The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-03-18

III, but surely, society is learning this grea
,,,,h. that prevention is not only better, but ca
.;.r and alas, most potent argument oil ali
- ,,an cure; and that it has other duties
,,.,f,rm towards paupers and criminals, than
feeling and hanging. 1t getting rapidly dem
,,s,,.,es. that il costs far less Ito say nothing
= bi,brr considerations to feed and teach the
., ,sgced, ignorant child, who must beg
.,.,l or starve; and thus make il both will
linz ,uG able TO live honestly, than it does IL
,,s,t5 against, catch, try, convict, and imPrison
transport or hang, the grown up, brutalired aad
dangerous man
ona uav in which these views have already
fl, same measure, been carried out, is by Rag
y-5 Schools, TO which We referred some time
.ro The experiment has been tried with some
inrortant notifications with the greatest sue
cess. ia Aberdeen, Dundee, and other large towns
10 scotland.
The Rev THONas GUTHRIE, an eloquent and
l,rge-hearted minister of the Free Church "a
scotch Whitfield indeed has lately published O.
pamphlet, entitled, "A Plea for kas I'd. ~ u.s., -
Of which, We and an interesting notice, with
.ome admirable extracts, in the Edinburgh Re
view, for last April.
To such cities as Louisville, Cincinnati, ST.
Louis, ana New Orleans, these questions OF
psuperism, and crime, already fearfally i'm
porlauI, but if the wretched old course is per-
sisted in, of making. and then supporting and
furnishing. in after years, the evils now exist
iag will be multiplied a hundred fold.
With no asylum TO receive them no
schOolmaster 10 instruct them, no police
man entitled TO restrain them; what right
have We to wOader that, in the common
meaning Of the word nurseries, our great
Giles have been found to be the nurseries
Of criminals And, by what miserable
distinction, can We any longer Justify our
horror at the barbarous practice Of exposing
infants, or denounce the Rajpoot and the
Chinese, should We persist in exposing
chidren-yery little older and quite as help
irss-to mortality in its more prolonged
and painful forms, Of want, and degrade
ton, and disease If We cannot bear To
enter the alleys Of London and the wynds
Oi Edinburgh in our own persons, Mr..
Guthrie has penetrated them for US. We
can follow hlm page by page, as wildly as
step BY step. We can plead ignorance
and taoughtlessness no longer. What then
can be our other pleas There is no pass
ING by, and no forgetting pictures like the
following -
On one side Of this square, in two
thirds Oi the shops 0or We have counted
them spirits are sold. The sheep are near
the slaughter-house-the victims are in the
neighborhood Of the affairs The mouth Of
almost every close is filled with loungers,
worse than Neapoltan lazzaroni-bloated
and bruta. figures, ragged and wretched old
men, bold and fierce looking women, and
many hall-clad mother, shivering in cold
winter, her naked feet on the frozen pave
ment, skeleton infant in her arms. On a
summer day, when in the blessed sunshine
aud warm air, misery itself will sing dash
lng IN and out Of these closes, careering
over the open ground, engaged in their rude
games, snayed in flying drapery, here leg
out and there an arm, are crowds of chill
dTen their thin faces tell how i'll they are
fed; their fearful oaths tell how i'll they are
reared and yet the merry laugh, and hearty
shout, and screams Of delight, as some un
fortunate urchn, at leapfrog, measures his
length upon the ground, also tell that God
made childhood to be happy, and that, in
the buOyancy of youth, even misery will
forget ITSELF
I'VE &c; hold of one of these boys
Poor fellow il is a bitter day; he has
neither shoes nor stockings; his naked feet
are red, swollen, cracked. liberated with
the cold; thin, thread-worn Jacket, with
lis gaping rents, is all that protects his
breast; beneath his shaggy bush Of hair he
shows face sharp with want, yet sharp also
with intelligence beyond his years. That
poor little fellow has learned to be already
seltsuPPoring. He has studied the arts
be is master Of imPosture, lying, begging.
stealing; and, small blame to him, but much
TO those who have neglected hin--he had
otherwise pinned and persisted
Such children cannot pay
Tor education, nor avail themselves OF a
gratis one, even though offered. That lit.
lie fellow must beg and steal, or he starves.
WIN a number like himself, he goes as
regularly to that work Of morning as the
merchant to his shop or the uadesman to
his place of labor. They are turned out
driven out sometimes-to get their meat, like
sheep TO the hills, or cattle to the field and
II they don't bring home a certain supply
a drunken father and brutal beating a wait
them.
"tor example, was returning from q
meeting one night, about twelve O'Clock.
II was fierce blast of wind and rain. In
rnnces Street, piteous voice and shiv
eiing boy pressed me to buy tract. ask
60 The child why he was out in such night
and at such an hour. He had not got hi.
money he dared not go home without it
ne would rather sleep in a stair all night
thought as we passed lamp, that hac
seen him before. ! asked him if he wen
" church. Sometimes to Mr.. Guthrie's,
was his reply. On looking again, | now
iecog nlIed him as one | mad OCCASIONAL,
seen IN the Cowgate Chapel. Mualed VI
70 meet the weather, he did not reccsniz,
me- asked him what his father was. :"
nave no iather, sir, he is dead" His moth
eF "She is very poor" "But why kee,
you out here?" and then reluctantly, III
uuth came out. knew her well. and ha,
va. IS''ed her wretched dwelling. She was
. .h dark gaunt, gipsy-looking woman
VINO, notwithstanding cap, of which !