Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1852-07-01
Kate Virginia Poole.

Kate Virginia Poole.
In the New-Hampshire State Prison is
confined Young female, whose appearance
and address at once enlist sympathy. Her
countenance has the artless expression of
one unstalned even by the Consciousness of
crime.
The unaffected manner 10 which she re-
veals story Of wrong and outrage, sulii-
cient TO make every heart bleed for her,
are enough to make any one who listens TO
her history cry out against such blot upon
justice and humanity as her strange and
and cruel incarceration.
She has been indicted for the crime Of
infanticide, and judicial sentence had plac-
ed her within the walls of the prison. far
The term Of her natural life, there to have
every sentiment of principle aud all the
deicacy Of her sex oblilerated in the de-
baslng contact with ielons aud maleiactors
Through the kindness of the excellent ahd
compassionate warden of the Prison, the
writer of this article has been permitted to
have an interview with her and has no hes
itatlon IN saying, that, among all the other
wrongs committed in the name of justice,
this case is without parallel.
1t is enough to make US pause with the
serious inquiry whether the great cause of
Humanity is not rapidly going back, and
we are not again living in an age of bar
barlsm. Her appearance at once repels
the idea of gullt-her manner pleads for
her most Irresis,Iby. Modest, sensitive to
the degradation Of her position, and con-
sclous of true innocence, although victim
to the perfidlty Of her destroyer, aud lying
under the stigma of a criminal conviction
no one can approach her aud heqr her sad
history from her own lips without rising
with indignation.
She is a native of Glasgow, Scotland
having no relatives in this country, save an
aunt, who was unable to assist her IN her
aretched condition. Her downfall was az
fected under circumstances of atroclty that
cry most loudly for vengeance on ITS guilty
author. Her arms, neck and person are
SCARED with wounds received IN defending
herself from her dlabolica aggressoT, aud
her ruin was only accomplished when she
was drugged into insensiblhty With the
innocent evidence of her fall 10 her arms,
she was excluded from lie house of the on
" relative she had in America, and, bear
ing it away with her, she sought in a man
uldNAuiiiR NlAl SHtaN'i tOl htletll dlh Odbt,
while she could, with the labor other hands,
find honorable support.
This was anything but the course which
would have been pursued by one conscious
of guilt. ln a city of strangers-a mother,
bu, not wife, what could be expected
All doors were closed against her. She
could give diody her child, but a mothers
heart revolted against 1t. Product of shame
though it was, and born to lnfamy though
it might be, she chung TO il as all that was
dear TO her in her extremity. Finding eve-
ry avenue to employment closed to her in
one city, she fled to another. 1t was night
when she left.
/ Heart-broken-on.y bound to life by the
claims which bound her as a mother-she
would, under other circumstances, have
sought the welcome refuge of suicide. With
these feelings called into a most narrowing
exercise by the loneliness aud misery of her
situatlon-lookIng at the babe that slnm-
bered on her breast, with The brand OF infa-
my on its brow, is it wonder that mind
thus tortured was swept beyond the bounds
of consciousness The Hindoo mother
who bursts the bonds of nature by flnging
her infant to the gaping monster of the
Gauges, has no such plea as lay in the
broken heart and frenzied brain Of Kate
/ Virginia Poole. leave her own lips 10
tell her story.
! 81 do not recollect anything distinctly"
said she, after | entered .he cars. The
lights, the crowd, and the motion of the
cars, seemed to confuse me- | do not
think | should have remembered anything,
/ If the weight Of the child, which slumbered
on my lap, had not reminded me of its
existence and my own situation. At last a
cloud seemed to thicken about me, and eve
~ thing seemed to look white that met my
/ eyes The child itself seemed like feath-
er, aud seemed to float away from me I'M
consciously. IL did not seem to fall, but TO
rise, and thought could see il for some
moments afierward."
Now, who IN the name OF common JUS
iice, sees anything in this transaction which
should not have been instantly absoyed by
that ennobling feature in the administration
of justice which permits certain mental
conditions to annu responsibility for crime
Where were those, when this poor girl
stood arraigned for her life, whose study
and profession il is TO understand, and make
iutelliglble to a jury, these subtle condl-
tions I Why was not some voice raised,
that justice slumber not both on the jury
box and the bench, while the thrice ou,rag-
ed sufferer was permitted TO GO down unde-
Tended, from scene Of wrong, despair and
frenzy, to that grave Of character aud self
respect, a State Prison
Said !, "Do you think YOU had for your
child the ordinary feelings and natural love
Of a mother p She looked me full in the
face, with eyes gushing with tears at the
question, Sir. 4 ro1Id gladly hare laid
docn my life for IL. could have given ii
away while in the full consciousness Of my