A NEGRO CAKE WALK. MISTAKEN IDENTITY,

Otago Witness, Issue 1957, 23 May 1889, Page 32

A NEGRO CAKE WALK.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY,

- I was staying' with a friend at a little Village called Oakville, on theshores of Lake Ontario. A third >of the population are negroas, many of whom were slaves who esjcaped during the war, and came to Canada by the "Underground Railway." ! One evening when my friend's husband came home to dinner, he said that there was goin to be a " cake walk " that evening, and: that if I had never seen one we must go to it. I never had, so we hurried over our dinner in a; most unceremonious manner, as the performance began at 8 o'clock, and we did not want to miss the opening. We qlimbed the steps leading to the shabby little town* hall, and were met at the door by a very fine gentleman of colour, who aeemed very pleased to see us, bowing us obsequiously iri to the best seats. Oar usher was attired in. white trousers, a swallow-tailed coat, and & pink-striped shirt, with very large white cuffs and collars. - The hall was lighted by a dozen or so dingy, coal oil, lamps, and was redolent of musk, a scent of which tb,e negroes are very fond, At the end of the hall was a, raised platform on which was a long table completely covered with cakes, highly iced, and ornamented with paper flowers. Behind the table were, four chairs, for the judges, or scrutineers, as, they are called, who award the prizes to, the couples who acquit themselves best in the trial walk. On, one side of the platform was a melodeon. We had just seated ourselves and glanced round the wellfilled room, which seemed to me to be filled with rows of bright rolling eyes and glistening teeth, when a dusky belle took possession of the, melodeon, and struck up the appro-, priate tune of V King of the Cannibal Islands," and this was the. signal, for the walk to begin. We happened to be. sitting beside a strapping negro wench who must hare measured Bip-XOin at least., Unto this maiden' came a dandy of over 6ft, got up in the height of fashion," and said with a bow, "Miss Hill, will you obligate me by promenading for de fust prize 1 " " Certingly, Mistah' Jonsing," said Miss Hill ; "I will gib you dat pleasure." Whereupon her friends, seeing that she was going to walk, crowded round her fcb smarten her up, which they did by denuding their 6wn .fair forms of various bits of finery. One damsel contributed a red bow, arid another a green sash, another a huge gold chain, which was twisted several times round her neck ; and yet another, still more self-sacri-ficing, took from her hat a much-distorted and most impossible bird of paradise and put it in that of her friend ; they then prononnced her " lubly." '» In the meantime the same scene had been enacted in other parts of the hall, and eight couples stood ready to start. The melodeon, tQLWhich was now added an accordion and a violin, again struck up " King of the Cannibal Islands," and the march began. If I live until the age of Methuselah, I shall never forget that scene. The gravity with which they walked was irresistibly funny ; my friend and I were choking with suppressed laughter. > There was not a smile on one of the 16 faces, not a word from one of the 16 mouths; on they marched arm-in-arm, gravely as judges, and stiffly as pokers, three times round the hall, then drew up in fionfc of the judges' stand. We, of course, had been watching our friends'^ Mr Johnston and Miss Hill, and could not kelp applauding when the - judge said, handing them the largest and most ' ornamental cake, " Miss Hill and Mr Johnston, we award you the first prize for your unequalled elegance and ladylike and gentlemanly deportment." " Tank you, sah," said the lady, taking the cake and coming back to her seat, where she first divested herself of her borrowed plumes and restored them to their rightful owners. Then Mr Johnston produced a huge clasp knife, with which she divided the spoils, giving him one-half, and doing the other up in a clean handkerchief for herself,

• I saw, Mr Johnston look at us and .then whisper" to her, when she again took his knife, and cnt off a large wedge of his half

of the cake, and ; then,. fancy niy horror, wh'enfj I saw that. they were'off ferihg it to us. Of course 1 we could not offend 'them, so we had. to take it; and if I could'h'aye rid my mind of the idea of the hands' Which had in all probability made it, I should' have enjoyed [ it, for it was a really excellent" rich plumcake. And so it went on one walk after another, 'till all the cakes were gone; and gentlemen's purses considerably lightened, as they had to. pay 10 cents each time they walked. AMO o'clock the orchestra played the National' Anthem, and we got out into the pure air as quickly as possible. On our way home,' my friend told me' the 1 proceeds were to go to pay their parson's salary, and I could riot help thinking that a cake walk in London got up and led By a few titled dames would 'prove far more lucrative and entertaining,' and be much less trouble, than the hackneyed bazaar or charity ball. — L. 0. M., Ontario, in a ; Home paper. ' '

It is one of the,, strongest arguments of those who advocate the v abolition of capital punishment that many cases &'re on record of the execution of perfectly ' innocent men owing to' the likeness ' which they, bore to criminals. No one can think of the possibility of such 'a thing happening without an involuntary shudder. It ie to most minds a dreadful thing to be suddenly cut off in the full glow of life' ; but how infinitely greater the horror of this must.be to one who sees a chain of evidence being wound round him .that will drag him to the.scaffold, while all the time he knows that there is ' some hideous mistake, and that he is to suffer a disgraceful death for no greater fault than his accidental resemblance to some one else. Playgoers will remember that an incident of this kind forms the plot of " The Lyons Mail." There have been cases in this country which ended in a tragic manner, as that' of the two Peireaus, who at the end of the last century were executed for a forgery upon Mr Adair, which it was afterwards conclusively proved they had never committed. 'In 1749, a man named Cbleman, who was employed in a brewery, was hanged ' oh' : •itenningtdri Common for THE MUBDBB OF SASAH GREEN. , She swore, 'positively to his identity shortly < ,before she breathed her la3t, and, as he was nnable to give any satisfactory account of his 'whereabouts at the time the crime was committed, her testimony was held to be sufficient to condemn him. The real criminals were discovered two years afterwards, and ! {two of them suffered the extreme penalty. Shortly after this a man, who was after his , death proved to have been perfectly innocent of the deed, was condemned to death at the (Surrey assizes on the oath of the person attacked. , A year after the Lyons mail case in France a similar miscarriage of justice 'occurred in this country. AMr Fryer was •walking with his cousin, ,Miss Ann Fryer, 'when he was set upon by two men, who, as, he resisted their attempts to rob him, resorted to violence that ended in his death. A printer, named James Mackley, and Martin Clinch, a bookseller, were arrested for the crime, and Miss Fryer swore that they were the two men' who had attacked her cousin. They were convicted on her evidence and PUT TO DEATH. Some years afterwards the real assailants of Mr Fryer made a confession, which resulted, in the execution of both ef them. Everyone remembers the Tichborne case. ,It was remarked during the time it was before the courts that a very similar one had occurred in France. On the revocation of the Edist of Nantes a Protestant named De Caille made good his escape to Savoy, There his only son died ; but some years later a soldier, >Pierre Mege, came forward as 3er ting that he • was the son of M. de Caille, and olaiming the family estates. The litigation that ensued lasted no less than seven years, and was eventually decided against Meg*. As in the Tichborne case, the claimant in no way re- , sembled the man he sought to impersonate. 'Indeed no two men could have been leas alike, Mege being dark, and tall, while De Caille was a small, very fait man. , However, the difference did not prevent quite a NUMBER OF, WITNESSES who were examined from asserting their be- , lief in the bona-fides of the impostor. Perhaps the most curious case of mistaken identity that ever occurred was one which the Parliament of Toulouse was, called upon ;to. decide in the middle of the sixteenth century. A married man, by name Martin Guerie, left his wife for eight years. Shortly , after his departure, the probable duration of which was well known, an adventurer bethought him that it would be a very pleasant thing to enjoy the absent man's, property. The likeness which this Arnauld Dutelle bore to Guerre was extraordinary, so much so that the wife of the latter received him without a doubb, arid other members of his family were equally deceived. Everything went on smoothly, children were born to Madame Guerre and the man whom she supposed to be her husband, and there was no suspicion that he was anything bui what he pretended to be. Eventually, however, a dispute arose as to his „ „ IDENTITY. The matter was brought before the Parliament of Toulouse, and excited widespread interest. Hundreds of witnesses were brought up. Large numbers refused tG express any opinion upon the matter, but 50, were positive that Dutelle was Guerre, while an equal number were as sure, that he was not. In the middle of all the wrangling the real Martin Guerre put in an appearance, and one would have thought that there the matter would have ended. Nothing of the kind, however. The usurper' stuck to his guns, and declarer! that the man whose place he had assumed was a brazen-faced impostor. So confidently did he urge his suit that he gained a number of partisans, and the .real Guerre had no little difficulty in establishing his case and claiming his wife and property. — Evening Standard.