The Worthington advance., 1882-01-05
.sJANUS WEATnERCOCK.n

Some of our readers may recall the re-
markable career Of q man named Vain
wright. who dourished III England about
fifty years ago, and bore many striking re-
semblances to the man now on trial for the
assassination of President Garfield. The
late James T. Fields gave the following
graphic account of this "clever rascal, as
he called him in paper published in
Harper's Magazine five or six years ago,
andafterwards rereprinted in q small VOL
ume under the title of Barry Corn we'll and
Some of his Friends:"
"Proctor, in his Younger days, was evi-
IDENTIFY much impressed by that clever ras-
cal who. under the name of Janus Weather.
cock, scintillated at intervals in the old
London Magazine. Wainwright for that
was his real name-was SO brilliant,
that he made friends for time among
many of the first class contributors to that
once famous periodical; but the Ten Com.
mandments ruined all his prospects for
life. A murderer, forger, thief-in
short, 3 sinner in general-he came to grief
rather early in his wicked career, and suf-
fered penalties of the law accordingly, but
never to the extent of his remarkable
deserts. have heard Proctor describe his
personal appearance as he came sparkling
into the room, clad in undressed military
costumes. His smart conversa ion declared
those about him into the belief that he had
been an officer in the dragons, that he had
spent a large fortune, and now condescend-
cd to take part IN periodical literature with
the culture of a gentleman and grace of an
amateur. How this vapi1 cha,laten in q
braided surtout and prismatic necktle
could 80 long veil his real character from,
and retain the legard of, such men as
Proctor and Talfourd and Coll ridge is
amazing. Lamb called him the kind and
lighthearted Janus, and thought he liked
him. The contributors often spoke of his
gulltless nature at the festal mouthly board
Of the magazine, and no enc dreamed th..t
this gay and mock smiling London cavalier
was about to begin career SO foul and mon
strous that the annals of crime for centuries
have no blacker pages inscribed on them To
secure the means of luxurious living with
out labor, and to pamper his dandy tastes
this lounging, lazy literature resolved to
become murderer on large scale, and
accompany his cruel poisoningy with for
aorles whenever they were most convenient
His custom for years was to effect policies
of insurance Oh the lives of his relations,
and then, at the proper time, administer
strychnine to his victims. The heart sick
ems at the re cital of his brutal crimes. On
the life OF the beautiful young girl named
Abercremble, this fendish wretch effected
an insurance at various Offices for ELS, 900
before he sent her to her account with the
rest OF his poisoned too confi''ing relatives
So many heavily insured ladies
dying in violent commissions
drew attention to the gentleman
who always called to collect the money.
But why this consummate criminal was not
brought to justice and hung, my Lord
Adinger never satisfactorily dlvulRed. At
last this polished Sybarite, who boasted
that he always drank the richest Montepul-
ciana, who could not sit long in q room that
was not garlanded with fowels, who said
he fell lonely in an apartment without a
fine cast of the Venus de Meiici in it-this
self indulgent voluptuary at least commit
ted several forgeries on the Bank of Eng
Land, and the Old Bailey sessions of July,
1887, sentenced him to transportation for
life. While he was lying in Ne1gate, prior
to his departure with other convicts to New
South Wales, where he died, Dickens went
with former acquaintance of
the prisoner to see him. They
found him still possessed with a
morbid self esteem and poor
oAuPey s~AASys AL CCA6I 3cOlluRE anu III.
terests were overwhelmed by an excessive
idolatry of self. and he claimed Il now
quote his own words to Dickens) soul
whose nutriment is love, and its offspring
art, music, divine song, and still holie, phil
osophy. To the last this super. refined
creature seemed undisturbed by remorse,
What place can We fancy for such reptile,
and what do We learn from such q career?
Talfourd has so wisely summed up the case
for us that leave the dark tragedy with
the recital of this solemn sentence from a
paper on the cuIprit in the Final Memorials
of Charles lamb
'Wainwrlght's vanity, nurtured by sell
fishness and unchecked by religion, became
disease amounting perhaps to monoma-
mia, and yielding one lesson to repay the
world for his existence, viz: that there is
no state of the soul so dangerous as that in
which the voice of the sensualist are enven
omed by tho groveling intellect of the
sooner"