coffining of that treacherous miscreant. She adds nothing, invents

nothing, exaggerates nothing (see any New England paper for November,

869). This Pike-Brown case is selected merely as a type, to illustrate

a custom that prevails, not in New Hampshire alone, but in every state in

the Union--I mean the sentimental custom of visiting, petting,

glorifying, and snuffling over murderers like this Pike, from the day

they enter the jail under sentence of death until they swing from the

gallows. The following extract from the Temple Bar (1866) reveals the

fact that this custom is not confined to the United States.--- "On December

31, 1841, a man named John Johnes, a shoemaker, murdered his sweetheart,

Mary Hallam, the daughter of a respectable laborer, at Mansfield, in the

county of Nottingham. He was executed on March 23, 1842. He was a man

of unsteady habits, and gave way to violent fits of passion. The girl

declined his addresses, and he said if he did not have her no one else

should. After he had inflicted the first wound, which was not

immediately fatal, she begged for her life, but seeing him resolved,

asked for time to pray. He said that he would pray for both, and

completed the crime. The wounds were inflicted by a shoemaker's knife,

and her throat was cut barbarously. After this he dropped on his knees

some time, and prayed God to have mercy on two unfortunate lovers.

He made no attempt to escape, and confessed the crime. After his

imprisonment he behaved in a most decorous manner; he won upon the good

opinion of the jail chaplain, and he was visited by the Bishop of

Lincoln. It does not appear that he expressed any contrition for the

crime, but seemed to pass away with triumphant certainty that he was

going to rejoin his victim in heaven. He was visited by some pious and

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