A Cruel "Sell.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 72, 26 November 1887, Page 4

A Cruel "Sell.”

Certain humanitarians received a cruel shock in London recently. On Eing by the Civil Service stores in en Victoria street, a point where e is much concourse ot fashionable and eemi-fashionable people, they noticed a man, middle-aged, and welldressed, walking along with a child in his arms. The spectacle was curious enough at the particular spot to draw attention to the pair, and presently attention was fixed by the shocking behaviour of the man. Just opposite the stores where the throng of carriages and customers is the greatest he set the child—a neatly-attired, very handsome little girl, with rosy cheek's and flaxen hair—rudely on its feet, and forthwith commenced abusing the poor creature with violent terms, ■baking it ferociously the while. The poor infant shrieked and uttered in a piteous voice the call of distressed childhood for its mother. Several ladies exclaimed indignantly at the brutal behaviour of the fellow, but worse was to happen, for, suddenly seizins his unfortunate child, the wretched father lifted it bodily between his hands, dashed it on the pavement, and jumped upon its tender body till the little victim’s cries were hushed in death. Horrified at the spectacle, one lady fainted away, and others echoed the cries of the murdered innocent. A coachman rushed at the inhuman monster, floored him with a blow, and a constable, appearing at the traditional police time, took him into custody as he rose dazed to his feet. The crowd which had now collected were furious, and would have executed summary justice upon him, but that those who picked up the body of the child discovered and proclaimed the fact that it was a large doll. Then it turned out that the supposed murderer was a French ventriloquist, freshly arrived from Paris, where he had performed his sensational tricks with much profit and success. Ihe exhibition was too realistic for English tastes, and, though a collection was made up for him on the spot, many of the beholders indignantly resented the display. Having regard, moreover, to the extraordinary black eye contributed by the coachman, it was doubtful that his exhibition paid. But he certainly gave people a start.