THE THIEF'S HOLIDAY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 163, 12 July 1871, Page 4

THE THIEF'S HOLIDAY.

. _ ( <Jtis.said that many of the thieves: of "London "agreed together, that oh the day of the Princess Alexandra's entry, and on the night' 1 of the .Prince's : wedding-day, they would not persue then: vocation, but in honor of the Queen and her children, and in deference to the national enthusiasm, would refrain from molesting the national enjoyment by their malpractices." On the, night of Friday the 6th of March, 1863, all London was in excitement, for on the next day the Danish Princess would arrive at her English home, and her procession would pass through the streets of the city. Not only .there, but throughout the land, one interest moved the hearts of rich and poor, old and young, and all English people' were for the time more closely united as a nation by sympathy in a common joy. That night, as usual, a gang, of thieves ' '"' met In their den , in the district, of St. Giles, in London, to relate their adventures ,sitfceJast : they had met, to count' their gains, to drink, and to play cards. The meeting-place was a low room, in one of the worst of the "flash " beerhouses of the neighborhood, reached from the back of the house by a broken staircase and ladder, leading up to the trap-door in the floor. The riotous, cunning men who were assembled there, seemed in harmony with their surroundings. And yet even there, if you, had listened & to their talk that night, you might have heard amid, their oaths and lewd jesting, something that showed they were still men, and that they had not lost all the better feelings of their kind. For as they began to speak of the holiday there was to be next day, they talked in a gentler tone, and seemed to have caught something of the feeling which' was. in the heart of the rest of the nation. One or two spoke indeed of. whatj a harvest there would be for them in the crowded streets,, but they, were put down in a rough and ready way, which showed the feeling, of . the rest. " Nay, lads," said one : of the oldest and 'boldest' thieves, of the quarter, "I mean to have , a. holiday to-morrow, for once in 1 my life, and go arid seethe sights; what do r you say if we all make it- up to let folks "alone for a day ? " It was a strange proposal to make in such a place. Plainly it -:waV- no respect for law or custom which led them with one consent to agree.to.it; "but agree 1 they did, that even they should observe the approaching general holiday and cease during the season of public rejoicing to mar the public peace by their -illegal trade. The fact is there is a germ of sympathy and kindness within the , worst man's soul, which Dever dies, and this was just the occasion to call it forth.: In tbe> midst of their lives of selfishness: \ and crime, the thieves longed once more, \\ if only for a day, to feel themselves at one with their fell6w-raen.yA<nd so they drank the Princess's health, and swore they -would keep "hands off" all the day, for " her sake. \ And now, one by one, as the small. \ hoars drew on,, the men quitted the room to seek their nightly abodes, till only one was left. He sat before .the smouldering embers on the- hearth, heedless that the gluttering candles, which had lighted the thieves' "play, were dying out, while the :, moonbeams , were pouring through- the Bmair iskylight window, and shining on packs of icardSj. empty driukiog-cans, and on the poor thief s head — God's light instead of man's. Surely it was a heavenly influence, also, which took the place of that of earth, when, his companions gone, '< and left aloue with none to jeer, it came .* into the thief's mind to use the holiday in a yisit to; his birth-place .in Yorkshire. He had- gained much money lately, and .would make up for the journey V cost on his return. He had now been ten years in. London smoke and noise, and had felt no breath of- country air;: ;and the remembrance, of ibreezy moors .came acrosa.him, with a touch of his old boyish love for them';'"'*'' 1 ' ''-•■''■ So, the next morning, .with no word to his com paniqns, . down, be /went by. an excursion train to ihie station J nearest'hiß old home. It was evening when he arrived at his "destination^ ami r the little inn ■• «>*at* wbi6h' ; he spent the night was new-Bince'«he lived -there. . Yet he had, no, need, »tQ ask his, way next moraing; ' 'but 1 iopk Ihe" >6ad' up over ihV'moor ' towhere it endedan rbu^h crags and rocks,| "rising steeps "above ''We' "little village; ..where _ but.: hoine _had-been~ __i! They: will not know me here," thought the thief; I meed i mot. fear that:; all ;myr;rielatL«er&re; i dead, and ten 'makes'^•''changtei^ aj one would lecognisedn him the innocent ,v6Mli^ho t 'y^ts-ag(h had Idft .His ifaihetfs : :\lb^e^6^eek r: - ; a'^Uynjg} and^^^jiFajlenL ' among thieves." „"':• Sitf lakes'; a gifeate^ ' v 'H Canute; 1 vV' ; \' : ■'"' v ""•,•' '" ''■ ", ■ •', ": ■ •:,_ l; .; :; % : . ( ,Spnn| :

gazing far across the moors, -which stretched far as the eye could see, while the fresh wind swept across them, and the cloud-shadows chased each other over them, making perpetual change of light and sTiade. How different from his late life. He turned with disgust from the thought. of it. ; He~ seemed an innpqent boy once more! and tried to forget all that had ! happened in the intervening -years. .While ihe thus pondered, a -little girl came slowly up the road,holding tightly withiri'her small hands, a heap of daisies. When, he spoke to her, she -drew near, and seating herself beside him, spread the flowers on her lap. What a fool; hethought himself, when, having made friends with the child, (for healways had a gentle way with : children,) he allowed her to put. the' daisies in his hands, and teach ; him to make chains. He looked round! as her little hands touched his, as if half afraid. Doubtless he would have lost his companion, had the careful mother seen the ill-looking man, and it pained the" thief to think sol.; but she would have had no occasion; to fear, — the little one wassafe, for not one evil word could he have, said in her presence. ' They had spent on)y a short time thusp, wshen the wind bore to them the sound of distant music from the neighboring village , church, for it was" Sunday. ' It attracted the child's notice, and with pleasant, childish pleading, she asked him to take her with hiria tolthe church. Again glad that no one who knew him was there, he seemed once more-compelled to do her will ias she drewthim to the place. It was aa old. homely building, where he had often gone long ago. "I was glad when> they said-unto me, let us go into the House of the Lord " — sang, the people, as he entered. The thief could not feel glad. It was long since he had been in a place of worship, and he shrunk with his little ; companion into the nearest, darkest:, corner. But when the Lord's Prayer was' said, aud he heard her little "Voice, old memories returned to him. Tbis was the church where he had worshiped with his mother in' old times, and thief and, child tegether. prayed, "Lead us not. - into temptation, but deliver us from evil.? Surely the prayer was not in vnin, for when they afterwards parted on the hill and the child put' up her little face to kiss him, and Ijoped ttie.y might meet again he vowed in hia heart J-hat when next he saw her, he would not be the thief whom she would then dread, but the good, honest man she was taking him to be. And so the thief's, holiday ended," and with it hisjrid sinful life! Thought man may wander long in sin, may we not hope "that, "by irresistible jnfluences^hle. , shall at . last be i drawn again into the Father's house? Nor was his conversion v marvellous ; it ; was a natural changes Ten >&ars* before, when death had entered the Yorkshire . home and broken it up, the innocent country boy had gone to London, and 'ialleiHnto one of the many snares laid for such as lie in the great city. After the first step^hejnad been : easily led onby bad companions, until, home and old assdcia- . tions forgotten, he gave; himself, up to the . excitement . of ;a thief's; life;.; ' But ouce more among the scenes of his childhood, with- boyish thoughts, and recollections renewed* he could not again return., to St. Giles's ! One who had known, his family in past years, received his^ penitent confessions, and, believing in his new aspirations,' interested himself in his behalf. In a few .weeks the young man i had entered upon a seafaring life, aujTwa's far. from his late companions., iJfT • . „, - In the brderingJoi Providence no . influence, bpweverJpall, is/lost. Even the Little child n^f thus be God's minister ; arid he who^was so lately a' thief .sometimes thinks, that when at last , he be purified and fit for heaven; the angerhands that shall lead him upward to the golden sates will be those of little children. ;

'■•,. The Western [Mail reports; an .extraordinarjr. procedure on, the " part of the , rulersl oiFj'itAoj Jewish, sywgpgue at Swansea. A former member of the synagogue, and one formerly folding ;^igh. office, ; froin some "disagreement in the' 'community,' lias apparently ;beenj in ; some, jW^yi called upon to sit in the */iree sittings." Th|3-he| persistently refused to do ; and as there; were some.- fifcß' for", six: rlseats. in the) ..synagogue vacant beside the "^fr'Qa" sittings^ hie |to sit inTpne or oifar of them, whenever he. feltodilpcsedHogO: and .Worship. A This ;) th^ rplefs pf ,tho ! synagogue objected to, and the dispote raged !i perflfstenViy^ ; on' 'both. t ' ; s ! iae i s. A .«• Wp\. r thpught,?" :Howev,er, r ,at ;. , .length ; kpyearecT to "strike' the fulers v , who; during '•"^e past week have had, placed inevery .vacant ,s&at ; lal'ieriesT,bf« dange'roua /spikes, bridling upwards, full kwof|inches Jilp^i) whicfewop^j ineTi|ablyp?esMs^ i^i the • ■iiiipalement of^any unfoPtuaald ittdi^iduU • %^eking ( i to; : ; Woi i sMb;'4n7;^ ;cjtfswa,^s effectually iaflooie^ißhea^ajiacW^ i i'rttl«riiitrititnph»>v v ; .'■'. :'''ffi.ti.. ; y?y./.;;- : - "■ . >». ■ •'•-■;■■"■,■ .■ ■ i • ■ ■ ; , •■.;,■,•■ -i • ; ' : '- i ■• ' . ■

Emigration. — The emigration Beaaon ; opened at London on April 13th, by the departure of a large number of emigrants from the Victoria Docks in the Medway. for Quebec.:. They go out under the. auspices of the British aud Coloniak'Emigration fund .and the National Emigration' Jieague. There probably hasriio't ueen for many years so dire destitution prevailing in-London as' now. . . W"iTniN four hours' ride of Montreal there is a colonyiof from 20,000, to 25,000 Highlanders, -: reports the Californian Farmer. The County of Glengarry, on the western frontier of Upper Canada, is full of them. Iff the back settlements they retain their ancient language, singing the Gaelic songs, and have their Gaelic preaching. The Glengarry men are renowned for their size and strength. It is said that the townships bf .Kenyon and Lochiel alone could turn out 1,000 Highianders, not a man of them under six feet In his stockings. ■ j*r :