The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1845-09-19
From CHAMBERS Edinburgh Journal.
.Hu..iers of India,

Vi lilat COunlI y, WHlCIl, tuoupn tamil
lar to persons acquainted with cas-
tern matters, may be new to man,
Of the readers Of these pages.
A party Of jugglers came FORWARD
on one occasion to perform publicl,
in the yard of the barracks at Mad
ras. Many hundreds of people of al
kinds, ages and denominations inclu
ding the soldiery of the establish
ment, assembled to witness the ex
hlbition, and some little Temporal,
arrangements were made, that al
might hear conveniently.
The leaders of the performance
who were all of course, natives o
Hlndostan, requested the comman.
ding officer to place a guard around
the scene of display, a prccautior
which was adopted and proved We
ry wise one. The floor of the court
be it observed, was composed O
sand, firm and well trodden. On
this ground, then, after some prclim.
mary tricks of an interior kind, one
man was left alone with little Girl
the latter seeming 8 or years old
Beside them stood a tall, narrow has
kct, perhaps three or four feet high,
by little more than a foot in width,
and open at the top. No other OBJ
IJect, living or inanimatc, appeared
upon the ground. After short pc
Rod spent by the man in convcrsing
with the girl, he seemed to get an
cry, and began to rail loudly at her
for her neglect of some wish of his.
The child attempted to soothe him,
but he continued to show an increas-
ed degree of irritation as he went
on.
By degrees he dashed himself into
such apparent fury that the foam ac-
tually stood upon his lips, and being
naturally of an unpreposcssing coun-
tenance, he looked to the white
spectators at least as like an enraged
demon as might be. Finally his
wrath at the girl rose seemingly to
an uncomfortable height, and he sci
zed her and put her beneath the bas-
ket; or rather, turned the open
mouth Of the basket over her person.
She was thus shut up entirely, the
turned bottom Of the basket closing
her in above. Having thus disposed
of the child in spite of her screams
and entreaties, the man drew his
sword, which was as bright as the
surface of a mirror and he appeared
as if about to wrcak some further
evil on the object of his ire. And
after some moments, in which he
talked to himself and to the enclosed
girl, as if justifying his anger, he did
actually at length plunge the sword
down into the basket and drew it out
dripping with blood or at least blood
red drops! The child screamed pit
eously from her person, but in vain,
for the man plunged the weapon
again and again in the scene of her
confinement. As he did so, the cries
OF the girl became faint by degrees,
and in the end died away altogether
The deed or death was consumma-
ted.
SO, at least, thought most of the
horror struck persons who witnessed
this action. And well it was for the
chief performer in it, that he reques-
ted guard to be placed, for it re-
CURED all the eXertions of this guard
to prevent the aroused soldiers, who
believed this to be no trick, but Il
diabolical buchcry, from leaping in
to the arena and tearing the man to
pieces. The excitablc Irishmen a
mong the number in particular
ground their teeth against one anoth-
er, and uttered language not very
complimentary to the juggler. Even
the officers, whose better education
and experience made them less open
TO such feelings, grew pale with UNI
easlness. But observe the issue of
all this.
When the man seemed to have
carried his rage to the last cxtremi-
ty, warned perhaps, by the looks of
the soldiers, that it would be as well
to close the exhibition without de-
lay, he raised his bloody sword for
a moment before the eyes of the as
semblage, and then stuck the basket
smartly with it. The basket tum-
oied over on a side, and on the spot
which it had covered, in the place
OF the expected corpse of the girl
whose last groans had Just been
heard, there was secn-nothinpl No
vestagc of dress, or any other thing
to indicate that the girl had ever
been there. The amazement of the
spectators was unboundcd, and it
was, if possible, rendered more in
tense, when, after the lapse of a few
seconds, the identical little girl came
bounding from the side of the court
yard--trom among the spectators
feet, it seemed, and clasped the Jug