| Citation |
NYGWPB.761.057
7 May 1761:23 (957)
Bristol, Feb. 7. Tuesday se'ennight about eleven o'clock at
night, four young gentlemen (so call'd) coming over the
bridge, met with one William Martin, a fidler, whom they
insisted on attending them to the Rummer Tavern in All-
Saints-Lane. There he diverted the company for some time,
with such particular tunes as they thought fit to require.
The music and dancing being ended, the glass was plied
pretty briskly to the fidler, who presently found that
something particular had been mixed with the punch, as well
as by the oddity of the taste, as the violent purgative
consequences attending. The unfortunate man being out of
the room, the bloods amused themselves with destroying the
instrument whereon his sole livelihood depended: He enter'd
ere the flames had hurt it, and earnestly beg'd they would
not deprive him of that which procured bread for himself and
family, endeavouring at the same time to rescue his fiddle
from destruction; on which one of these cruel desperadoes
drew a tuck and gave him two desperate wounds on the head.
The unhappy Martin falling on the ground, they plentifully
drenched him with liquor; and to add to the inhumanity of
the scene, most cruelly applied strong mustard to his ears,
mouth &c. . . . [1/4 column with additional cruelties,
victim barely survived to report to authorities]
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