Evening journal., 1889-12-27
SOME R0GUES RELICS.
A TRIP THROUGH THE BLACK MU-
scum OF SCOTLAND YARD.

Mementoes of Several Notorious Criminals. |
The Great Ingenuity That Has been
Misappiied- GhastIy Relies That Make
the Observers blood Ran Cold.
An intensely gloomy sky a few heavy
drops Of rain, flashes Of lightning and loud
thunder crashing over the great city-these
were the very appropriate accomplishments
OF my descent into that weird chamber,
yclept the Black museum in Scotland yard,
wherein are collected the memorials and rel
les Of great criminals and their hapless vic
Tins Ghastly as are his surroundings, yet
fancy that that which most strikes the
thoughtful visitor Is the terrible misuse Of
great ability which is here 50 remarkably
evidenced by what is shown.
GREAT INGENUITY MIsAPPLiEp.
The police officer win show the ladder in
vented and used by Mr.. Charles Peace, when
bound upon his little night expeditions Of
depreciation and burgling To invent such
an exceedingly clever mechanical contriv-
ance argued the possession on bis part OF end.
less engineering, carpentering and architect
ural capacity; to have been able to use it, as
he used it, proves him to have been capable
OF an acrobatic agility which would, in a
very literal sense, have placed him at the
very head Of performing troupe Of aero.
bats, but which talent, employed as he em-
ployed it, landed him only at last upon the
.bad eminence,n whereon stood the gallows
upon which he met his hideous fate. And
that Lefroy's talents were of no mean ma
ture, despicable and brutal as was his crime,
Is distinctly evidenced by the letter he wrote
to a friend wherein, In we'll set phrases, and
in a clear, bold, and not IN the least in a vul-
gar handwriting, he congratulates him upon
the admirable manner in which he had acted
the part of Mother Hubbard in pantomime
which the poor wretch had written and pro
duced in some hall in the suburbs of London
Brutal as was his crime, contemplate as was
his cowardice which he evnced when brought
face to face with his terrible but well merit
ed fate, yet, as l read the letter, written in
brighter and happier days, could but say to
myself;
''Oh, the pity Of it'll Oh, the pity Of itf'
And then take that little dark lantern into
your hand and study carefully the extremely
able and delicate manner in which it has
been constructed, and you win say that the
man who could so cleverly convert an ordi-
nary Bryant and May match box into such
an admirable bulls eye lantern was surely
| capable of a higher and better walk in life
| than that pursued by the mere common or
| GARDEN burglar Half the ingenuity, half
the energy, half the trouble and worse than
wasted time would have made that man
| wealthy and respectable member of society,
and yet the path illumined by the light from
that cleverly contrived little lantern has only
sufflced to lead him to prison wherein for
| years he must labor at the most degrading
and Improbable work that it is possible to
conceive.
CHASTITY RELICS.
| Very ghastly and very horrible, but 1stil
with fearful interest all their own, are some
of the relics that lie scattered about in rich
| confusion. Lipsks coat and the petticoat Of
his victim, both saturated and burned with
that terrible fluid which he poured down her
throat are there, as also is the very bottle Of
| death itself, ughl how one shudders as one
looks. And there is a murderer's diary, writ
ten in prison, and which contains advice to
| those about to marry, similar to but even
more forcibly expressed than in Punch's cele-
hrated dictum, "Don't.n For it was a wo-
man who had brought him to his horrid end,
at least so he says.
On the shelf beside it is the cast Of a muir
dereris head; and whose head, think youl
/ Why, no less person than the public hang
man himself Grinning, ghastly, horrible as
it is, it recalls forcibly to the mind that hang
man in Dickens novel; "Barnaby Rudge, .
and the craven fear be exhibited when he.
the callous brute who had SO cheerfully put
30 many to death, was himself led out at last
TO face the grisly foe. And then the guide
puts into your hand the pistol with which
O'Donnell shot Carey, the Irish informer,
and there is also the very bullet which was
extracted from the latter's body after death.
Look at this piece Of skin, sir,n said my
kind and courteous guide, putting into my
hand small but very substantial piece OF
black leather; that is part Of Bellingham's
skin, the man who shot Mr.. Percival In the
lobby Of the house of commons A very
| pretty Japanese dagger greatly fascinated
melt was SO dainty, SO beautifully de-
signed, so entirely suited for the adornment
Of an aesthetic West End drawing room. But
| its history is a sad one, for with it a sailor
had stabbed TO the heart a girl who loved
! and trusted him. And ohl how touching are
| the relics of these poor female victims, many
Of them Of terribly low and degraded class
la at least three instances saw well thumbed
| hymn books and prsyer books in which were
scribbled all over the names Of the poor dead
and gone creatures, and in one instance even
the name Of the wretch who had taken her
sunless, wretched life away In that CHASTITY
album Of photographs | saw much that was
of deepest interest, when one took into &C
count the dreadful notoriety which was
attached 70 each celebrated picture.
Tchborne's portrait, taken three years ago,
depicted a very thin, pale faced bearded man,
with not a single particle Of likeness to the
| iovial and corpulent .nobleman" who disap.
| peared from public ken some fifteen years
ago As ! was gazing, with mingled loath.
ing and disgust, at these sickening memorials
Of bygone and a very wicked past, a some
thing touched my face, and, looking up, 1 saw
with shudder that noosed rope was swing
ing above my head "Ah, sir" said the
| policeman, with a grim smile on bis face
"that has done some work in its time.
Come ] said to my friend, ''let us get out
Of this, and, with gasp Of relief, We sprang
out of the gloomy chamber Of sin and death
and out into the sweet wind swept streets
wherein the rain had ceased to fall, and upon
| which Gods sun was shining once again, and
all was life and hope and joy, and the Black
museum but dream-a very real and ghastly
one, but still, to me at all events, dream Of
the guilty, sin laden, deathly past.-London
| Standard.
-.