MADAME RACHEL.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1343, 8 February 1881, Page 3

MADAME RACHEL.

Situated in the wild west of Ireland and not fay from Ballinasloe, the town of Aughrim would, e\ en in the present day, be hardly the spot which a doctor would .select os a likely place in which to establish a flourishing practice. Yet more than half a century ago, v.hen the locality was even more desolate than now a certain T)v Fuller arrived with tins idea, bringing with him his wite and a letter of introduction, fioin the rc&idcnt magistrate at Athlono. But either tlnough the sjjarsne&s of the population, or its povuity, the salubrity of tho spot, or want of skill on the adventitious doctoi 's part, he found it very haul to keep the wolf fioin the door. Tn this emergency he turned his attention to the distillation of cosmetics and manufacture of concoctions supposed to preserve and improve tho dche.icy of the female complexion. He was assisted in his search tor tlio&o herbs fiom whose leaves and petals could be extracted the essence of perpetual beautj r , by his servant girl, llachael Booker, a red-legged wench of some fourteen summers. Rachel was a native of the village, but, judging from her name, and the peculiar type of her features, it is more than probable that her parents were not indigenous to the soil, but were gipsies of a Semitic caste, who in the course of their nomad career, had found something so attractive in Aughrira as to chain them to the spot. Rachel had picked up a little learning, before entering service, at a sort of dame's school, supported by the landlord whose tenants her parents were. Early in life she seems, with refrence to frequent disappearance of cord wood from park to park, to have displayed that hazy notion of imum and tuum, which if undiscovered goes far to ensure success in life. But even a talent for preserving and beautifying complexions, will not keep a family when there is not a sufficiently-extemlecl field for the talent to be exercised Qn< So finally, Dr Fuller was forced to take his departue, and seek for pastures new, where his genius would meet with more pecuniary responses. Having left the Galway ladies " beautiful for ever," he emigrated to Manchester, taking his belongings and household' with him. Here Rachel Booker wqn the heart and baud of an assistant in a chemist's ehpp. Lost sight of for years, she turned up again in the well-known person of Madame Rachel. Such is the story ot this notorious woman. The history of her trial and her subsequent imprisonment are too fresh' in tlie world's mind to need recapitulation. Last week she died, alinosf without notice, in Woking prison.— -Exchange. • ■ '

Moody and Sankey's mission is drawing to a close. ! ' I'hey have stirred' ifp' jihe churches, fiutl*, don't ibhink-they -have made man'y'cqnVef^".'' Jf it were not for' the publicity given, to them, and the " "writing .up' *<*£ the secular Press, they. 1 would never^eheal'd of . ' I' think -when, Billy ßowe'Wa in'hifc ■ pritne ;h; he ;j co,dlcl 'have^tiea Moody in evan^elifeal'"wrast-