to the
spot, and Cavanagh and his man Tiernan were immediately
taken before the mayor, Mr. S. Chase, for examination.
Mrs. Hatt persisted in her statement of the facts, and the
landlord of the public-house corroborated so much of her
evidence as came under his observation.

The prisoner was convicted as a rogue and vagabond, and
sentenced to three months' hard labour.

John Tierman, who acted as doorkeeper and servant to the
last prisoner, was also convicted as a petty chapman trading
without a license, and sentenced to one month's hard labour.
Cavanagh's brother, the packman, had left the town the day
day previous, and will probably escape punishment.
Cavanagh, on being asked whether he had anything to say
in defence, said " that if he did say anything it would not be
believed, and he might, therefore, as well say nothing ;" but
on finding conviction inevitable, he said, "the Lord caused
me to be hungry and I did eat." On being taken to the
gaol he said, " I; was true he told the woman (Mrs. Hatt)
that he had fasted five years and six months, but he did not
tell her that he ate and drank like other men now," He was
then safely lodged in " durance vile," where we have no
doubt that the salutary exercise of the treadmill will be ac-
companied by an apetite for the prison diet.

A. WIFE WANTED

The following advertisement, which appeared in a contem-
porary of Saturday last, served to excite the curiosity of
many :

A. WIFE WANTED.—James Miller, of Mixbury, begs to
inform the young lady with whom he has been some time ac-
quainted with, that he will on and after Monday next peram-
bulate the High-street daily, from the hour of one to three
o'clock, with a White Favor in his hat; and if the lady to
whom he alludes cannot make up her mind immediately to
become his wife, he will think no more of her, and seek a
more willing partner elsewhere.—Oxford, Nov. 10,1811."
The appearance of this seeker after " double blessedness"
was, as might be expected, the signal fora concourse of boys,
who began hooting and jeering the unfortunate individual who
thus publicly wooed the bonds of Hymen; and although at
the time apparently nothing daunted by the wet (for it was a
dismal lover's day), or the ridicule of the mob who ac-
companied him in his perambulations, Mr. Miller did not
show after Monday. Whether his disappearance was caused
by the success of his suit, the badness of the weather, or the
rudeness of his reception, deponent (i.e. Cupid) sayeth not.
To let our readers a little more into the secret we shall favour
them with the following particulars :—About three weeks or
a month since, we were called from the breakfast-table to a
confidential interview on particular business. The applicant
for our private ear appeared to be an old man on the wrong
side of seventy, with silvery white hair and unshaven beard
of the same colour, dressed in a velveteen coat, and looked
altogether like a decent venerable cottager come from the
country. He stated that he had walked that morning from
a village near Banbury, for the purpose of putting an ad-
vertisement in the paper concerning a lady who was in love
it whose presence he had some difficulty in ap-
The fair damsel was both young and handsome,
d property to the amount of £50,000, bnt
ately possessed a father who would not listen
ties, but threatened to kick her lovesick swain
out of the house if he dared to darken his doors on any
fut r! occasion. Our friend was certain that if his lady-love
ki ew where to find him, nothing on earth would detain her
fro., flying to his arms; but in case she was faithless, he
would take up with one of two other ladies, possessing, one
£70,000, the other £BO,OOO, both of whom were dying for
him, only they were rather too old, being nearly forty. On
our suggesting the propriety of communicating by letter with
these ladies, our gallant confessed that a friend had told him
of them, but was forbidden to mention either their names or
residences, and it was now his wish to put in the paper an
advertisement, that they might know where to find him.
We, thinking that the old man, who appeared to be of a
kind, open-hearted disposition, had been imposed on by
some rascal, who deserved to be put in the stocks for his
pains, or that he was not quite sane, advised him to take
some other method of communicating his readiness to enter
into the connubial state with either of these ladies, as an ad-
vertisement would inevitably bring on him the ridicule of the
mob, by whom he would be hooted and hunted in a manner
not very agreeable. The old gentleman seemed pleased with
the advice, wished us good morning, saying he would come
and see us again as soon as he was married, and treat us with
" a glass"' and he was sure he should not have to wait long,
as "a fortune-teller had promised him very soon a very
rich and handsome wife." We had not seen the old gentle-
man since, till he made his appearance on Monday in the
High-street and Corn-Market, according to his appointment
in the advertisement. We have heard, that he then believed
the first-mentioned young lady was sent to Oxford to be out
of his way, and that she was in lodgings in the High-street.
As he has not made his appearance since, we trust that
some friends have prevailed on the poor deluded old man
to return to his home and comfortable fire-side for the
winter.—Oxford Herald.

wi;h him, be

proaehing.
and posses