Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-02-25
THE BuRDELL MURDER.

. cod.blooded and diabolical murder has been com.
mitted which, accustomed the people of that atty
are to the preparation in their midst OF all kinds OF
crimes and corruption has startled and alarmed mat
whole community, while it has filled the country at
large with establishment, horror and digust. The
sickenng details which have thus far TRANSFERRED be-
fore the coroner's inqusition have, for the most
part, been given in our columns. 1t is not that
man. apparently without pr0vocation to the deed,
has been butchered in his own house, at midnight
by unknown hands-it is not this fact alone wn'ch
has produced so great and general sensation. oaca
an event, indeed, in a Southern community m'gh'
we'll inspire universal horror, indignation ana a'a's'
The frequent occurrence of similar atroclt'es nus IA
miarized the "hgher law" ATTITUDES to their perpe
tration and days wonder passes away as the GRIM
nal escapes and the community turns its eager eyes
steadfastly onward in the pursuit OF gam.
But the incidents of this case disclose state Oh
things in the society of New York city which arrests
the attention of all thinking men, ana even the
darkness of the deed committed, black ana nenosh
as it seems is lost in amazement and disgust at tne
circumstances out of which it sprung. With the
crime of deliberate assassination and butchery, are
here united debauchery and prostitution of the vilest
hue, not among the well known and infamous haunts
of vice, but in New York home-in family-ln
which mother and daughters are alike implicated
yelled by an exterior of decency and responsibility
and the incest regard to appearances and the pro-
preties of life. Much RIGHTEOUSNESS was known
before to exist in that in all large cities but the
home and the freside, at least among people OF the
better class, were thought sacred and secure from
such pollution. The whited sepulchre is now open
ed, and the loathsome corruption revealed Ihere
was the widowed mother in mourning weeds Tor
husband she had buried under a cloud OF suspicion;
such being the acuteness of her bereavement tnat
she seems to have chung with fond fidelity to the
livery of grief after the last dollar OF the ten
thousand was gone which she had got by policies OF
insurance on his life, and long afer she had en-
trapped second victim into clandesine marriage,
taken possession of his house. stolen his papers and
destroyed his will. There was this Mourning
Bride" in all the vivacity of her sorrows this vile
wretch rather, in all the nonchalance of practised
guilt and accomplished wckedness entertaining in
fashionable style the ladies and gentlemen of Bond
street at sociable party, the confectionery for
which cost three hundred dollars, and then retiring,
to the apartments Of her secret husband but to
her own chamber next to a bachelor friend OF dis
solcte habits, to indulge, it may be imagined, in
purity and reposc tender recoecons Of her 'buried
love- or pleasing visions of future widowhood OF
wealth and splendor A dashing young spark, the
precious son New England clergyman, and re-
joicing in the sentimental name of Snodgrass, is
nestled in the story above with face access to the
society of his beloved, the amiable and blooming
daughter of SO chaste and exemplary a mother. An
elder sister of the charming Helen" contests with
the mother the conquest of the convenient bachelor
friend. Rooming below is the Inflated Burdell, who.
with the faulty Of single of fOrtyivc or fifty,
having yielded himself to the embraces, finds at last
that he is entanged by the wiles of the artful and
intriguing widow. Things 60 on this way, until
one day at breakfast. this interesting family is &C.
cupied in abusing the unfortunate man for making
a noise the night before in opening the front door.
which had been locked against him, and Eckel, the
paramount is heard to say, with nudge and glance
at his mistress, 1t would be we'll if the Doctor
were knocked in the head, if it could be done
handy" A few mornings afterwards the want
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? Is such the result of the boosted civiiiza-
ton of the North?
In a striking article, the New York Herald emu
merates of the causes to which the present Ia
mentabe state Of things in New York society is to
be attributed. There is much force in its views.
The present prostitution Of the pulpit to purposes
Of political partnership, and of personal advance.
ment or display. is no doubta prolific cause of loose
morals in the community. The clergy, with rare
exceptions. think more Of politics or Of themselves.
than about preaching the pure and holy precepts of
the gospel taking earnest for the salvation of
mems souls Many places Of public amusement es-
peciay the lower order of theatres, schools of
vice, and the thousands who nightly visit them
demorazcd in thought and feeling and taste. The
habit of families herdng together in boarding houses
and hotels extrpates the idea and banishes all the
sweet and heathlu influences of home, and, along
Will 81 general anu meI1nCuOly b OTclklnS up Vi
domestic relations and ties by this promiscuous
ISOLATION of the sexes is facilitated that concur
renee of appetite and opportunity" which the great
English moralist pronounces SO perilous to human
virtue.
These, however, are but among the secondary and
superficial causes of the great moral leprosy so
much deplored. The whole structure of Northern
society is built upon false basis. Universal free.
dom and equality produces in the end, universal
decentralization and anarchy. Materiasm, Social
ism, Sceptcism, in their thousand Protean shapes
and ramhcatons are but the natural products of
Free Society,", and find their noxious eflorescence
in personal prostitution and social corruption, in
private vice and public disorder, in "Free Love-,
Fanny Wrightsm, adulteries, forgeries, wholesale
swindlng, garroting, murders, mobs. conspiracies
and treason. Such specimens as Scuyler, Hunting
ton, Eckel, the Cunninghams, Wendell Phillips ct
face, ''rotting as they RISE" sufficiently show tho
extent and intensity of the putrefaction which per-
vadcs the depths and current of Northern society.
From the contemplation of these scenes, it Is
pleasant and encouraging to turn the eye upon the
peaceful homes and pure hearths, the personal Sc
cnrity and public tranquility Of Sout,eIn life. The
Family is the gcrminal institution of all pure and
ennobling civilization It is the great Characteristic
of the Angio-Saxon and the fountain Of its ma
jesty and strength.
II reverence, as ought" exclaimed Erskine, in
his Splendid Grafton in the case of Lord Howard o.
Bingham, Il reverence, as ought that mysterious
union of body ana mind, which, while it continues
species, is the source of all affections; which
builds up and dignes the condition of human life;
which binds the husband to the wife by ties more
indissoluble than laws can possibly create; and
which, by the reciprocal endearments arising from
mutual passion mutual interest, and a mutual
honor lays the foundation of that parental affection
which dies in the orutes with the necessities of ma
ture but which reflects back again upon the human
parents, the unspeakeable sy,npathies of their off
AnM %hnn LII LIZ
existence"
No where does the institution Of the family exist