New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-08-18

The passion Of thepublic is for individual crimes
When the particulars are brought oat in fine relief
before us-when We have present the very eadarer
and the very murderer, We look on with PASSION
ate interest and read reams of morning newspa-
pers, as we read Libraries Of fiction in our child
hood We must have the smallest particular. OF
all homicides we demand portraits. OF all houses
in which slaughter has been committed We request
ground.plans. Of all weapons employed in human
bntcbery we expect accurate deneatiOns. In this
strange taste we are epicures. We are cloyed BY
too many assassinations, and there may be gut OF
rapes or burglaries To be sure, since this year
came in there has been no lack Of variety; there
has been crime enough and to spare. Almost every
morning we have been properly shocked BY horrors
as well as sustained by our eggs and toast. The
last great wickedness promised to be permanent
e1harant, but the spice and wine Of it is gone.
Mrs. Cunningham is well behind the bolt and bar
of the Tombs-the young women have recovered
from their fits of faintness-No. 81 Bond street has
euished domicile-the picture papers have gone to
the length Of their tether-we await with anxiety
q new crime We are weary Of Mrs. Cunningham.
Bring in a new maefactor
Good Heavens was there ever before such sto-
lidity! All ! if We nice people had only to search
for our provender To be sure, the intellectual and
physical labor wouldnot be fatguing, and who
might be at pains to keep his eyeGds buttoned
back, would have enough, certainly, of the amuse-
ment and instruction of which crime is capable.
Besgars harrass us in the streets. Boys slide up
to US in the hotels and proaer their obscene mer-
chan&se The impudent clustering Of the mock
auctioneer reaches our ears as pass down Broad
way. We cannot stop at shop window without
feeling pickpOcket fumblipg near us. Painted
prostitutes salute us upon the pavement, or from
the easements of their dens. The rattle of dice is
audible in many house Outwarsly respectable.
The crimes which we start at are real virtues in
comparison with the crimes which We read of with
Indifference. Take the destruction of a single hu-
man soul. boy comes to this city, because the
parental home is too poor to retain him, or because
parental fondncss seeks for him an employment of
more consideration than that Of agriculture. He
comes here pure followed by fathers hopes, and
by the prayers Of a mother, proud of him even in
her humility before her God. AT once the youth is
in the very vortex of temptation. Every passion
is appealed TO- He must wear purple and fine
linen He must indulge in hundred expenses which
which would swallow up large income, aud finish
in month bis own meager stipend. He finds no
lack Of instructors. The bar-roOms invite him;
abandoned women wheede him; the faro-table
attracts him. Then comes peculation from bis
masters till, or larceny Of his masters goods
exposure-perhaps conviction and prison. There
is wretched weeping and wailing in the old home
stead-there is manly sorrow and motherly
agony, neither of.which can be appreciated save
by those v no have felt them. These cases are of
daily occurrence in New-YOrk, and though they
are not provocative of extras and of wood cuts,
we may be sure that they are productive of incom-
putable misery and ruin.
Let US take another illustration. A poor girl is
met by monster and violated. That depend
upon it, is something for the public appetite. The
reporters, the epgravers, and the policemen are
especially brisk upon such occasions. But no feel
ing is excited by the Thousands Of betrayed women
who every night perambulate our streets, finging
their foul invitations into the faces Of the inexpe
reneed and the weak. We shudder over suppos-
titous child but we do not shudder this wreck
of womanly virtue, and of honorable maternity.
And yet another! Huntington, with immense
caDgor Of Judicial trumpets, is conducted to prs-
o. Wall street looks virtuOus for twenty. four
hours. But neither in Wall street nor in those
other streets dedicated to show and fashion do We
find that the Lesson has been appreciated. There
is the same gambling for fortune; the same love
of fine houses, of expensive dresses, Of suuptuous
furniture Of fast horses of grand dinners, of costly
mistresses. There is no excitement until another
Huntington is detected Then, indeed, We are
magnihcently ud.mouthed.
If society would but bestow one half the inter-
est upon the causes Of crime which it comedies
70 crime when ullblown and detected, there
would be smaller call upon the hysterical capabili-
ties Of our constitutions II, instead Of spasmodic
horror. We could have we-regulated determine
ton to remove causes, We might not be called upon
to shake go TREMENDOUSLY over effects. Still, We
fear that society will not Immediately forego the
rare luxury of being shocked BY what is infrequent
and of being Initiated BY what is peculiarly hor-
rble.