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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 83, 5 April 1873, Page 4

" Snyder " in the Weekly Herald say b: —As touching the giving of short measure — I had an amusing little narrative from "A pretty young girl with a sewing machine " only the pther day. This machine needlewoman uses, she informed* me, from between twenty .and thirty Reels' pf thread In" a week, and she * -always -^pur^r chases ; : thosia)^ Warranted ';.r,tli*ree- : .;tundred;*. ■■•y^Jsi'*^ jhbur , * sbe-tbbught")!^^ ! iatte'i^

the warranted measure, when much to her su prise and greatly to lier indignation the measurement instead of turning 300 yarcls only showed 180 yards.- Thispretty young girl with, a sewing machine, with very much of her native mildness taken out of her by the discovery, having donned her haUand pinned on several braids of chignon, walked off to the draper with whom she had been accustomed to trade and explained to him the genteel swindle she had been subjected, to. Tbe shopkeeper laughed such a hearty laugh as was quite delightful to listen to. He rubbed his hands, be chuckled, he sat sideways on the counter and got out an immense amount of laughing. " One hundred and eighty yards ! " he exclaimed. " Why that's just thirty more yards than I should have given the maker credit for. Now then, my dear," continued the storekeeper, " what can I serve you with this morning?" The young lady did not want serving. She walked out of the shop and into a friend's house who drew up a bill for £1 10s against the shopkeeper. Then she got a summons for the amount and the bailiff did his duty by serving it. Two hours afterwards the young seamstress had paid into ber hands the sum of thirtyseven shillings, being exactly the amount of her claim with, costs added. Then I dare cay the shopkeeper had another laugh, but it would be on the wrong side of the face this time. In the whole history of criminal jurisprudence there has never probably been aDythiny equal to the gigantic trial which was concluded at Moscow, in Russia, on the 21st of November, and in which were arrainged five hundred prisoners, upwards of two hundred of whom were convicted and, sentenced to cruel penalties. Among the accused were persons of every station in life — greybaired men and youths, men and women; among the latter some highly accomplished and prppossessing in appearance. All the prisoners were charged with one of the gravest offences in the criminal code

of Russia-— tbat qf. counterfeiting. That cpde'says:^;' The, person that counterfeits the coin or currency , of the Imperial Government shall suffer death." Notwithstanding this ; rigorous provision, Russia has been flooded for many years past with well executed counterfeits of the Government treasury notes. At length, in last July, a curious accident gave the Government the long , looked > for clue. Three thousand men and yvomen. were arrested, but after a *< preliminary examination twenty-five.hundred.of them were discharged, and about five hundred were held for trial. Among the, latter were six Frenchmen, of St. Petersburg, who had 'been caught printing the counterfeit notes,, and a comparatively large number of women. On the 20th of October the trial was opened in the large hall of the Kremlin, which holds nearly five thousand persons. Two hundred and three of them were found guilty,, among, them about fifty women. Sentence of death was passed upon the six French printers, and the other cpnyicted parties were confined to hard labour in the gold mines of the Ural mountains for life, or for ten yeara. The doomed men and women burst into piercing shrieks and howls, and well they might, for in the case of the former the sentence included barbarous flogging and branding on the foreheal with red hot iron; while the women, some of whom were of refined descent, shuddered at the idea of having to do the most menial work for life or ten years at the station-houses, were the keepers of the. male prisoners reside. In their despair some of the unfortunates threw themselves upon the ground, and their piercing cries, mingled with the clanking of their chains, produced a truly horrible effect. The excitement and frenzy of the condemned grew from minute to minute more intense* and tbe Judges, in order to restore quietude, had to call in the. soldiers, who, with their kantßchuds, beat the prisoners right aud left, and then dragged them back to the vaults of the Kremlin.