University of Virginia Library

LETTER FROM THE VICTIM—DREADFUL PUNISHMENT
OF CONSIDER'S NEPHEW.

I shall never forget how Donn Pirate, a District
of Columbia brigand, and I fell out and had a big
fight. I shall also long remember the terrible thrashing
he gave me. I knew I had been whipped by Donn
because I saw the marks on Donn's face and also
talked with the doctor who sponged him off and put
liniment on him. But oh, it was a fearful castigation!
I never want to be whipped again. If ever any man
wants to continue to serve humanity—wants to make
a martyr of himself—wants to reduce himself to a
lump of jelly like the boneless man in the circus, by
whipping me, I hope he will read this and reflect.

This is the way Donn came to thrash me. I tell it
to our sorrow. You see, Donn had been saying how
I had stolen some literary thunder out of his Capitol.
I informed him politely how he had lied, and insinuated
that he was a d— f—, such as they have a
good many of in the District of Columbia.

This roused Donn's patriotism, and yesterday he
called at my rooms to thrash me. I was never so affected
in my life as when I saw him coming up the

long dark stairs. And when I smelled his breath I
was thrown into hysterics. I was so badly frightened
that I didn't know what to do. I seized my cane and
commenced dancing wildly around the room. Every
now and then I would let it drop on somebody.

“Please be quiet, Mr. Perkins—calm yourself,” said
Mr. Pirate, who seemed to sympathize with me in my
extreme agitation.

But, like John Phœnix when he thrashed Judge
Ames, I couldn't keep quiet. My cane continued to
fly around in such a wild manner that Donn really
pitied me. He didn't feel like going on with the
thrashing at all. But all at once he made a lurch
with both legs towards the stairs, frightening me terribly.
Then he dragged me down the steps by the
hair of his head, which stuck to my trembling hands.
I was so frightened that I fell down on top of him.
Then he shook me up and down in the most savage
manner by my poor hands, which were fastened tightly
to his coat-collar. All the time I was so scared that
my cane trembled violently in the air, and it would
have been smashed to pieces a dozen times had not
Mr. Pirate's head softened the blows on the pavement.
Thus this infuriated man continued to thrash me until
he became unconscious. Then the police came and
took his hair out of my hands, released me, and carried
him home on a stretcher.

I shall never recover from that terrible fright. Even
this morning I began to be nervously affected again
when I saw this bloodthirsty man. My cane began
trembling in the air. But Donn seemed to feel sorry

for me—“so sorry,” he said, “that he didn't have the
heart to thrash me any more.”

To show how this whipping occurred, I append a
map drawn by the new Heliotype process after William
Hogarth:

[ILLUSTRATION] [Description: 627EAF. A Map of the Accident.]

D represents Donn.
E represents Eli.
C represents Cane.