Thomas's Massachusetts Spy, Or, Worcester Gazette

MONTREAL, FEB. 10.

CHARIVARI.—The good people of this city were, from the recent dearth of news, in a doze of ennui, when the opportune marriage of a widow with a bachelor, on the 1st inst. awakened their dormant vivacity by renewing the ancient custom of Charivari. The evening of the nuptials, and the succeeding one, were decorously suffered to pass tranquilly; but that of Saturday brought before the mansion of the happy couple a large body of friends and acquaintances, assembled for the purpose of congratulation, merriment, and requiring the usual donation for the benefit of the poor. To surrender on the first summons is neither customary, nor would be magnanimous: the party, therefore, invested the house in form, and, after a few hours' blockade, retired. On Monday evening operations were resumed, and the besiegers, considerably reinforced, rendezvoused at the Old Market. Amongst them were about forty masqueraders, equipped as Turks, Persians, &c. exhibiting the usual proportion of nose and grotesqueness of profile, but lamentably deficient in those demons and calibans whose longitude of tail and other comely decorations used formerly to have so happy an effect. After some time spent in arrangement, those personages, at the head of a dense column of about 500, commenced their march to the martial harmony of cow horns and tin trumpets, made the tour of a part of the city, and returned into St. Paul-street. So far matters had gone on peaceably; but when they arrived opposite Mr. Wragg's hard-ware store, they were accosted by the deputy chief-constable, at the head of his myrmidons, who commanded them to retire—an order to which they only replied by an emphatick vociferation of the word "stick!" Dismayed by this ominous monosyllable, the posse opened to the right and left, and the column passed sternly through. Thence it pursued its former route, and was moving down St. Francois Xavier-street, when lo! at the corner of the Canada Bank appeared the watch. Here the same command met with the same reply; but the guardians of the night, unable to brook the defiance, rushed in amongst the throng, and were seizing several persons, when a most tremendous scuffle began;—stick clashed with stick; wooden sabre encountered watchman's baton, in irreverent disregard of the K. R. mark on it; and knock-down blows were distributed with a liberality and skill truly Hibernian—while the narrow street echoed with the shouts of the combatants. Superior numbers, however, decided the contest; and the watch, after a courageous resistance of a few minutes, fled in disorder, some prudently to their homes, and the rest with more spirit to the watch-house.—The victors pursued the latter to the gates of their fortress, and, learning that some of their comrades had been picked up by a party of constables who had hung on their flanks and rear, sent forward a flag of truce to demand their liberation; but the valiant garrison, hastily fortifying themselves, returned a refusal, and prepared for desperate defence. At this moment, that obnoxious personage, the chief-constable, who had entered by a postern to encourage his troops, unfortunately popping out his head to reconnoitre, was recognized. The besiegers uttered a dreadful yell of hostility; and the forlorn hope, bearing a piece of timber by way of battering-ram, assailed the gate, under cover of a shower of snow-balls, pieces of wood, and such other missiles as the spot afforded. Under the energy of the attack, the door was soon reduced to splinters—the defenders were chased into the yard in the rear; and luckily escaped from their pursuers by jumping over a fence with an extraordinary agility, communicated by the urgency of the occasion. The prisoners were triumphantly released, and the charivariers, after a few tours, dispersed. The next day a special session of the Magistrates was held, and a proclamation issued, prohibiting a recurrence of the charivari, and inviting all well disposed persons to unite with the municipality in its suppression, if attempted. This, nevertheless, did not prevent an assemblage much more numerous than on the preceding evening: the party remained unmolested; but something serious might possibly have occurred, had not the bridegroom flung open a window and capitulated. On Wednesday, we learn, £50 was in consequence presented to the Female Benevolent Society. Thus adding another to those acts of beneficence and charity which the bride is in the daily habit of performing. The charivari principally consisted of mercantile and professional men—though afterwards augmented by other persons attracted by the novelty of the spectacle, and a desire of amusement. Several individuals have been since apprehended.