The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-09-21 00:00:00

r columns with details
he Locos have c

,uffering a shocking fright, and have car-
es of the Legislature by the skin of their

A the J

.suits at Rome is

tare where a violent wind is ever blow-
eason of it. One day the wind and the
a walk in Rome, and being at last ar-
; of the Jesuits, the devil said to the
sere, I have a word to say within."
in emerged from the house.

for him at the door
xs, et des Legendes

)SITION

A good story is

told by a friend of egg-hatching by steam. While the
operation was going on in Baltimore, and while hundreds
were examining its wonders daily, an old lady called at the
door, and paid her quarter for admission. Once inside,
she took the gentleman who conducted the apparatus by
the button, and wanted he should tell her all about it;
how the machine worked ; how much it cost ; where they
whether or not it was really a fact
kens running about the floor
She then gave a detailed

were to be bong}
that the brood of

h pout tr

machines would do the thing
le'd buy one. After she had
the gentleman proceeded to
Tin were deposited the eggs in
ion. The old lady looked with
" she exclaimed, " do you use
is the answer. " Then," said
She," I consider this a perfect piece of imposition—a
lownright swindle, to pick the pockets of honest people !
Why, anybody can hatch chickens with egos. I can do
it myself, and not charge nothing for the sight either."
And the old lady made her way out in a mighty huff,
muttering to herself, " What impudence ! to charge a
woman two shillings to see chickens hatched out of eggs !

heaper

;how her th

La me!

astonishmer
eggs .?" " Certain

American
GIVING A

NT A CH

•As for that Wit-

tals, there was no bearing with him either; for as bad as
he was before, I declare if that Duffy hadn't so inoculated
him with all the airs of a grown-up footman, that, upon
-4 he seemed to think it a positive disgrace to
So I told him, very quietly, I had

my wort.,

work for his living

been turning it over in my mum, ably vraau
to better himself, I should be very happy to exert myself
to find him an excellent situation, and make it a moral
duty to give him a good character, which, I said, he knew
as well as I did, he didn't deserve. And nicely I caught
it for my kindness, after all; for, bother take it ! he went
on so shamefully in his new place, that I declare if his
brute of a master didn't begin an action against us, for
giving a servant a bad character; and we had to compro-
mise it by paying goodness knows how much ! However,
1 determined that this should be a lesson to me not to
give any more good characters in a hurry, but to speak
the truth in future. So, when that Duffy, who was out
of place again six months, came to me, as thin as a Ger-
man umbrella, and as meek as a pew-opener, to hope that
I would look over what had past, and say a good word for
him, I told him pretty plainly, " Oh, yes ! I'd speak for
him, and do him perfect justice, he might rest assured."
Accordingly, I just gave a plain, unvarnished statement
of all his goings on, and shameful pilferings, when, of
course, the party refused to have anything at all to do
with him. And then, bother take it, if he didn't get some
pettifogging lawyer to bring an action against us for libel
(truth is a libel, Edward says)—so that, positively, this
time we had to pay goodness knows how much more again
for giving a servant a good character—drat it ! This very
naturally convinced me that the only safe way of acting
was to refuse to give any character at all to servants.
Accordingly, when that stupid, stupid cook—whom I'd
little or no fault to find with, excepting that she was so
taken-up with Wittals and Duffy that I thought it best to
give her notice to go when they did, lest she should set
the new servants against their place—accordingly, I say,
when she wished to know when it would suit me to see
the lady with whom she was going to live, I told her that
she needn't think of sending any of her ladies to me, for
I had made up my mind not to say one word about her
conduct either one way or the other. And then—drat
that common law, which Mr. Edward will have is the
perfection of common sense—we had another plaguy ac-
tion brought against us, and had a third time to pay as
much as would have bought us two beautiful opera pit
7.)r the season, for taking the bread out of a per-
ms mouth, and refusing to give a servant any character

tickets

at all.—The greatest Plague of Life.
AN Lusa HANGMAN.—We may mention, in passing,
that one circumstance which contributed to the strange
contradiction exhibited at an Irish execution, turning that
awful scene into an opportunity for merriment and jest,
was the character and dress of the hangman. That func-
was generally disguised in a fantastic manner,
--suited to the occasion. On his face he wore a
grotesque masque, and on his back an enormous hump,
in the whole resembling Punch in the puppet show. The
original design of this apparent levity was to protect the
executioner by the disguise, and it was in some degree ne-
cessary. The use he made of the hump was curious. It
was formed of a large wooden binvl dish, laid between his
shoulders, and covered with his clothes. When the
criminal was turned off, and the " dusting of the scrag-
boy " began, the_hangman was assailed, not merely with
shouts and curses, but often with showers of stones. To
escape the latter, he ducked down his head, and opposed
his hump as a shield, from which the missiles rebounded
with a force that showed how soon his skull would have
been fractured if exposed to them. After some antics,
the finisher of the law dived among the sheriff's attend-
ants, and disappeared. This grotesque figure, surrounded
by two or more human beings, struggling in the awful
agonies of a violent and horrible death, was regarded by
the mob as presenting a funny and jocular contrast.
Many anecdotes are recorded of the levity of hangmen
eminent in their day. The last and most notorious of the
craft was " Tom Galvia." He is not very long dead, and
in his old age was often visited at Kilmninham gaol by
persons who indulged a morbid curiosity to see him and
the rope with which he had hanged most of his nearest
relations. One of his practical facetim was to slip the
rope slily round a a visitor's neck, and give it a sudden
chuck, which would nearly cause the sensation of strang-
ling. He was brutally unfeeling in the discharge of his
horrid duty, and when a reprieve would come to some
wretch whose hanging he anticipated, he would almost
cry with disappointment at the loss of his fee, and say,
"it is a hard thing to be taking the bread out of the
mouth of an old man like me !" He was always impa-
tient at any delay made by the convict. When the
wretched Jemmy O'Brien was about to be executed, he
exhibited the greatest terror, and lingered over his devo-
tions, to protract his life thus for a few moments. Gal-
vin's address to him is well known. He called out at the
door, so as to be heard by all the by-standers, as well as
by the criminal, " Mr. O'Brien, jewel, long life to you,
make haste wid your prayers ; de people is getting tired
under the swing-swong. '--Sketchesoflreland6oyearsago.
THE MASSACRE OF VASSI.—On Sunday, the Ist of
March, 1652, the Duke de Guise, attended by his family
and by the Cardinal de Guise, left Joinville for Paris. It
appears that during his stay at Joinville, his mother An-
toinette de Bourbon, had complained of the insolence of
the Huguonots, who presumed to hold their preachings at
Vassi, close upon the gates of her castle. " The Duke
began to mutter," says the historian, "eta s'animer dans
son courage, mordant sa barbe ;" biting his lips as was
his custom when he was angry, and " such were the dis-
positions," says De Thou, whose account has been chiefly
followed, " which seemed to prepare the miserable event
that ensued." The route of the Duke unfortunately lay
through Vassi, where he arrived early in the morning,
followed by his numerous and splendid train. His design,
" design he had, appears to have been to disperse the Hu-
if assembled, but not to offer violence to any
person in particular. As he entered the town he heard a
bell ringing, and asking what that was for, he was an-
swered it was to call the Protestants to meeting. Upon
that a loud and confused cry of joy was heard among the
crowd of valets, lackeys, and other attendants travelling
with him. "It seemed like the cry of a body of military
adventurers rejoicing in the prospect of plunder." As the
Duke proceeded, he was met by some of the principal offi-
cers of the place, who to prevent disturbance begged of
him to pass the building where the assembly was being
held, without stopping ; but while he was in discourse
with them, several of his people had approached the meet-
ing-house, (it was a barn which the Huguonots had pur-
chased, and might hold aboutl2oo people,) and had begun
to abuse those assembled, " calling them dogs and rebels
to God and to the King. High words were returned by
the Huguonots, and the affray began. A shower of stones
was thrown by the Duke's servants, who soon tore down
the door of the chapel, and rushing furiously in, sword in
hand, fell upon the assembled multitude, striking down
and massacring all they met. A dreadful confusion en-
sued. The women and children rent the air with their
shrieks and cries, vainly endeavouring to escape ; the men
calling loudly for help. A few only put themselves on
their defence, for they were all, in obedience to the edict,
unarmed. The tumult was so great that the noise reached
the ears of the Duchess de Guise ; who, travelling in her
litter, was a short distance in advance of the rest ; and she
instantly despatched an express to her husband, to entreat
him to spare innocent blood. Her messenger found the
Duke standing at the door of the barn, endeavouring, some
say, to allay the disorder, but at the moment a stone un-
fortunately struck him on the face ; and his people, seeing
the blood stream from his mouth, and glad of an excuse
for further violence, now set no bounds to their fury. In
spite of his prayers and menaces, the carnage was horrible,
the rage of the murderers being only appeased when not a
creature remained in the chapel. Sixty were left dead
upon the spot, and more than two hundred wounded or
male prisoners.—The Protestant Reformation in France,
by the author of" Father .Darcy."

4ionary
ii

uonots