By the use of vinegar the Spanish General Vitellis, made his skin hang about him like a pelisse; but of the wonderful dilatability of the skin, no instance equals the Spaniard who showed himself to Van-Horn, Silvius, Piso, and other learned men at Amsterdam. Taking up with his left hand the skin of his right shoulder, he would bring the same up to his mouth: again he would draw the skin of his chin down to his breast like a beard, and presently put it upwards to the top of his head, hiding both his eyes therewith; after which, the same would return orderly and equally to its proper place. ADVERTISEMENT OF A DYING SPEECH BOOK IN 1731. Newgate literature was more popular in the last century than it is now. The following is an advertisement in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of the above date:-- "A General History of Executions for the year, 1730. Containing the lives, actions, dying speeches, confessions and behaviour, of sixty malefactors executed at Tyburn, and elsewhere; particularly three unfortunate young gentlemen, viz., Mr. Goodburn, a Cambridge scholar, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Porter, son to the late Lord Mayor of Dublin: and of several notorious highwaymen, foot-pads, street-robbers, and housebreakers, as Dalton, Everet, Doyle, Newcomb, &c., and of the five young highwaymen taken at Windsor, said to have formed a design to rob the Queen there. To which is added, the trial of William Gordon at Chelmsford for a robbery on the highway; an account of the incendiaries at Bristol, and the apprehending John Power, for sending threatening letters, and firing Mr. Packer's house; also the life of Col. Ch--s. Together with an alphabetical list of all the persons indicted or tried at the Old Bailey, the year past. With the judgment of the court respectively passed upon each, referring to the pages in the session books for the trials at large. Printed for R. Newton at St. John's Gate, and sold by the booksellers price bound 2_s._ 6_d._" ADVERTISEMENT OF A FLEET PARSON. In the last century, when marriages were allowed to be transacted--we cannot say solemnized--in the Fleet Prison, and the adjacent taverns, the profligate wretches who disgraced their sacred profession by taking part in such iniquities, were obliged to bid against one another for custom--here is one of their advertisements:-- G. R. At the true Chapel at the old Red Hand and Mitre, three doors from Fleet Lane and next Door to the White Swan; Marriages are performed by authority by the Reverend Mr. Symson educated at the University of Cambridge, and late Chaplain to the Earl of Rothes. N.B. Without Imposition. THE ASS.