Curiosities of Street Literature. Various

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Название Curiosities of Street Literature
Автор произведения Various
Жанр Языкознание
Серия
Издательство Языкознание
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4064066201906



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       TRIAL, CHARACTER, CONFESSION, BEHAVIOUR, & EXECUTION OF ALICE HOLT, In front of Chester Gaol, this day, for the Wicked Murder of her own Mother.

       CRUEL AND INHUMAN MURDER Of a little Boy, by his Father . COMMITTAL OF THE PRISONER.

       LAMENTATION & CONFESSION OF J. R. JEFFERY Who now lies under sentence of death, for the wilful murder of his little boy.

       MURDER OF A WIFE AT ASHBURNHAM, NEAR HASTINGS.

       LAMENTATION & FAREWELL TO THE WORLD OF JOHN FLETCHER AND ANN LAWRENCE

       EXECUTION OF MICHAEL BARRETT,

       EXECUTION OF ALLEN, GOULD, & LARKIN,

       The Last Moments and Confession OF WM. SHEWARD.

       THE EXECUTION OF JOHN DEVINE, In front of Newgate, for the Murder of JOSEPH DUCK, at Marylebone.

       LIFE, TRIAL, CONFESSION, AND EXECUTION OF MARTIN BROWN, FOR THE DIABOLICAL MURDER ON NEWMARKET HILL NEAR, LEWES.

       EXECUTION OF ALEXANDER MACKAY For the Wilful Murder of Mrs. Grossmith.

       SHOCKING MURDER OF A WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN.

       EXECUTION F. HINSON, Who suffered the extreme penalty of the law, at the Old Bailey, this morning, Monday, December, 13th, 1869, for the Wilful Murder of Maria Death.

       Execution of J. Rutterford, At Bury St. Edmunds, for the MURDER of J. HIGHT.

       THE HEROES OF THE GUILLOTINE AND GALLOWS, OR, THE AWFUL ADVENTURES OF Askern, Smith and Calcraft, the Three Rival Hangmen

       Table of Contents

      In selecting and arranging this collection of “Street Papers” for publication, every care has been taken to print them verbatim et literatim. They all bear the printer’s name and address were such is used, and, in many cases, the wood-cuts have either been borrowed or purchased for the purpose of presenting them in their original style. The real object being to show, in the most genuine state, the character and quality of the productions written expressly for the amusement of the lower orders by street-authors. The general instruction given to our printer has been to “set up word for word from copy, with the exception of sɹǝʇʇǝʃ pǝuɹnʇ (sic) and those of a WROng FoNT (?)”—it being thought quite unnecessary to repeat these convenient and at that time compulsory “Errors of the Press” and which were very common in former days with the printers and publishers of street and public-house literature; arising alike from a want of skill in the art, a deficiency of capital, and the hurried manner in which they were prepared and worked off to meet the momentary demand.

      Old “Jemmy” Catnach—whose name is ever associated with the literature of our streets—was a man who hated “innowations,” as he used to call improvements, and had a great horror of buying type, because, as he used to observe, he kept no standing formes, and when certain sorts run short, he was not particular, and would tell the boys to use anything which would make a good shift. For instance, he never considered a compositor could be aground for a lowercase l while he had a figure of 1 or a cap. I to fall back upon; by the same rule, the cap. O and figure 0 were synonymous with “Jemmy;” the lower-case p, b, d, and q, would all do duty for each other in turn, and if they could not always find roman letters to finish a word with, why the compositor knew very well that the “reader” would not mark out italic.

      The feud existing between these rival publishers, who have been somewhat aptly designated as the Colburn and Bentley of the “paper” trade, never abated, but, on the contrary, increased in acrimony of temper until at last not being content to vilify each other by words alone, they resorted to printing off virulent lampoons, in which Catnach never failed to let the world know that “Old Mother Pitts” had been formerly a bumboat woman, while the Pitts announced that—

      “All the boys and girls around,

      Who go out prigging rags and phials,

      Know Jemmy Catsnatch!!! well,

      Who lives in a back slum in the Dials.

      He hangs out in Monmouth Court,

      And wears a pair of blue-black breeches,

      Where all the “Polly Cox’s crew” do resort

      To chop their swag for badly printed Dying Speeches.

      At length Catnach, from the possession of greater capital and business acumen, became—to use the words of our informant—“the Cock of the Walk,” and continued so until his retirement in 1839. In his Will—or Last Dying Speech—which was proved April, 1842, “James Catnach, of Dancer’s Hill, South Mimms, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, formerly of Monmouth Court, Monmouth Street, printer, bequeathed the whole of his estate to his sister Anne, the widow of Joseph Ryle, in trust, nevertheless, for her daughter, Marion Martha Ryle, until she obtain the age of twenty-one years. Witnesses—William Kinsey, 13, Suffolk St., Pall Mall, Solr. Wm. Tookey his clerk.”