The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-26 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

SHOCKING PARENTAL DEPRAVITY.—DavicI Casey,
a boy only seven years old, presenting a most
frightful picture of rags and filth, shoeless, and
shirtless, was brought to the court from St. Luke's
Workhouse, charged with begging.
Policemzu Channery, 282 S, said that in Oakley-
street, Chelsea, he saw the poor child begging. He
said to a lady, " Give me a penny," and afterwards
importuned others.

Mr. Benson—ls anything known of this miser.
able child ?

Policeman—lle has a brother in the Hammer•
smithilleformatory, and a sister in another refor•
oratory at Finchley.
_ _

Mr. Benson—ls the mother here ?

A woman stepped forward and said he was her
son, but there was no keeping him indoors. She
worked very hard for her living and so did her
husband, and they were neither of them to blame
in the least.

Mr. Benson—How comes the poor child in this
wretched condition ?

Mother—His brother has his shoes and his jacket
outside.

Mr. Benson—Where is his shirt ?
Mother—He must have got rid of it. He never
brings what he begs home to me.
Mr. Benson—l don't believe that.
Mother—His father has been very ill these six
weeks, and can't work.

Policeman—I saw him rolling drunk in the stree
only two days ago.
Mother—We are very respectable people that
work hard for our children.

llaws, summoning officer of the court—l know
this woman and her husband as common drunkards,
spending all the money they can get that way. I
have had a great deal of trouble with the father
about the other children.

The mother launched a volley of abuse at him.
Mr. Benson—Let the poor child be taken to the
workhouse till Thursday.

THAMES.

BRANDY SUCKERS IN THE LONDON DOCK.--Three
men, named John Gale, aged 35 years ; George
Robinson, 29; and John Crawley, 25 ; were charged
with an offence called ,c sucking the monkey," but,
in legal phraseology, feloniously stealing, taking,
and carrying away brandy from a cask in the Lon-
don Dock.

William Edward Spencer, acting inspector of the
Dock Company's police, saw the prisoners on a
quay where there were many casks of brandy, and
where they had no right to be. Spencer watched
them iu a shed 40 yards distant. He saw them
turn over a cask of brandy, and all three drunk in
turn by means of a tube inserted in the bung-hole.
The prisoners then rolled the cask on its side again,
and were about to depart when Mr. Spencer pounced
upon them and took them into custody.
The prisoners:denied that they had been sucking
the monkey, but the facts were clearly proved, and
it appeared that each had a hearty draught of the
real cogniac. They will not be employed in the
dock again.
The magistrate said the prisoners were not
charged with a felony in the police-sheet as they
might have been, and as he expected they would
have been. It was no less a felony for labourers to
drink wine and spirits in the dock than to bring it
out in vessels of any description. He fined the pri-
soners 20s. each.

DISINFECTION BY STEAu.---The novel attempt
was recently made by Commander Chandler, of the United
States steamer Don, to disinfect that vessel from yellow
fever, which had broken out on board with great violence.
He put into the port of Vera Cruz, where the sick were
landed, and preparations for disinfection made by batten-
ing down and closely securing the berth-dock and ward-
rooms. Hot steam was then turned into them until the
thermometer, which was introduced through a small open-
ing, indicated about 200 degrees of temperature. The
batches were then opened, decks dried down, and in two
hours more there was no indication of the extreme heat to
which those places had been exposed. No cases of fever
occurred afterward. There had been 23 cases on board
and seven men died. Commander Chandler informs the
Department that ho is fully persuaded that heat eradicated
the disease as well as a severe frost could have done. The
experiment is a most important one, as it cau be resorted
to in any climate, or civil at pea.