Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-02-20
THE BURDELL MURDER.

are to the preparation in their midst OF all kihds
crimes and corruption has startled and alarmed III"
whole community, while il has filled the country !"
large with astonishment horror and disgust. lhs
sckenng details which have thus far transpired De
tore the seroner's inquison, have, for the MOS
part, been given in our columns. 1t is not ihat
mau, apparently without provocatlon to the ueeo
has boon butchered in his own house, at mldngnl' o'
unknown hands-it is not this fact alone wh'ch ha'
produced 80 great and general sensation. ouc'
an event, indeed, in Southern community n''s"
we'll inspire universal horror, indignation ana aia' III
The frequent occurrence Of similar atrocities nus ID
miiarized the "higher law" latitudes to their pe'Po
ration, and days wonder passes away az Tue ''''
nlnal escapes and the community tu'"' Ito o"se'
eyes ateadfsstly onward in the pursuit oi gam
But the incidents of this case disclose a sta'e o
things in the society of New York city when arrests
the attention of all thinking men, and even Inc uarh
cess of the deed committed black aud hendish Ms II
seems, is lost in amazement and disgust at the CIR
oumstances out of which it sprung. WIN 'he 'i'A''
Ot deliberate assassination and butchery' arc "e'
united debauchery and prostitution oil 'ne '"eS' nu''
not among the we'll known and infamous h"un's VI
vice. but in a New York Aome-in a faniIy-in when
mother and daugbters are alike implicated-veed
hv an anterior or decsucy and respectabty an' the
nos,, regard to nppsarances and tho propreties Of
| life. Much centousness was known osiore 10 e"'''
| in that as in all large cesi but the nome anu 'ie
aresde at least among people OF the better ciass'
were thought sacred and secure from such pollution
The whited .epuchre is opened and the loahsome
corruntion revealed There was the widow ed mo-
thar in mourning wesds for a husband she had bu.
ried under cloud of suspicion; such being The
acuteness of her bereavement that she seems 10
clupe with fond fidelity to the livery OF grei' even
after the last dollar Of the ten thousand was gone
which she had got by policies of insurance on MS
life. and long after she hnd entrapped second VIC
tim into a clandesns marriage, taken possession o'
his house. stolen his papers and destroyed ms WILL
There was this Mourning Bride, IN all the VlVacny
of her sorrows this vile wretch, rather IN all te nom
chalance of practsed guilt and accomplished WICK
ednsss entertaining in fashionable style the ladies' and
gentlemen of Bond street at socable party the con-
dictionary for which cost three hundred dollars, ana
than retrng not TO the apartments Of her secret hus-
band but to her own chamber, next TO bachelor
friend of dissolute habits, indulge it may be ina
gined, in purity and repose, tender recoliections
| of her "buried love-" or pleasing visions oi
a future widowhood of wealth and spendor.-
dashing young spark, the precious son OF New
England clergyman, and rejoicing in the sentimental
MANS of. Snodgrass, is nestled in the story above
with facils access TO the society OF his beloved, the
amiable and blooming daughter OF go chaste and
exemplary mother. An elders OF the "charming
Helen" contests with the mother the conquest of the
convenient bachelor friend. Rooming below is the
i'll -fated Burdel who with the fatuty of single men
of forty five or fifty having yielded himself to the
embraces, finds at last that he i. entanged by the
wiles of the arfu and Intriguing widow. Things go
on in this way until one day breakfast this interest
ing family is occupied in abusing the unfortunate
man for making noise the night before in opening
the front door, which had been locked against him,
and Eckel, the paramount, ia heard to say, with Il
nudge and glance at his mistress, at would be well
if the Doctor were knocked in the head it it could
be done handy" A few mornings afterwards, the
servant boy that came to make the Doctors fire,
found him dead upon the floor, reeking In the
blood that had gushed from fifteen wounds
Is this picture an epitome of social life in New
York Ia such the result of the bcasted civilization
of the North
In strkng article the New York Herald enume-
rates some Of the causes to which the present lament
able state of things in New York society ia to be at
tributed There is much fOres in it's views The
present prostitution of the pulpit to purposes OF poll
tical parti.anship, and of personal advancement or
display, is no doubt prolific cause of loose morals in
the community. The clergy, with rare exceptions
think more of politics or Of themselves, than about
tba md holy nf
or taking earnest for the salvation Of mems souls
Many places of public amusement, especially the lower
order of theatres, schools OF vice, and the thou
sands who nightly visit them are demoralized in
thought and feeling and TASTE The habit Of families
herding together in boarding houses and hotels, ex-
tirpates the idea and banshes all the sweet and health
full influences of home, and, along with general and
melancholy breaking up Of domestic relations and
ties by this promscuous association Of the sexes, is
facilitated that concurrence Of appetite and oppor
tunty,' which the great English moralist pronounce4
30 perilous to human virtue.
These however, are but among the secondary and
superficial causes of the great moral leprosy
go much dsplored. The whole structure of North
ern society is built upon q false basis. Uni
versal freedom and equality produces, in the
end, universal Generalization and anarchy
Materslisn, Socialism, Scepticsm, in their thou
sand Protean shapes and ramfcations, arc but the
natural products Of "Free Society,"" and find their
nsxious sforescence in personal prostitution and
cal corruption in private vice and public disorder,
in "Eree Love-" Fanny Wrghtism, aduercs, forge
ries, Wholesale swindng, gorrOting, MURDERS :nobs,
conspiraces and treason. Such specimens as Schuy-
IL Al, Ill
Phillips. et i'd genas that occasionally ascend
to the surface, "rottng they rise," sufficiently
show the extent and intensity of the putrefaction
which perv AIDES The depths and current of Northern
society.
From the contemplation Of these scenes, it is plea
SAINT and encouraging TO turn the eye upon the peace
full homes and pure hearths the personal security and
public tranquility of Southern life The Family is the
germina institution Of ali pure and ennobing civili
zation 1t is the great characteristic OF the Anglo
Saxon race and the fountain of il, majesty and
strength.
81 reverence as ought" exclaimed Erskine in his
splendid oraton in the ofLord Howard rs. Bing.
ham, 81 reverence, as ought, that mysterious union
of body and mind which, while it continues species,
is the source of all aectcn. which builds up and
digni6es the condition Of human lei which binds
the husband to the wife by ties more indssolube
than laws can possibly create and which, by the re-
siprocal endsarments arising from mutual passion,
mutual interest," and mutual honor, lays the for
dation of that parental affection which dies in the
brutes, with the necessities of nature, but which re-
fleets back again upon the human parents, the un-
speakase sympatbes Of their offspring and all the
sweet, delightful relations of social existence"
No where docs the institution of the family exist in
higher purity, more general prevalence than in the
Southern States Of this Union. The home of tho
Southern gentleman is emphatically the source and
centre of all the "swset delightful relations of social