The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-11-04
crx F,wxes-At midnight, on tbe.5th of

Grr FAykEs.-At midnight, on tbe.1th OF
November, in the year OF grace one 'tuous-
and six hundred and FIVE, Guido Fawkes,
:. gentleman" was discovered, booted ana
cn,,rred ;, In the vicinity Of St. Stephens
chanel. having on his person "three
matches. finder box, and a dark lantern -; y;
and purposing, by means of gunpoWders 10
blow I'D. says King james, the whole nobll.
ity. the most part OF the knights and gentry"
besides I" the whole judges of the land, Win
most of the lawyers, and the whole clerks"
For this one indiscretion, Guido FaWkes
has forfeited his gentility, and become
proyerb of wickedness. In boyhood we
looked upon Guido Fawkes, gentleman, as
one a little lower than the devil he had
four horns and dozen tails. Years That
bring the philosophic mind" have Invested
him of these excresences and appendages,
and Guido Fawkes now appears TO matured
charities merely person OF slnSu!arly
eccentric disposition.
Some fiye-and-twenty years ago it was the
Datriotic custom Of the authorities OF an Isle
of Shepley dock-yard to bestow upon their
apprentices few wagon-loads oil reslnous
timber. that bonfire worthy of the cause IT
celebrated might be kindled from the pubic
purse-that the effigy Of the arch-tcnd Guy
might be consumed in Il fire three times hot
ter than the fire of furnace. Such fierce
lberalitv was not lost upon the towns peo-
pie. Their ardor in the burning business
smouldercd not: every man subscribed his
plank or log and, from the commission in
his uniform to Bobby in his pinafore. the
9TH of November glowed, in the calendar OF
their minds, pillar of fire.
For month before the day the coming
anniversary busted the thoughts Of boyish
eyecutioners, resolved to show that patriot
ism in the appointment of their Guy--in the
erotcsaue iniquity of his face, in the cum
brous state of his large armchair. To beg
clothes from door to door was then the bust
ness of every lover of Church and State. To
ask for coat, pair Of breeches, shirt the
friI could be made of paper, hose, and hat,
was not mendicity, but the fulflllnent OF a
high social duty.
Guv Fawkes would at length be dressed.
4 philosopher might have found good mat
ter in his cleemosynary suit. In the coat of
the bloodthirsty wretch, he might have re-
cooniZed the habit of Scum, the slopscler, q
quiet trader ailoat of 100000; in the rest of
the yilainous rutfian, the discarded waist
coat of Smallgrog, the honest landlord of q
little home for sailors; in the stockings OF
the atrocious miscreant, the home of the
equitable Weeyil, biscuit contractor to bis
Majesty's fleet; while for the bother of the
tiendlike ef1igy Guy Fawkes was to be en-
hibited, and afterwards burned, i'll the broad
toed shoes Of that best of men, Trap the
town attorney.
The chair, too, in which Guy Fawkes sat,
might it not have some day enshrined a JUS
tce of the peace? and the lantern, fixed in
the hand Of the diaboical, lynx-eyed mon
ster, might it no. have been the property OF
the most amiable and most sOmnolent OF the
Blue Town watchmen? And then the mask
fixed upon the cffigy, or the lump of clay
kneadcd into hnman features, and horribly
or delcatcly expressed, according to the be-
ncvoent art of the makers, might not the
same visor have been worn by perfect gen.
tlcman, With considerable advantage, at
masquerade might not the clay nose and
mouth of the loathsome traitor have borne
an accidental likeness to the very pink of
patriots? Let philosophy ponder well on
Guy Fawkes.-From JcrrotFs "FtreSade
SAINTS and Other Papers," in press By Lee
d. Shepard.