JACK SHEPPARD.

NZ Truth, Issue 309, 27 May 1911, Page 8

JACK SHEPPARD.

The Cheap Novel Boy.

Historic Blackguards.— No. 26.

XBy Albert Payson iTerhune).

A coach was halted on Hounslow Heath, England, one moonlight night by a masked robber. As the highwayman rode up to the scared driver, with levelled pistol, a girl leaned out of the coach window and demanded to know what he' wanted. With a sweeping bow the thief answered :

"Only the- honor of dancing one measure with your fair self."

Helping her gracefully from the coach, he proceeded to go through a stately dance with her, then and there m the dust of the road. After which he handed her back into the coadh, bowed low again, sprang to the saddle and galloped away, having stolen nothing except five minutes of a pretty girl's time. The highwayman was Jack Sheppard. And the odd adventure set every one m England . to talking about him. Which was just what his vanity-crazed brain wished. (Dick Turpin, Claude Duval and other scoundrels of the road are said to have done the same thing— from the same motive.)

THE DANCING HIGHWAYMAN. , ,

Jack Sheppard 's adventures have formed the plots of dozens of cheap novels. He is also the hero of at least one famous book and play. Boys m olden times, reading a garbled tale of. his exploits, were wild to become highwaymen. As a matter of fact, Jack Sheppard was merely a low-born, reckless pick^ pocket and hold-up man, with a twisted, depraved nature and a degenerate brain. He was not the handsome daredevil that the cheap novels have made him. His homely face is not unlike that of a criminal idiot.

Sheppard was only 22 when he was: hanged. He was born m London fin 1-702, and was brought up m a poorhouse. When he was old enough to work, he was apprenticed to a carpenter. Then it was that he learned much about locks and . bolts and the best way to cut through walls. That seems to have been all h e mastered of the carpenter trade. But it was enough for his purposes.

He deserted his master and began to pick up a living by petty theft. Being mentally deficient, he found this an easier way to get on than by working. He was soon caught and brought before a magistrate as a "runaway apprentice." He was released and at .once entered on a career of" wholesale robbery.;' He afterwards confessed that he stole from every one he could.

This sort of thing brought him a certain notoriety, but not enough. He was a very ordinaryi, cheap kind of burglar. So he took to eccentric feats to get himself talked about.. The dance m/ the road was but one of several such antics. He used to dispose of his plunder through one Jonathan Wild, who was not only a receiver of stolen goods, but a sort of thief-catcher as well. When Wild had . gotten all the money possible out of a crook he would turn the fellow over to justice*. Thus he made; an excellent living both ways.

Sheppard quarrelled with Wild, who thereupon set the qfficers of the law upon him. Jack was arrested, brought to trial and condemned to be hanged. He was locked into one of the strongest cells m Newgate prison. For already he had a reputation as a clever gaol-breaker> He was handcuffed and was chained to the cell floor. he got away. Here is the story (probably exaggerated by the writers of that day) of his escape-:

He freed himself of his chains, burrowed into the thick, ill-made wall with such instruments as he could find at hand, wriggled through the gap he made m the masonry and reached an inner yard. There he climbed a chimney and made his way into a corridor. He forced or picked the locks of six doors . and came but at last upon ,the prison roof. Finding he could not get to the street from such a height, he went back to his cell, snatched up his blankets, tore and twisted them into a rope, returned to the roof and let himself flown to safety.

Two weeks later, while he was drunk, he was recaptured. London went crazy pver him. Noblemen crowded his cell, eager to hear the story of his crimes. A famous artist (the president of the Royal Academy) paJinted his portrait. One Londoner wrote :

"Nothing contributes so much to the entertainment of the town as the adventures of Jack Sheppard." Sheppard was -overjoyed at so 'much attention. Twice he escaped, but was too vattn and stupid to keep his freedom. Through drunkenness or vanity he always made some blunder that led to his - recapture. He was hanged on November 16, 1724. A mob. of 200,000 people— from Duchesses to ragpickers — turned out to see him die.

When one separates the truth from the masses of silly legends, the wonderful Jack Sheppard appears to have. been a dull, vicious semi-idiot, whose only cleverness was a real genius for gaol-breaking. Even among the desperadoes of his time he cut a. very poor figure.