#frederick mackenzie

A person named [Nathan Hale] . . . was apprehended as a Spy, last night upon Long Island; and having this day made a full and free confession to the Commander in Chief of his being employed by Mr. Washington in that capacity, he was hanged at 11 o'clock in front of the Park of Artillery . . . He behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer, to obey any orders given to him by his commander in Chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear.

"(...) He pulls on a pair of Boston boots . . . fastens his Connecticut braces, slips his Waterbury watch into his pocket and sits down to breakfast . . . at which he eats bread made from prairie flour . . . and a little Kansas City bacon. . . . The children are given Quaker oats."

One journalist, Frederick Mackenzie of the Daily Mail, warned: "In the domestic life we have almost got to this. The average citizen wakes up in the morning at the sound of an American alarum clock; rises from his New England sheets, and shaves with his New York soap, and a Yankee safety razor. He pulls on a pair of Boston boots . . . fastens his Connecticut braces, slips his Waterbury watch into his pocket and sits down for breakfast . . . at which he eats bread made from prairie flour . . . and a little Kansas City bacon. . . . The children are given Quaker oats." Rising from the table, Mackenzie went on, "the citizen rushes out, catches an electric tram made in New York, to Shepherds Bush, where he gets into a Yankee elevator, which takes him on an American-fitted railway into the city. At his office of course everything is American." Journalistic hyperbole, but Mackenzie's satire rang painfully true to many in Britain in the 1900s.

A person named Nathaniel Hales, a lieutenant in the Rebel Army, and a native of Connecticut, was apprehended as a Spy… he was hanged at 11 o'Clock in front of the Park of Artillery… He behaved with good composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good Officer to obey any orders given him by his commander in chief; and desired the Spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear.