The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-13 00:00:00

tfteraturr.

NOTICES.
A Description of the Baths and Washhouses belonging
to the Corporation of Liverpool. Printed under the
direction of the Health Committee.
This pamphlet appear at a very seasonable time, when
the public mind is beginning to be awakened to a know-
ledge of the distressed and comfortless condition of the
poor in the crowded districts of our town, and is occu-
pied with plans to better that condition, and at the same
time to proeect their own health, which is endangered by
the disease engendered in these districts. Proper sans-
aary precautions, it is now felt, do not consist in mere
street drainage and sewerage, or the disuse of cellar habita-
tions. They must he carried into the dwellings and to
the persons of the working classes, who must be taught
that clean skin and clean clothes are as important to
health as a pure atmosphere.
We do not know that any effort could be made more
calculated to promote the personal cleanliness of our po-
pulation than the providing them with cheap baths, and
those ready and efficacious means of washing and drying
which they cannot command in their own small and un-
comfortable dwellings. It has been proved by experience
how gladly they avail themselves of these facilities. From
a table given in the pamphlet before us, it appears that in
the Frederick-street Baths—an establishment on a very
small scale—the total amount received for washing and
baths in 1812-3 was £159 1 ls. Id. ; in 1845-6 the amount
was £437 2s. 6d. The number of clothes washed in 1842-3
was 19,261 dozens ; in 1845-6 it was 24,095, and would
Lave teen enormously increased had the ac:atimmo
dation been equal to the demand fur it. However, it
is gratifying to observe that the speculation is not
altogether a losing one on the part of the Corporation.
We give elsewhere a description of a second and larger
establishment now ready to be brought into operation, and
trust that not many years will elapse before one is found in
every ward in the town. The pamphlet, which is most
ably written, contains plans and elevations of the new
baths in Paul-street, and will well repay perusal by all who
are interested in those philanthropic works by which the
welfare of their fellow-creatures is advanced. It has been
written by John A. Tinne, Esq., who has thus given an-
other evidence of his great exertions—necessarily at the
cost of much self-denial—to athance the moral and social
condition of his poorer fellow-townsmen.

A Romance of Liverpool Life. By John Dignan. Liver-
pool: Ross and Nightingale, Lord•street. Pp. 64.
The unpretending little voluu,e before us has appeared
in :detached chapters in the columns of the Liverpool
Chronicle; and is now republi-hed by the author, at the
request of several friends wbo, having been pleased with
portions of it, have been disappointed in their wish to
complete the tale, some of the numbers of the paper con-
taining it having run out of print. The chief scenes and
Incidents, as may be seen from the title, are laid in Liver-
pool, the whole hinging upon an occurrence connected
with the disasters which took place upon the banks off our
port during the great storm of January 7, 1839. The tale
Is well worked out, and conveys an excellent mural.

We shall not incur the risk-of diminishing the interest
with which our readers may take up the bo k, by giving
any description of the plot and incidents of the sturv. We
prefer increasing the interest by giving an extract or two.
The fo'lowing powerfully described scene contains the
main incident, upon which the remaining events of the
tale are made to hinge :--
" The telegraph speedily made known in Liverpool the
desperate condition of the foundering ships. Aid was sent,
even at the peril of the brave fellows who risked their own
lives, zo save those of their fellow creatures. The life- boat
did good service, the tug-boats were even more successful
in rescuing the unhappy wretches from a horrid death. On
board of the vessel with Mrs. Smithdown and her daugh-
ter, was a steerage passenger, who appeared to take an in-
terest in their safety, afforded them all the protection in
his power, comforted them in their wailings, and extended
a helping hand to save their lives, where he could safely
do so without jeopardising his own. His age seemed to
be about fifty, and a slight pal ois proclaimed him a York-
shireman. Scarcely above the middle size, he possessed a
bard well-knit frame, brawny chest and shoulders, and a
countenance of rude health that showed him capable of
encountering any hardsh p. He was just the man for such
an emergency. He had emigrated two years previOusly,
and was returning to Leeds, where he had left his wife and
family, after a fruitless attempt to better his condition in
America. Whether prompted by the hope of reward, or
the nobler instinct which induces the brave and the hardy
to support those who are too weak to support themselves,
It matters not—probably both feelings combined, for the
sight of a woman and beauty in distress appeals powerfully
to the heart of every man—certain, however, it is. that
from the time the vessel struck, the attentions of Martin
Staple to Mrs. Smithdown and her daughter, were kind
and unremitting. He lashed them to a portion of the
bulwarks with the same piece of rope that secured :iimself
from being washed overboard, de!ermined, apparently, that
they should sink or swim together. A tug-boat came to
the rescue of the foundering vessel, but the sea, boiling
like a cauldron, and the wind still con'inuing high, ren-
dered great caution necessary in approaching her. The
captain of the steamer had apprehensions that he could
not with safety come sufficiently near to take off the pas-
sengers, without certain destruction to his own vessel, and
all on board. Eventually, however, after much manceu-
vring, which seemed an age to the sufferers, the steamer
was brought nearly parallel with the wreck, and many of
the passengers sprang with all the force which an effort to
escape from death inspires, from the vessel to the steamer.
Some succeeded, others failed, and the failure was death
—instant death! It was a leap from life to eternity. and
the death-shriek of those who sunk into the yawning
abyss was lost in the requiem of the passing storm. Sti-
ple urged Mrs. Smithdown, by all the entreaties in his
power, to take the leap. In order to inspire her with cou-
rage he preceded her, and stood on the steamer'. cide to
catch her in his arms. She, poor creature, wild with af-
fright, looked the picture of despair on the vessel's side,
her daughter madly clinging to her garments. But he en-
couraged her by shouts and gestures, to make the attempt.
Once when the steamer, driven by the tide, came a few
inches n.lrer to :Le wreck tbao was safe, he shouted out
in a peal which towered above the blast, Now ! now
ma'am, now or uever!' She sprang, threw her arms
wildly forward, but the impetus being either insufficient,
or Staple proving nervous in the emergency, Mrs. Smith-
down sank into the roaring waters, and was never seen
more. The packet which s'e had deposited for security
in her bosom was in her hand as she took the fatal plunge,
and although Martin Staple was not fortunate enough to
cave the life of poor Mrs.Smithdown, he succeeded by the
merest accident, in grasping this packet, which contained
the bulk of her own and her husband's property. It con-
sisted of a large number of Bank of England notes, dia-
monds, and other valuables, and these he contrived,
quietly and unnoticed, to transfer to his own breast. The
young lady was more fortunate than her unhappy mother,
who thus perished before her eyes, and Staple bestowed on
the broken-hearted girl much generous sympathy."
The purpose to which the stolen packet was appro-
priated, and the visitation of affliction and remorse which
followed the dishonest act, we also give

" Martin was not long in placing himself in a better po-
sition before the world. He took a larger house ; his fa-
mily gave signs of increased comfort ; their appearance at
&lurch in new and gayer attire attracted attention ; and
the " windfall" which had blown a fortune into his fingers,
became the current topic of conversation : it puzzled and
surprised his neighbours. He commenced business as a
woollen manufacturer, first on a small, subsequently on a
more extended ecale. He exported largely to America—
knew how to hit the taste of the market—added consider-
ably to his gains, and in a few years became a wealthy
man. He was assisted in his business by his eldest son,
Henry ; and another son acted as junior clerk in the
counting house. But as Martin Staple grew in wealth, he
found that happiness, without a pure conscience, was un-
attainable. The fanciful notion which prevails in the East,
that in the passage to Paradise some of. the followers of
the Prophet must traverse, barefooted, an iron bridge
made red-hot, as a punishment for their sins, describes,
not inaptly, the living, existing hell by which he was daily
consumed. His soul was constantly seared by an iron as
hot as that which is said to toast the soles of the faithful.
Domestic misfortunes embittered his life. "His youngest
daughter, a lovely creature, sickened and died. His
youngest son, while strolling through the works, was
struck by the machinery, and killed on the spot. His wife
bad indifferent health, and consumption was fastening its
fangs on his eldest daughter, who possessed a form and
face, in the days of his happiness and poverty, that Hebe
might have envied. The destroying Argel seemed to keep
guard over his bonse, and he rarely rote from his pillow
without the fear of some new calamity bursting on his de-
voted head. The foundation of his own constitution was
being sapped, and the hale, hearty Martin Staple was ra-
pidly, prematurely sinking into a feeble, decrepid old man.
" Martin !" said his wife, one day after dinner, when they
were alone, as the well-spread table- which groaned uncFr
every delicacy of the season, was being rep'enished with
a handsome dessert, and wines of the richest and choicest
vintages sparkled on the mahogany,—` Martin I I have
never known a day's happiness since you produced to my
astonished eyes that roll of bank notes you brought from
America. It is a chord lam unwilling to touch, but I
have always had my fears that that wealth would prove
our ruin. Now, when I see my sweet children falling in
the flower of their loveliness before my eyes—now, in the
midst of splendour, when we are' steeped to the eyes in
misery the most excruciating, with decaying health assail-
ing both of us—pardon me, dearest husband. if I ask you
whether your statement of the mode in which you attained
it was correct. I hope it was, but my fears exceed my
hopes.' She (lid touch a chord which thrilled through
every fibre of his frame. kle paused—became excessively
agitated—looked wildly-round him, and his wife, fearing
apoplexy, was proceeding to alarm the inmates of the
house, when he motioned her to desist."
The remaining portion of the tale, with its striking de-
nouement, are wrought out with great skill. We trust
that the issue of this little adventure upon the discrimina-
tion of the public will induce Mr. Dignan to favour us, at
no long interval, with a more sustained effort of his peu.