tunates to wheel sand from the bank then in front of Key Hill House up to the canal side, a distance of 1½ miles, the payment being at the rate of one penny per barrow load. This fearful "labour test" was continued for a long time, and when we reckon that each man would have to wheel his harrow backwards and forwards for nearly 20 miles to earn a shilling, moving more than a ton of sand in the process we cannot wonder at the place receiving such a woeful name as Mount Misery.
M.P.'s for Borough.—See "Parliamentary."
Mules.—These animals are not often seen about town now, but in the politically-exciting days of 1815 they apparently were not strangers in our streets, as Mr. Richard Spooner (who, like our genial Alderman Avery, was fond of "tooling" his own cattle), was in the habit of driving his own mail-drag into town, to which four mules were harnessed. With Mr. Thomas Potts, a well-to-do merchant, a "bigoted Baptist," and ultra-Radical, Mr. Spooner and Mr. T. Attwood took part in a deputation to London, giving occasion to one of the street-songs of the day:—
"Tommy Potts has gone to town
To join the deputation;
He is a man of great renown,
And tit to save the nation.
Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy.
Dicky Spooner's also there,
And Tom the Banker, too;
If in glory they should share,
We'll sing them 'Cock-a doodle-doo.'
Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy.
Dicky Spooner is Dicky Mule,
Tim Attwood is Tom Fool;
And Potts an empty kettle,
With lots of bosh and rattle.
Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy."
Another of the doggerel verses, alluding to Mr. Spooner's mules, ran—
"Tommy Potts went up to town,
Bright Tom, who all surpasses,
Was drawn by horses out of town,
And in again by asses.
With their Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy."
Municipal Expenditure.—Fortunately the population of Birmingham is going ahead rapidly, and the more the children multiply the more "heads of families " we may naturally hope there will be noted down as rate- payers by the heads of the gather-the-tin office. The cost of governing our little town is not at all heavy, and when divided out at per head of the inhabitants it seems but a mere bagatelle. Mr. J. Powell Williams, who takes credit for being a financier and man of figures, said in 18S4 that the totals of our municipal expenditure for the past few years were as follows:—
- In 1879 it was £354,000 or 18/3 per head
- In„ 1880 it was„ £343,900 or„ 17/5 per head„
- In„ 1881 it was„ £361,500 or„ 18/0 per head„
- In„ 1882 it was„ £374,500 or„ 18/4 per head„
- In„ 1883 it was„ £385,500 or„ 18/7 per head„
- In„ 1884 it was„ £385,500 or„ 18/3 per head„
The bachelors who live in apartments will surely be tempted to begin house-keeping when they see how low a sum it takes to pay for all the blessings conferred upon us by a Liberal Corporation; but what the Pater of half-a-dozen olive branches may think about the matter is altogether a different thing, especially when he finds that to the above 18/2 per head must be added 2/7½ per head tor the School Board, and 1s. 2d. per head for the Drainage Board, besides poor-rates. Government taxes, gas, water, and all these other little nothings that empty the purse.
Murder and Manslaughter.—It would be too black a catalogue to give all the horrible cases of this nature which the local journals have chronicled in past years, those here noted being only such as have a certain historical interest.
"Tom and Jack."—"See Executions."
