And when they travel, if they find That they have left their pocket-compass Or Murray or thick boots behind, But plod serenely on without: The evil which beyond all doubt When for that early train they're late, And jump inside, and only grin Their carpet-bag. Although the idea of being mistaken for a preacher would greatly shock Mr Calverley, he occasionally follows the example of the divines in extracting from the smallest incident a social homily. There was a certain climax of British Snobbism recorded in the Times, a few years ago, in relation to cherry-stones: the Prince of Wales was eating cherries in a public garden, and as he dropped the stones, some loyal lady picked them up and pocketed them, in order, doubtless, to bequeath them as a rich legacy unto her issue. 'Precious Stones-an incident in modern history,' we have this touching incident embalmed: My Cherry-stones! I prize them, In In life, that Dejeuner! They ate, they sipped Madeira Many a soft item there would be, But one made life a heaven to me: It was the cherry-tart. Lightly the spoonfuls entered Soon that august assemblage cleared And when His Royal Highness One large one-at the moment Was got by that Miss Beaumont : Yes! the three stones that rest beneath Let Parliament abolish Churches and States and Thrones: Once trod on by a Princely heel, Years since, I climbed Saint Michael The pen-O heavens! the pen- 'Great among geese,' I faltered, Is she who grew that quill!' Yet sometimes, as I view my three Judging from the index of Fly Leaves, you would imagine it to be the most romantic of volumes; you would never think that Lines on hearing the Organ' referred to a hurdygurdy; or that The Arab' was a study of a London newspaper boy: I shrink from thee, Arab! Thou eat'st eel-pie, In 'Motherhood,' the tenderest feelings of the reader are wrought up to high pitch: She laid it where the sunbeams fall Who would conjecture from so touching a preamble that this poem of 'Motherhood' was simply descriptive of the laying of a hen's egg! Similarly, 'The Palace,' instead of dealing with enchanted Princesses, is but a sketch of the Crystal Palace on the Foresters' day; and even in 'First Love,' the maiden, unforgotten, with her downcast eyes of dreamy blue,' is dismissed with this somewhat commonplace avowal of allegiance: moon; Then raised the pibroch of his race, the Song without a Tune: Gleamed his white teeth, his mammoth tail waved darkly to and fro, As with one complex yell he burst, all claws, upon the foe. It thrills me now, that final Miaow-that weird unearthly din : Lone maidens heard it far away, and leaped out of their skin. A potboy from his den o'erhead peeped with a scared wan face; Then sent a random brickbat down, which knocked me into space. Nine days I fell, or thereabouts: and, had we not nine lives, I wis I ne'er had seen again thy sausage-shop, St Ives! Had I, as some cats have, nine tails, how gladly I would lick The hand, and person generally, of him who heaved that brick! For me they fill the milk-bowl up, and cull the choice sardine : But ah! I nevermore shall be the cat I once have been! The memories of that fatal night they haunt me even now: In dreams I see that rampant He, and tremble at that Miaow. To poach any more upon so dainty a preserve as Fly Leaves would be highly improper; even as it is, we feel as if we had been stealing gold-fish from a crystal bowl. The little book deserves to be read from cover to cover, and its proper place (we may say for once with fitness) is on every drawingroom table. On Saturday, 1st June, will be commenced a NOVEL, entitled A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE. By the Author of Cecil's Tryst, &c. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Pater noster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. Also sold by all Booksellers. FRONTIER LAW. PRICE 1d. man there for weeks, until an opportunity arrives of sending him to the chief town. A common climax to this committal for trial detention is, that the culprit goes away when he thinks it about time, sauntering about the town meanwhile, and regularly rendering himself into custody at mealtimes and bed-time. We have not much Lynchlaw here at present, but my antiquated prejudices were shocked by one of our principal representatives of legal justice dropping in to spend half-anhour with me, so as to be out of the way while the 'boys' deliberated about taking out a horse-thief who was at that time undergoing the detention Ir may easily be conceived that in newly settled, scantily peopled districts, the administration of law and justice is not invested with the forms and solemnity we are accustomed to see attend it at home. The western frontier of the United States, to say the least, forms no exception to this rule. It is perfectly amazing, to one who has been used to large instalments of the commodities, to see with how little law and physic we in New Mexico, for instance, can get along. Our only doctor has now been absent a month on private business, and no substitute for him could be found within sixty-just described—and hanging him. My friend was five miles in one direction, fifty in another, and thirty-five in another; yet no one has died, that I am aware of, through his absence, although we have had a few fevers, and some gun-shot wounds-the latter being the prevalent epidemic in these parts; and perhaps analogous results may follow from the total absence of lawyers. There is, however, this important difference in the cases: the climate of New Mexico is boasted to be-with, I believe, excellent reason—the healthiest in the world, but I cannot conscientiously say that I believe its people to be the least quarrelsome and pugnacious, which they should be to make the cases parallel. I had not been in the settlement many days when I had an opportunity of seeing how legal processes were served here. The officer invited the debtor, for the man owed certain fees, to come and pay; the latter declined, seasoning his refusal with the strong sauce much in favour in New Mexico; whereupon the administrator of the law knocked him down with a revolver, and kicked him on the head until it was a mass of blood and bruises. Not always, however, are the functions of justice administered so sternly; in fact, when the culprit is submissive, and meekly submits himself for a crime for which he cannot decently be hanged, he is rather embarrassing than otherwise to the authorities; for we have no jail here, our only place of detention being a large cupboard on a landingplace of the stairs of our hotel, and we can't keep a all for his being hanged; horse-stealing in these parts is the seven deadly sins in one; but, as he said, it would not do for him to be seen in the matter. This man's case was a little remarkable, inasmuch as he had got clear off, as he thought, with his spoil, when he was pursued and overtaken by two armed Indians, whom the owner had hired for the purpose; and this is the only instance I am acquainted with where Indians have been employed for such a purpose. No doubt, the man was bad enough, but I thought there were worse about than he, and what kept rising to my mind Iwas the recollection that I had advanced him some money, a few days back, to buy a pair of boots for his only child, a pretty little girl about six years old, of whom he was very fond. Somehow or other this fact haunted me more than might be expected, and broke my night's sleep a little; and I was right glad in the morning to find he had not been hanged. He escaped in manner aforesaid, after living at the hotel for some weeks, in better style, I suppose, than he had ever done in his life. Had this man been put to death, I have no doubt that he would have met his fate with perfect sangfroid; they all do so, out here. In the only attempt, so far as I know, that we have had to establish Lynch-law, an armed party met on the mountains a man whom they suspected of divers malpractices. Now, the Lynchers-Regulators they used to be called; they are Vigilantes now-always proceed with a certain order and show of justice, which makes their proceedings seem less lawless and to legal acquirements, in a technical sense; but irregular; but these were not a duly constituted his shrewd common-sense, penetration, and integ party, and so they did not go to work in proper rity, make his decisions, I will guarantee, as correct form. They determined to hang the man then as those of the most finished lawyer in the world. and there; made him ride back with them to a His court is at the mill, held in his little office spot fitted for their purpose, and told him his about nine feet by six-I don't think it is larger; doom. He saw at once that resistance was in vain, and to see the proceedings there for the first time so he calmly submitted to have the rope put round is a very curious sight, as being quite a reversal his neck. While they were throwing the end over of all our previous experience. It is impossible the limb of a tree, they asked him if he had any to tell at the first glance who is the prisoner, as message; he only said that he should have liked he is not fettered, and is probably crowded up to see his wife and children again, but as that amidst the indifferent spectators, looking as little was impossible, he was quite ready to take the concerned as any one else, and chewing the intrip.' But in his case, too, they did not hang the dispensable tobacco-plug; while the justice, in man; a minority strongly opposed it; and so warn- his old, loose, white, floury coat, his broad-brimmed ing him to leave the country, they released him. hat, worn very much, on his poll, and with his For this vacillation and lenity they were blamed broad, good-tempered, yet very shrewd face, lolls more than for their seizing the man; even the against his little desk, and chews his pellet of partisans of the latter declared that it was a thing tobacco also, with an air as little like a London unheard of in this western country to let a man magistrate as need be. go after you had once put a rope round his neck. It was not only a dangerous precedent in itself, but it must be remembered that out here it would be utterly impossible to convict any man who had killed another, if he could prove that this latter had ever threatened him. If a man ever says he will shoot another, he had assuredly better do it, or leave the country, for the threatened man will kill him, and may do so with complete impunity; no jury would ever convict, and I doubt if any judge could be found who would sentence such a person. In the case cited just now, the man did not leave the country, or, at anyrate, not for some time, and, to my intense astonishment, for I did not know him at all, I was suddenly informed that I, with another, was chosen to decide how much ought to be given him for the offence, or outrage on him. There were circumstances which need not be alluded to now which made it particularly awkward for me to accept such an office; but from some hearsay reason or another, the man had confidence in me, and I was obliged, for the sake of peace, to decide the matter. We awarded him much less than I should think sufficient for such an adventure; the curious in such matters may perhaps like to know how much in these parts is considered fair compensation. To an English reader, who would consider himself entitled to a handsome competence for life, if he got a black eye in a railway accident, I am afraid that the sum of three hundred dollars, worth at that time about fifty-three pounds in gold, will seem almost insignificant. The man knew it was my policy to give him as little as I decently could, yet he was quite satisfied, and we parted excellent friends. Only a few days back he came to see me, and to invite me to his new farm, where I could have splendid shooting, as his land abounded in antelope and game of every kind. Our justice of the peace here-we have only oneis a miller. He is of Dutch-American extraction, but a capital John Bull after all. He has not, and does not claim to have, the slightest pretension I was summoned to attend one trial, or examination, in the case of a man who was charged with killing a Mexican on the third of September last, by stabbing him in the mouth. I was supposed to have seen the earlier part of the affray, and hence was required. When I got to the little room in the mill, it was pretty well crowded; but as the justice and all were evidently waiting for some one, I presumed that the prisoner had not yet been brought in; so I sat down on the only seat I could find, on a rude apology for a bedstead which filled one end of the little room, apologising as I did so for disturbing a man who was sitting at the corner of it. Well, after waiting a bit, and after two or three more had come in, the trial began, and, to my great surprise, the man whom I had disturbed, and against whom I was leaning, was the murderer! His name was Smith-it really was-and they all spoke of him as 'Mr Smith,' or 'this gentleman.' 'Do you know this gentleman ?' said the justice, addressing a witness, and nodding his head in the direction of the accused-do you know this gentleman here, Mr Smith, that is charged with having killed this man?' This was the strain all through, nor did it cease here, for the local newspaper reported the case thus-I give the report in full, and, but for the suppression of two or three names of persons and places, which would too completely identify the scene and actors, I give it verbatim : 'Sent to Jail-Mr Edward Smith, who killed a Mexican some time since, and who has been confined to his bed ever since from the wounds received at the time-and who had been confined in the hospital of Fort Union-was brought to . . . . last Tuesday, and had a hearing before Squire.... After hearing the evidence, the court bound the prisoner over to the next term of the district court in the sum of four thousand dollars, in default of which he was sent to jail.' Now, it must not be supposed that this homicide was a person of such standing here, that, from mere habit, the writers and speakers described him as 'Mr Smith'-not at all; he was a labouring man, and the associate of two highwaymen who had been killed and brought in a very little time before. I was assured, however, that all through the territory there was great laxity and familiarity in dealing with criminals, and one case was given-this was on undeniable authority-where a horse-thief, the very worst of offenders here, was being tried, when news was brought in that a pony-race was about to be decided near the court-house. Every soul in the court-justice, prisoner, officers, witnesses, and allat once hurried out, and all stopped to see the result of the race, after which they returned to the court, and business was resumed. Lest the reader should suppose that I am only telling of incidents which occur at a cluster of log-huts dignified by the name of a town, let him be advised that this last occurrence took place at Santa Fé-the City of the Holy Faith-the capital of the territory. To return, however, to my Mr Smith: he was sent to jail, as has been said, which jail was in our county town. Here was a man committed for wilful murder-his being committed in default of bail was of course a little legal fiction, bail being fixed so high in such cases that it is impossible for the culprit to obtain it--and one would suppose that he, at anyrate, would be kept in the strictest custody. But there was no jailer at all amongst us; and after a time, the man had the run of the town, and used to go and have his 'toddy,' and smoke his cigar, like any other gentleman. Afterwards, he undertook to mind a bar for a saloon-keeper, which duty he for a considerable time fulfilled, and when business was over, he used to go in and lock himself up at night. Once or twice, being of an impulsive and excitable disposition, he got into difficulties,' and armed himself with a revolver, being only quelled at considerable risk. When he thought he had staid there long enough, and that the assizes had drawn near enough, he went off; and at the moment of these words being written, it is asserted that he has taken up the profitable business of highway robber, or road-agent,' and has laid several plans for increasing his store, not wholly without interest for the present writer. In all thinly populated districts of America, the want of proper jails, and the bad management of such as do exist, are a crying and fearful evil. At this instant, there are at large twenty-nine of the most dangerous convicts that the skirts of society could furnish who have recently burst their jail in Nevada. These men were attended on Sundays by one jailer only, and he used to ask them to be good enough to go to their respective cells, when what was facetiously called locking-up time came. Naturally enough, it was on a Sunday they made their successful attempt to escape; they knocked down their custodian with a slung-shota very favourite weapon in these parts-and then the gang, all murderers or rowdies of the worst description, burst into the governor's house, where the latter was at tea with his wife and family; him they stabbed and knocked down, and would have killed, but for the desperate resistance of the man-servant who was present. This man, it is very characteristic to tell, was himself a convict, a lifer,' as our English roughs would say, and 'in' for murder. But he fought like a demon, and with a heavy chair, his only weapon, knocked down three of the assailants. They were probably unwilling to kill him, whereby the governor's own life was spared. The gang sacked the armoury, and sallied forth, armed with repeating rifles and revolvers, and with a most ample supply of ammunition. They were often heard of, as it was totally impossible for such a party to conceal themselves, and the sheriff of one county crossed by them, hearing of their depredations on their route, determined to intercept them. He succeeded but too well, for his party were beaten off by the desperate convicts with the loss of several lives, the fugitives escaping unharmed. In addition to such examples as the last, I may quote what was told me by the chief executive officer of one of the frontier states. He said that when escapes took place, he did not think they were usually the result of violence—indeed, such departures en masse as the Nevada one just cited must, of necessity, be rare-he thought they were generally the result of the captive interviewing' his jailer. It will be judged from the foregoing paragraphs, that prompter measures, less dilatory justice, is naturally in favour among people who see such results from the ordinary course of 'law.' So, at the very town where Mr Smith abode as long as it suited him, the climax of Mr William Wallace Sanderson's career met with general approval. This hero was a desperado of the first water, having killed nine 'white' men with the same pistol, which weapon he always had about him sleeping or waking, and which bore nine notches on its stock as record. Indians and Mexicans he took no account of; he did not know how many he had killed of them. Most of his antagonists he had slain by shots in the eyes; one man, indeed, still walks about here with but one eye, the other and a corner of the orbital bone having been blown out by Wal.; another, who thought he had, as they say here, the 'dead drop' on him, and was about to fire, had his right thumb shot off by the surprising quickness of our hero's aim. William Wallace had a real or imaginary grievance against a saloon-keeper called Simpson in this town, and it was pretty generally known that he intended to pick a quarrel with and shoot this tenth white man; so Mr Simpson was on his guard a good deal when Wal. was about, and one night it was evident the latter meant mischief. He came in either intoxicated or feigning to be so, and it would be difficult to say in which condition he was most to be dreaded. After addressing a few moderately strong remarks to those present, he flung himself on a card-table, right over the cards, to the utter confusion of the game. This would have brought on a crisis at once, but that some friends forced him away; it was plain, however, that the dénouement was only suspended, for he renewed that night his threats of killing the saloon-keeper. Whatever he might have been over-night, he certainly was not sober in the morning; and Simpson was warned that he would probably come in, as before, to pick a quarrel; and sure enough, he did; and after a number of annoying remarks to Simpson, who was standing inside his bar, Wal., of course, being on the other side, the latter suddenly and fiercely demanded if he had anything to say against the Sanderson family. Simpson replied that he had not, whereupon Wal. clapped his hand on the revolver which hung at his hip, and told Simpson he meant to settle with him. Alas for Wal! He clapped his hand, as said, upon his revolver; but Simpson had his ready cocked in his hand, and |