Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/204

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MARCH 2, 1907.

MATTHIAS THE IMPOSTOR. For a shrewd people, the Americans are remarkably gullible in matters of religion. Among the impostors who have preyed upon them from time to time and then- name is legion one of the most singular was Robert Mat- thews, who had a colleague named Elijah Pierson.

Matthews was born about 1789, and Pierson probably a few years earlier. Matthews, a journeyman house-carpenter of Albany, N.Y., was carried away by the " revivalism " of Charles G. Finney, himself advocate teetotalism, and to denounce the impiety of shaving and of freemasonry. Pierson, a fervent Anabaptist, took to him- self authority to preach in New York in 1830, and made an unsuccessful attempt to raise a dead woman to life. This precious
 * an oddity. Shortly after this, he began to

?air came together in New York in May, 832, and soon discovered their spiritual .affinity. Matthews, with some inconsistency declared himself to be Matthias the Apostle, ithe angel of Rev. xiv. 6, and also the Creator of all things. Pierson contented himself with the inferior, but respectable title of Elijah the Tishbite, otherwise John the Baptist. Matthews, managing to beguile a wealthy merchant, who became his banker, proceeded to adopt a costume which he .thought suitable to his pretensions :

" He displayed fine cambric ruffles around his wrists and upon his bosom ; and to a rich silken scarf, interwoven with gold, were suspended twelve golden tassels, emblematical of the twelve tribes of Israel. His fine linen nightcaps were wrought with curious skill of needlework, with the names of the twelve Apostles embroidered thereon."

Out of doors he wore

""a black cap of japanned leather, in shape like an inverted cone, with a shade ; a frock coat, generally -of fine green cloth, lined with white or pink satin ; A vest, commonly of richly figured silk ; green or

black pantaloons, sometimes with sandals with

A black stock around his neck."

He declared that he would build the New Jerusalem in the western part of New York State. It was to contain an immense and gorgeous temple. All the temple utensils were to be of gold and silver, marked with a lion. A manufacturer asked whether it was the British lion they wanted ; to which Matthews answered, " No ; for the British lion was a devil ; but he meant the Lion of the Tribe of Judah."

In 1834 Pierson died, under circumstances which strongly suggested poisoning. Mat- thews was tried and acquitted. He was imprisoned, however, for three months for

an assault with a horsewhip on his married daughter. The court, by Mr. Justice Ruggles, said :

"We are satisfied that you are an impostor, and that you do not believe in your own doctrines. We advise you, therefore, when you come out of jail, to shave off your beard, lay aside your peculiar dress, and go to work like an honest man."

These notes are taken from a work of some scarcity, W. L. Stone's ' Matthias and his Impostures,' New York, Harper, 1835. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

THE AUTHORSHIP or ' Is IT SHAKESPEARE?' This anonymous book, regarded by many as the ablest presentation of the Baconian theory which has yet appeared, contains a dedication concluding with this subscription in red ink :

So, Reviewers, save my Bacon,

O let not Folly mar Delight : followed by this suggestion of a challenge :

These my name and claini unriddle

To all who set the Rubric right. The following seems to " set the Rubric right " : " Walter Begley, the discoverer of Milton's ' Nova Solyma.' "

CHAS. A. HERPICH.

[This riddle was solved in The Athenwum when the book appeared.]

" PULL ONE'S LEG." ' The Standard Dictionary ' explains this expression as (slang, U.S.) " to borrow money or obtain some favor from one by solicitation." It has a slightly different meaning in England, and is generally used to express an intention to deceive or hold up to ridicule.

Before the invention of the long drop in executions the phrase had another meaning, it being used to express the action of the friends of a criminal, who pulled the legs of the condemned man to shorten his sufferings. In Hood's poem ' The Last Man ' the hangman, left alone in the world, contemplates suicide, but desists, saying :

In vain my fancy begs, For there is not another soul alive

In the world to pull my legs.

JOHN HEBB.

INSCRIPTIONS AT BELLAGIO, ITALY. In the small cemetery for foreigners attached to the general cemetery, are the following inscriptions (May, 1905) :

1. Agnes Elizabeth, w. of Althans Black- well, of Moseley, Birmingham, ob. at Bellagio, 26 June, 1898, a. 51.

2. Nellie, w. of Arthur Charles Parkinson, of London, after ten days of marriage, ob. 10 June, 1895, a. 25.