Let pilfering passions not intrude, For to lead you astray, From step to step it will delude, And bring you to dismay. Think of the wretched Courvoisier, Who thus dies on a tree, A death of shame, I've nought to blame, But my own dishonesty. Mercy on earth I'll not implore, To crave it would be vain, My hands are dyed with human gore, None can wash off the stain. But the merits of a Saviour, Whose mercy alone I crave; Good Christians pray, as thus I die, I may his pardon have. Paul & Co., Printers, 2, 3, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials. But the gallows was not always a fruit-bearing tree, and a "stunning good murder" did not happen every day. Nevertheless the street patterer must live, and lest the increase of public virtue should condemn him to starvation, the "Seven Dials Press," stepped forward to his aid, and considerately supplied him with a species of street-literature well known to the trade as "Cocks," and which are defined in "Hotton's Slang Dictionary" thus:-- COCKS, fictitious narratives, in verse or prose, of murders, fires and terrible accidents, sold in the streets as true accounts. The man who hawks them, a patterer, often changes the scene of the awful event to suit the taste of the neighbourhood he is trying to delude. Possibly a corruption of _cook_--a cooked statement, or may be "the story of a cock and bull" may have had something to do with the term. Improvements in newspapers, especially in those published in the evening, and increased scepticism on the part of the public have destroyed this branch of a once-flourishing business. The late Mr. Albert Smith, the humourist and novelist, has very happily hit off this style of thing in "The Man in the Moon," one of the many rivals to "Punch," and edited by that very promising son of genius, the late Angus B. Reach, 1832-56. It is entitled-- A COPY OF VERSES _Found among the Papers of Mr. Catnach, the spirited Publisher of Seven Dials; originally intended to have been "printed and published at the Toy and Marble Warehouse, 2 and 3, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials."_ DEDICATED TO THE AUTHOR OF "LUCRETIA." I. _The Hero claims the attention of virtuous persons, and leads them to anticipate a painful disclosure._ [Illustration] Draw hither now good people all And let my story warn, For I will tell to you a tale, What will wrend them breasts of yourn. II. _He names the place and hour of the disgraceful penalty he is about to undergo._ [Illustration] I am condemn'd all for to die A death of scorn and horror; In front of Horsemonger-lane Gaol, At eight o'clock to-morrer. III. _He hints at his atrocity; and the ebullition produced by the mere recollection of it._ [Illustration]