The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-04-19
sKINNINa.

SkiNNANN. $3.50
~. e;end of humanity can contemplate
-..hor. horror the barbarities which are still
nrscticed upon each other BY portion o.
IL naoule of this civilised State. We scaree-
" take up paper that We do not read OF
some unhappy mortal who, ina politieal en-.
counter. has been remorselessly skinaed by
NJ. enemy, and that in the presence OF =
large multitude, who do not appear TO have
uttered the least remonstrancs At deed Of
such savage cruelty. We have been lately
called upon to deplore the fate Of several Of
eur most respected friends, who. In this
shameful manner, have been deprived Of their
natural covering. The barbarity Of the deed
q increased by the fact that many Of these
rsmorseless operations have been performed
in the coolest days ofthe late Indictment sea.
son, and the unhappy sufferers, deprived OF
their cuticles, ut time when fannels and
cloaks were in requisition, have been ex-
posed to the keenest blasts OF March. II
the horrid deed had been deferred till warm
weather, It would have been tempered In
some sort by mercy. With the thermome-
ter ct lo3. pleasant seat in the shade, with
one Of Pizzini' famous ice creams, and with
. mans skin off, the cool air circulating
freely through his system, would have real
ICED Sidney Smiths idea Of summer happi
mess. tits to be feared, however, such is the
studied and deliberate cruelty Of political
foemsn, that If the election had taken place
in the dog days, instead Of hearing that the
successful combatant had skinned his adver.
sary, We should have been told that he had
roasted him alive. su
. A curious phenomenon in regard to these
skinnings, and -one which affords some con-
ISOLATION, il that the victim does not appear to
be at all aware Of the loss which he has SUI
fered. He goes to his usual place OF bust
ness, appears in the public avenues, attends
church, and even with much grace and COM
placency gallsnts the ladies, without the
slightest seeming consciousness OF the I'M
propriety of presenting himself in more
denuded condition than father Adam Nay
he almost invariably labors under the delu-
sion that it is the skin of his adversary, in
stead of his own, which has been taken on.
Would it not be well, hereafter, in order to
settle the question of victory. that the con-
queror, alter the fashion of the Phihstines
when they fastened the body of Saul to the
wall of Bethshan, should nail the skin of the
vanquished upon the walls of some public
place, say the African Church, where these
hideous operations in this city are generally
performed, so that the community might at
once see with their own eyes whose skin was
taken off, and the friends of the fallen might
have the melancholy satisfaction of identify
ing his hide7 This mode of proceeding might
also be useful in another point of view. The
skin thus stretched out and exposed to the
action Of the sun, would soon be thoroughly
tanned, and might afterwards be made up
into pocket, books, which the conqueror and
his friends might carry about with them as
appropriate memorials Of victory, and also
an suitable place to deposit the spoils,
We are free to concede, however, that this
practice of skinning is a less barbarous Gus
tom than that which prevailed in the last
Presidential election of swallowing an adver-
sary whole. The anaconda mode of engulf.
ing living animal in the stomach must have
been equally distressing to the operator and
the subject. Nevertheless, according to the
political prints of the time, it was formerly a
matter of daily occurrence. Some of our
most valuable citizens mysteriously disap.
peared in this way, and were forever lost to
society and their friends. All over the State
roamed herds of hungry anthropophagi seek
- ing whom they might devour. Neither youth
nor age, talents nor character, were safe
from their voracious maws. Here, young.
plump, blooming lawyer, who had incautious.
ly left the dusty highway of his profession
for fan enticiDg political grove, was suddenly
snapped up, and vanished like an unfortunate
traveller in Ceylon down the throat Of Boa
There, an old and venerable civilist, who's
attenuated form and shrunken skin woult
have protected him from any healthy appe
tite, was bolted with as much apparent gou
as an epicure devours ancient cheese, his DIR,
bones, as they cracked in the monsters jaws
giving forth most melancholy sound. Thel
again, some eminent barrister, in the prim,
oflifs and practice, vigorous and gay in til,
possession of ten thousand year, and vainl,
supposing that his robust and athletic pow
ers would prove more than a match for an,
adversary, has imprudently determined t.
pitch into one of these enemies of the human
face-ah, it proved a pitching i'm indeed
he never came out again; his wife was o
widow and his children tatherless; his eli
ents were deprived of their patron, and ,
slight protuberance in the stomach of his de
stroyer was the only tombstone that told tn,
place of his living grave.
Albeit not in the political line, and HAVING
no sort of appetite for the same, we viii
vouchsafe the politicians our theory Of ex
planning the many political changes. from
Wing to Democrat and from Democrat Z,
Wing. which have occurred in this election
It al arises from the practice of swallov,no
each other, SO freely INDUCED in former : am
paigns. The individual swallowed bec.u.
necessarily assimilated with the ipdix;luo !
swallowing. The Wing going down Dem
oerat's throat, if he ever appear again moo,
the stage of human affairs, must appear !, ,
Novcnnvok and tha nar,on~.x