“Come, all good Christians, praise the Lord,
And trust to him in hope.
God in his mercy Jack Thurtell sent
To hang from Hertford gallows rope.
Poor Weare’s murder the Lord disclosed—
Be glory to his name:
And Thurtell, Hunt, and Probert too,
Were brought to grief and shame.”
Another street paper-worker whom I spoke to on the subject, and to whom I read these two verses, said: “That’s just the old thing, sir; and it’s quite in old Jemmy Catnach’s style, for he used to write werses—anyhow, he said he did, for I’ve heard him say so, and I’ve no doubt he did in reality—it was just his favourite style, I know, but the march of intellect put it out. It did so.”
In the most “popular” murders, the street “papers” are a mere recital from the newspapers, but somewhat more brief, when the suspected murderer is in custody; but when the murderer has not been apprehended, or is unknown, “then,” said one Death-hunter, “we has our fling, and I’ve hit the mark a few chances that way. We had, at the werry least, half-a-dozen coves pulled up in the slums that we printed for the murder of ‘The Beautiful Eliza Grimwood, in the Waterloo-road.’ I did best on Thomas Hopkins, being the guilty man—I think he was Thomas Hopkins—’cause a strong case was made out again him.”