Daily Iowa State Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1859, 1859-06-23


While at keoknk, the other day,
says the editor Of the Lyons Adrocate,
the following circumstances came to
our knowledge, which, we think, sur
passes anything we ever heard 10 the
way of financieripg, and We hope, for
the sake Of humanity, is not cLarac.
teristic Of the people of Keokuk.
A man whose name we did not
learn, was passing through there with
his family, when one OF his children
was taken sick which forced him to
stop. The child finally died, and
when the stranger came to pay his
bill, he found he was short of money.
He had not enough money to pay in
to 81. This he promised to send
back as soon as he should reach Bur-
lingtou, The landlord, judging, We
presume, from the manner in which
the people Of his own town paid their
liabilities, thought that it would not
do to let the man 60 without some
certain security, and so he retained the
corpse Of the child as security for his
eleven dollars until the man could 90
to Burlington and return. The man
was a stranger, and without that best
of friends, money, and consequently,
was forced to 60 away and leave his
dead unburied, and in the hands of
creditor. He went up to Burlington
on Sunday evening, the 5th inst, and
returned on the Tuesday following
with the money to release the body Of
his child, but, in the meantime, the
inhumau creditor had applied to the
overseer Of the Poor and had it buried.
The stranger paid his bill, went to the
potters field and took up the body. land
once more started for up the river. He
had nearly reached the landing, when
he was tapped on the shoulder by
man calling himself a police officer,
who demanded that he should accom-
pany him to the lookup.
The stranger clinging to the body
of his child in perfect anguish, did not
feel like knocking the intruder down,
as he justly merited, but chose rather
to compromise the matter and get out
of the town alive, if he could. Upon
inquiry he found that he was then ar
rested by the Overseer of the Poor for
the price of the burial Of the child.
After long parley, he finally got off
by paying "eight dollars" to the needy
poor fund of the city Of Keokuk, hav-
ing done which, he jumped on board
boat that was about starting, and got
out Of the city as fast as steam could
carry him, thankful, We presume, that
the body of his child had not been
totally devoured. The attention of
the Mayor was called to the facts of
the case while they were transpiring,
but he very coolly remarked that the
man engaged in the persecution "was
a dutchman," which was ali the atten.
ton he paid to it. 1t is hard to be-
lieve that any community are so lost
to the feelings common to humanity
as to permit such transactions in their
midst, and yet this matter was made
subject of public discussion there for
two or three days, and no citizen took
the matter in hand to see that the
stranger had justice. The keeping of
the corpse, in the first place, for debt,
was an outrage; but the arrest OF the
man and taking from him eight dol
lars, was not one whit better than high
way robbery, in broad, open day
light, and done, too. by man hold
ing public Office in the city Of Keo-
kuk. Taking the whole transaction
together, we never heard of a case in
community making any pretensions to
civilization equal to it. The strangers
in the city seemed perfectly horror
stricken at the recital of it, but the
citizens treated it rather as q good
joke, congratulating themselves that
they had eight dollars more in the
city than they would have had ii the
circumstance had not occurred. 1t is
perfectly proper that such a people
should repudiate their honest debts.