229 - West Port.] BURKE AND HARE.
The sight of the execution instead of allaying
the passions of the justly-excited people, inflamed
them with a desire to drag his body out and
tear it to pieces; but a grand public exhibition
was arranged for the morrow, and the white,
naked corpse, so loathed, was laid on the black
narrow escape from an infuriated mob, according
to the Weekly]ournaZ. ?In the den of murder
occupied by Burke,? continues the paper, ?several
objects strengthen the general persuasion that
many other wretches had fallen a sacrifice under
the same root The bloody straw in the corner, a
BALLANTYNE?S CLOSE, GRASSMARKET, 1850. ( F m a JY Jfl chmw-.)
marble table of the theatre, and displayed to
thousands who streamed through the entire day.
Burke was cut up and put in strong pickle and
in small barrels for the dissecting-table, and part
of his skin was tanned.
The woman MkDougal after the execution had
the daring effrontery to present herself in Tanner?s
Close again; but the people of the Portsburgh
rose, and she only found in the watch-house a
heap of bloody clothes on the floor, and a pile of
old boots and shoes, chiefly those of females,
amounting to several dozens, for which the
pretended trade of a shoemaker never can account,
furnish ample food for suspicion ! The idea
suggests itself that the clothes and shoes belonged
to the unfortunate girls whom this monster
decoyed to his house, intoxicated, and murdered,
as he did the poor old wanderer. . . . The two
