"I'll trouble you for a spell to pay mother out. She won't put more than three lumps of sugar in my tea;"--or, "Mother has got very teazy lately. I want a spell to make her fall downstairs"--or, "Father only gives me twopence a week out of what I earn blacking boots; give me a spell to make him have an accident whilst he's at work." And it was not seldom that the trio were petitioned thus: "Please give us a spell to make our parents die quickly. Teacher says at school 'perfect freedom is the birthright of all Englishmen,' and we can't have perfect freedom whilst our parents are alive."[22] The statistics of those who died from the effects of accidents for the week ending August 1, of this year, in London alone, were--over sixty years of age, five thousand; between the ages of twenty-five and sixty, six thousand; and, for the latter deaths, children alone were responsible. The greatest number of these accidents occurred in Poplar, West Ham, Battersea, and Whitechapel; and at length the working class applicants became so numerous that the Modern Sorcery Company could not cope with them, and were forced to raise their charges. Among other customers, as one might expect, were many militant Suffragettes; whom Hamar and Curtis palmed off on Kelson. "Give me a spell," demanded a hatchet-faced lady, wearing a half-up-to-the-knee skirt, "one that will cause the roof of the House of Commons to fall in and smash everybody--EVERYBODY. This is no time for half-measures." Had she been pretty, it is just possible Kelson might have assented, but he had no sympathy with the ugly--they set his teeth on edge--he loathed them. "Certainly, madam, certainly," he said, "here is a spell that will have the effect you desire," and he handed her a ring containing a magnes microcosmi fully charged with the essence of life of an idiot. "Wear it," he said, "night and day. Never be without it." She joyfully obeyed, and within forty-eight hours was lodged in a home for incurables. Another woman, if possible even uglier than the last, approached him with a similar request. "Let me have a spell at once," she said, "that will make every member of the Government be run over by taxis--and killed. They are monsters, tyrants--I abominate them. Let them be slowly--very slowly--SQUASHED to death!" "Very well, madam," Kelson said, carefully concealing a smile, "here is what you want--wear it next your heart;" and he gave her a locket, containing a magnes microcosmi charged with the essence of life of a leper, which he had procured at considerable risk and expense. "I consider your fee far too high," the Suffragette said. "You take advantage of me because I'm a woman." "Very well, madam," he said, "I will make an exception in your case, and let you have it for half the sum."