A DREADFUL STORY.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 255, 27 December 1878, Page 2

A DREADFUL STORY.

There are some things almost too sacred to be given to the public for ten. vcenls, but the following case of fiendish revenge ought to go on record,.if .only to make an important edition to the curiosities of crime. On Sutter street, between Mason and Leavenworth, stands the house of one of the prettiest young ladies in town, and almost directly opposite ie the residence of her " steady company," a young Broker's clerk. The infatuated couple had conceived the-idea of connecting their rooms by means of a string telephone stretching from one windojv to the other, and the ends of which were placed under their respective pillows when they retired. By this contrivance a general tug at irregular intervale during the night, was all that was necessary to inform one fond heart on the north side of the street -that the, other, on the south, had just awakened ; and before sinking again into bfiSsful dreams/lesired to coo a few nocurnal murmurs to the other. These tender preparations, however, were gloomily marked Jby another gentleman in the neighborhood, who, we regret to say, had been heartlessly jilted by the-same young lady a short time previous. The very-first night this scientific love-making was in prpgress] -the discarded, youth ,repa)red* late -to'the spot with some dissolute companions, -and managed*to climb up arid cut the cord in tKe middle." They then attached longer pieces to the^

two and run them th/ongh*4Jie> ■window bar-room , afi fhe-.qsiber below. ■ And there, va sat, sending remarks redolent of love ,and whisky, Brst along one string and theaHhe other, and fastening with denubniactEackles arid bacchanalian roars ixr the sleepy but mflttifluoiis taffy that, trickled back in ir£pl£ ; dreii'dfal truth never have lea]cpd out, fiovvever, if the young lover lnul, ,not "been electrified, at 5 a. m., .by a maudlin request to " Cheese it, Cully!" •'while the youri'g lady was paralyzed by a; sarcastic summons " to pull down her vest." It docs " seem possible such outrages caS be committed in a city protected by over militi a

DKESSING THE { BABY. . Whema womanggoers r to work to dress a two-year-old, baby child, she does it in a systematic bufjiness-like manner, and without anif-noise or fuSs ; and before you know it ths youngster i& slid out of her' hand with his face washed, and hair combed, his clothing infflhip-shape order, and a ten dollar chromo under his arm. This all comes of knowing how. With a man it is different* v **He makes elaborate preparations, and puts on the air of one who is getting an 84-gunship ready for a two year's cruise. Hβ cbllecie the youngsters clothes together in a heap, gathering them up from pretty much all over* the house, and after a great deal of bawling for this, and sharp, snapping enquiries for ■ that, and an unlimited amount of getting .. down on his knees and looking around under furniture for the other (all of Which comes from his. having undressed the child the evening before), he at length sits resignedly down in ti chair, and with a feeble attempt at £.iod nature says :-— " Come, Freddie come tv papa and Have your coses on." • ; The child, who in just* then travelling around in nightdress, and playing \yith - : a damp towel a'hd a stove wrench; makes a bee line for the door, full of a desire to escape into the next room. .. t ' '' Come, Freddie, come to papa, like a good boy," says the father, with a brave ■•■effort iit patience. 4 The child keeps o.i his .course." '•Fred!" : Tliis so"unds so much like business tjiat the youngster steps, turns, and tacking slowly up to the now stern-browed- parent,gradually gets within reach ; when a .sudden, grab of brings him into position, where the damp towel slaps around, on"the. father's clean shirt-front, and the stove wrench plumps solidly down upon the very top,of his foot. "Immortal Julius," he screams in agony, nursing his foot with one hand and shaking the poor innocent, who sets up ay acconipanyingyeli.. A voice iroin below, where the wife and mother are busied with gettjng breakfast joins in the chorus. OlinsUd Mollesori, what on earth are you doing to .that child ? "Oh, you lie darned !" goes back the quick reply, in a short, desperate growl that silences all furthereriquiiy. Then the father, after rubbing his foot and-groaning awhile, squares the child aroumi and begins , the process t f dressing him, which is. mostly imide up of-dreadful struggles betwetu qlinnsy iiiigers «nd "smooth porcelain buttons, a general misplacing of garments hind side before atul, upside down, searches after missing articles, and taik like the following :— If " Turn around !" -«,„ '• Stand-still!" . . : '• Hold your nrm up !" . _ " Hold your arm «/>!"' •' "Thunder and lightning 1 Can't you let things be?'" " Stop reaching." " Hold your head up!" '. '/. "Up, I say" " Can't you koep still ?" "Where's that other hkiit?" > • " Let go J" "Shut iip?" " Blast ,tlrat. button!" ... " Now where in -blazes is that pin ?" " Stand imJfi"Stopyoulliowling!" "Stop,!: , ... . ' " Auch! Devil take that pin !" "Let that be I" "Behave!" "Great seat!" , "Say why don't you have four or five thousand tnore buttons on your clothes?" '♦Now where's that stocking?" " Keep your foot still!" " Gimme the other foot J" " No the pthe'!" "Can't you see*?" " Sanctified Solomon ! what do you want to spread all your toes out for ?" " How do you suppose I'm going to put your stockings on with your foot in that shape?" "Stop it!" ' . "Stop it I say!" ■ , *. "Who stuck that pip in that way ?" -' " You, of course, says a cold, thin, "cuting voice, and he glances up and sees his wife looking down on him in a taunting exasperating kind of way. "Fd be ashamed of myself," she continued, " to go on that way, and get so out of patience with a little bit of a baby. You've been making noise enough to wake the dead, and his clothes look as if they been thrown oh with a pitchfork. Gimme hhn,"