Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1852-06-19
Kate Virginia Poole.

kalC Virginia Poole.
In the New Hampshire State Prison is con-
fined young female, whose appearance and
address at once enlist sympathy. Her couGto-
nance has the artlcss expression of ono unstain-
cd even by the consciousness of crime. The
unaffected manner in v hich she reveals a story
OF wrong and outrage, sufficient to make every
heart bleed for her, are enough to make any
ono who listens to her history cry out against
such blot upon justice and humanity az her
strange and cruel incarceration.
She has been indicted for the crime Of Infan-
ticdc, and judicial sentence has placed her
within the walls of the prison for the term of
b.r natural hJc, there to have every sentinel of
principle and all tho dclicacy of her sex oblit-
Grated in the debasing contact with fclons and
malciactors. Through the kindness OF the cx-
cellont and compassionate Warden OF the Pris-
on, the writer of this article has been permitted
to have an interview with her, end has no hcsi-
ia'ion in saying, that, among all wrongs conf
mittcd under tho name of Justice, this case is
without parallel.
1t is enough to make us pause with the SC.
r!ous inquiry, whether the great cause OF IIu-
monty is not rapidly going back, and we arc
not again living in an age Of barbarism. Her
appearance at once rcpcls the idea Of guilt
Modest, sensitive to the degradation of her po-
sition, and conscious of true innocence, al
though a victim TO the pcrhdy of her destroyer,
and lying under the stigma of criminal con-
viction, no one can approach her and hear her
sd history from her own lips, without rising
W.S;, Indignation.
She is n native of Glasgow, Scotland having
10 relatives in this conu:ry save an aunt, who
was unable to assist her in her wrctchcd eX-
4
cumstances OF atrocity that cry most loudly for
vengeance on its author. Her arm, neck and
person arc Scared with wounds defending her.
self from her diabolical aggrcssor, and her ruin
was only accomplished when she was druggcd
into insensiLility! With the innocent evidence
of her fall in her arms, she was excluded from
the house ofthe only relative she had in Ameri-
ca and, bearing it away with her, she sought
in a manufacturing city, shelter for herself and
babe, while she could, with the labor of her
hands, find honorable support.
This was any thing but the course which
would have been pursued by one concious of
guilt. In a city OF strngcrs-a mother but not
a wife, what could be expected; All doors
were closed against her. She could gice atcay
her child, but u mothers heart revoltcd against
it; Product of shame though it was, and born
to inlamy though it might be, she clung to it
as all that was dear 20 her in her extremity
Finding every avenue to employment closed to
her in one city, she fled to another. 1t was
night when sho left.
Heart broken,- bound to life by the
claims which bound her as n mother, ,-sho
would, under other circumstances, have sought
tho welcome refuge of suicide. With these
feelings called into most narrowing exercise
by the loneliness and misery Of her situation
looking at the babe that slumbered on her breast
with the brand of iniamy born on its brow, is
it wonder that mind thus tortured was
swept beyond the bounds Of consciousness =
lho Hindoo mother, who bursts the bonds of
nature by ilingng her infant to the gaping mon
stcr of the Gangcs, has no such plea as lay in
the broken heart and frenzed brain of Virginia
Poole. l leave her own lips to tell the story.
81 do not rccollcct anything distinctly" she
says, "aitor 1 entered the cars. The lights,
the crowd, and the motion of the cars, seemed
TO confuse me. l do not think l should have
remembered anything, if tho weight Of the
child, which s.umbered on my lap, had not re-
minded me Of its eXistenc and my own situation.
At last, cloud seemed to thicken about me,
and every thing seemed to look white that met
my eyes. The child itself seemed like feath-
or, and rppeared to hoat away from me uncon-
sciously. 1t did not seem 70 fall, but to rise,
and thought could see it for some moments
afterwards"
Now who, in the name of common justice,
secs anything in this transaction which should
not have been instantly absolved by that enob-
ling feature in the administration of justice
which permits certain mental condition to an
nul responsibility for crimci Where were
those, when this poor girl stood arraigned for
her life, whose study and profession it is to un-
derstand and make ineligible to Jury these
subtle conditionsl Why was not some voice
raised, that Justice slumber not both on tho
jury-box ard the bench, while this thrice out
ragged sufferer was permitted to go down, undc-
Tended, from a scene of wrong, despair and
frenzy, to that grave of character and self
respect, Prison!
Said l, "Do you think you had for youl
| child the ordinary feelings of a mother" She
looked me full in the face, with eyes gushing
with tears at the question, "Sir, tcouM gladly
hare laid dozen my oiOn life for il could have
! given it away while in the full consciousness o
my condition, but l tesolved to work mysel
into the grave before my child should have beer
separated from me. Do you think, Sir, woulC
part with that without which life would hay,
been an intolcrable burden" Then she added
with deep cmotion,-" Thank Heaven, it wa
asleep the last remember of it, and / think i
never awoko to upbraid me with single cry !!
Concord (N. H.) Statesman.