A SUICIDAL JOKE AT CAMBRIDGE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1825, 18 March 1884, Page 2

A SUICIDAL JO KE AT CAMBRIDGE.

There aie a fey»- young men in Cambridge evidently of a tiagic turn of mind, but, who when their resources f.ul to .supply them with something of a seiious chaiactei whereby t ) engage their talent, aie wont to lesort with all possible consistency, to burlesquing that which they fail to find m the leality. The number of applications for the pobition of hangman which a recent adveitisement elicited fully disabused our minds of the beliet that the prominent position of hangman was an unenviable one, and as a further proof of the inclination of a number of our male population to the hanging puiMiit the following incident of a lvheaisal of likely candidates for the next vacancy will tend to demoiibtiate. A little befoie daybreak on Sunday morning last the landloid of the Duke of Cambridge Hotel hcaid a suspicious noise in front of his piemises, as if something of an extiamdmary character was being peipetrated. After a few minutes delay he appioached the spot from whence the noise had issued, and discoveied with feeling-, of diffidence, not altogether unmixed with horror, that something lesjmbling the figuie of a man was suspended fiom the lamp-post in fiont of the hotel. Now, suspicions weie strengthened by circumstances of an an tenor character — a man who had been " bowled out '' while misappropriating the piofits of the establishment a few days previous had seiiou-lv expressed his intention of "going off" prematurely, and was it not likely that ho might, by way of aftording a striking proof of his determination, and saving the police the unnecessary trouble of a search, come and carried out bis design on thescene of his indictment. Again, it was quite possible that home apostle of the " blue," recently conveited, might stung himself up befoie the scene of his old haunt as an example to his kindred of the consequences of a Bacchanalian career. The stableman had likew ise become aroused, and, in the stillness of the morn, clad in that scanty habiliment called a shiit, proceeded to investigate the dreadful spectacle. After a clohe scruntiny, he returned to the position taken up by the landlord, who preferred viewing matteis at a distance, and with an air of awfulness, revealed the fact that it was " the carcise of a sanguinary man." Steps wore immediately taken to cut down the unfoitunate victim by the gentleman in the shirt, who, with flying lobe ascended to sever the fatal twine. The body fell with an awful thud, but it was not until now that it was discovered that the supposed self-destroyer was nothing more than the wooden figuiehead of a ship, representing an American Indian with a beaver under his arm. The ornament was temporarily removed to a room occupied by " Jimmy," the boots of the establishment, who, on waking up and seeing what he believed to be a bouncing wahine in his bedroom, after expostulating nt some length without effect, betook himself to consult the local constable about her removal. The last we heard of the adventurous figure-head was that it had been given into the custody of an enterpiising native known as Paddy Regan, who, having fixed it up in show fashion, proceeded round the town with a bell, announcing 1 to the public that he had something novel on view, and that the small fee of m\ pence would be chaiged for admission to all who desired to see it. We understand that the figure-head was abstracted from the backyard of a gentleman by a number of grown-up men, who, desirous of entertaining themselves, and affording a little sensation, strung it up to the lamp during the night and decamped.