University of Virginia Library

OF THE "GALLOWS" LITERATURE OF THE
STREETS.

Under this head I class all the street-sold
publications which relate to the hanging of
malefactors. That the question is not of any
minor importance must be at once admitted,
when it is seen how very extensive a portion of
the reading of the poor is supplied by the
"Sorrowful Lamentations" and "Last Dying
Speech, Confession, and Execution" of crimi-
nals. One paper-worker told me, that in some
small and obscure villages in Norfolk, which, he
believed, were visited only by himself in his line,
it was not very uncommon for two poor families
to club for 1d. to purchase an execution broad-
sheet! Not long after Rush was hung, he saw,
one evening after dark, through the uncurtained
cottage window, eleven persons, young and old,
gathered round a scanty fire, which was made
to blaze by being fed with a few sticks. An old
man was reading, to an attentive audience, a

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broad-sheet of Rush's execution, which my
informant had sold to him; he read by the
fire-light; for the very poor in those villages, I
was told, rarely lighted a candle on a spring
evening, saying that "a bit o' fire was good
enough to talk by." The scene must have
been impressive, for it had evidently somewhat
impressed the perhaps not very susceptible mind
of my informant.

The procedure on the occasion of a "good"
murder, or of a murder expected to "turn out
well," is systematic. First appears a quarter-
sheet (a hand-bill, 9½ in. by 7½ in.) containing
the earliest report of the matter. Next come
half-sheets (twice the size) of later particulars,
or discoveries, or — if the supposed murderer be
in custody — of further examinations. The sale
of these bills is confined almost entirely to
London, and in their production the newspapers
are for the most part followed closely enough.
Then are produced the whole, or broad-sheets
(twice the size of the half-sheets), and, lastly,
but only on great occasions, the double broad-
sheet. [I have used the least technical terms
that I might not puzzle the reader with accounts
of "crowns," "double-crowns," &c.]

The most important of all the broad-sheets
of executions, according to concurrent, and
indeed unanimous, testimony is the case of
Rush. I speak of the testimony of the street-
folk conerned, who all represent the sale of the
papers relative to Rush, both in town and
country, as the best in their experience of late
years.

The sheet bears the title of "The Sorrowful
Lamentation and Last Farewell of J. B. Rush,
who is ordered for Execution on Saturday next,
at Norwich Castle." There are three illustra-
tions. The largest represents Rush, cloaked and
masked, "shooting Mr. Jermy, Sen." Another
is of "Rush shooting Mrs. Jermy." A prostrate
body is at her feet, and the lady herself is de-
picted as having a very small waist and great
amplitude of gown-skirts. The third is a por-
trait of Rush, — a correct copy, I was assured,
and have no reason to question the assurance, —
from one in the Norwich Mercury. The account
of the trial and biography of Rush, his conduct
in prison, &c., is a concise and clear enough
condensation from the newspapers. Indeed,
Rush's Sorrowful Lamentation is the best, in
all respects, of any execution broad-sheet I have
seen; even the "copy of verses" which, accord-
ing to the established custom, the criminal com-
poses in the condemned cell — his being unable,
in some instances, to read or write being no
obstacle to the composition — seems, in a literary
point of view, of a superior strain to the run of
such things. The matters of fact, however, are
introduced in the same peculiar manner. The
worst part is the morbid sympathy and intended
apology for the criminal. I give the verses
entire:

Although the execution broad-sheet I have
cited may be the best, taken altogether, which
has fallen under my observation, nearly all I
have seen have one characteristic — the facts can
be plainly understood. The narrative, em-
bracing trial, biography, &c., is usually pre-
pared by the printer, being a condensation from
the accounts in the newspapers, and is perhaps
intelligible, simply because it is a condensation.
It is so, moreover, in spite of bad grammar, and
sometimes perhaps from an unskilful connec-
tion of the different eras of the trial.

When the circumstances of the case permit,
or can be at all constrained to do so, the Last
Sorrowful Lamentation contains a "Love Let-
ter," written — as one patterer told me he had
occasionally expressed it, when he thought his
audience suitable — "from the depths of the
condemned cell, with the condemned pen, ink,
and paper." The style is stereotyped, and
usually after this fashion:

If it be not feasible to have a love-letter —
which can be addressed to either wife or sweet-
heart — in the foregoing style, a "last letter" is
given, and this can be written to father, mother,
son, daughter, or friend; and is usually to the
following purport:

Letter

— By the time you receive this my
hours, in this world, will indeed be short. It is an
old and true saying, that murderers will one day meet
their proper reward. No one can imagine the dreadful
nights of anguish passed by me since the commital of
the crime on poor — . All my previous victims have
appeared before me in a thousand different shapes and
forms. My sufferings have been more than I can pos-
sibly describe. Let me entreat you to turn from your
evil ways and lead a honest and sober life. I am suffer-
ing so much at the present moment both from mind and
body that I can write no longer. Farewell! farewell!