Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-08-15

We tnd the following astatstnsnt. in city

Our soefaf Ulcers. efs.i
We tnd the following statement. in city
paper Of last Monday; 90
Kate Bradshaw and Jennie Gteenough,
young girls about seventeen years of age,
were sent to the City Prison by Judge Lowe
this morning, for twenty days each, for parsd-
ing the streets In male attire. 80 !'.ls.,s9 as
If these girls, by appearing on the street
in mems clothes, have committed an unpar-
donable crime, for which they should be con-
d,mned to be outcasts from society, and
sentenced 10 inevitable ruin of body and
soul, then this sentence Of the Police Court
is proper. If not II Is horribly atrocious
We talk Of monsters Of Judicial atrocity, and
naturally refer to JeHreys and other histori-
cal personagcs to fill our idea; but we have
acts in our midst almost every day, under the
name of justice and that, toe, by well-mean-
ing. humane and pious men, which, Il their
inevitable and ultimate consequences could
all be exhibited in Court at the time when
sentence was given, would appear atrocious
,uough 10 make Jeffreys shudder.
Yet these cases appear in the newspaper
repor,sy as so many persons sent up, fol
from ten to thirty days, and our citizens
naturally think that the more there are sent
up, the more society Is being reformed. We
know that we make ourselves disagreeablo
to many Of our friends by disturbing these
ulcers of our civilization. Does any one
suppose that we do it merely from spirit Of
fauit-fnding7 Society prefers to shut its
eyes upon evil and wrong. Our reformatory
institutions are formed on that idea. We
pa. evil out Of our sight, or devoutly close
our eyes to 1t, and try to persuade ourselves
that We have discharged our duty or we i'm
p;ously charge the evil upon God, as a part
Of his economy, and we think we have shlfied
the responsibility from our shoulders, by
praying to Him to make 1t right. 4,
But do we not know that the blood OF these
persons, ruined, body and soul, through our in
stitutions, our neglect, aud our vindictive vir-
tue, which displays itself only in narrowing
the circle of Heaven and enlarging the bound
aries of He'll, will no more cry from the
GROUND 10 vain, than viii the blood of him,
that is suddenly slain, and that God has said
"At tie hand of every man will requireitl"'
Do our readers know what being sent
up" is, in this city, Ifit were described as
sent down to the bottomless pit, it would be
true. Injustice is revolving in any case but
the risk ia not very great In the case Of men
for Imprisonment for small crimes does not
forever, nor scarcely at all, cut off men from
every honest means Of fexistence; and the inn
morality, the mere suspicion Of which is
fatal to woman, aud the suspicion which is
levitab,e 10 every woman who has been In
prison, does not injure man at ALL This
fact alone makes the infiction of like PEN
alties to men aud women the most revolving
inequality and injustice. To men the PEN
atty is o trifle; to omen it is her whole ex-
islence. True, good men and women pal
late the cruelty of this by deciding that
every woman who has been suspected of
any irregularity or disorder, is unchaste, and
therefore fit only for perdition; but this is
only palliating one atrocity by another
vastly more atroeious. Could We compre-
bend In one view the wrong which has been
inflicted on women under the name of
chastity, it would be enough to convince us
of the wisdom of Plato's ideal community
where such q thing was not 10 be known
To be sent up" by our Police Court, Is to
be confined in room which well deserves
the name Of the City Black-hole; where the
heat from the low fat roof and sky-light,
and the foul air, are enough TO drive women
frantic; where the vilest of the abandoned,
and timid young girls, suspected of some
triAing impropriety and arrested TO display
the efficiency Of our police, are congregated
ia one room, with free communication by
conversation and gesture with the male pris-
oners in the room below; where women,
hardened in wickedness, or desperate from
confinement and from the heat and foul air
Of the place, or from sense Of injustice,
drive away time and thought by coarse jests
and dance and song and timid girls, yet
tender in vice, or perhaps innocent, look on
with shrinking fear, or are driven by fear to
Join in the revel.
This Is the place, and these are the infu-
ences to which young girls are sent by our
Police Court, on the mosttrivial charges, or
on the vaguest suspicion of the violation Of
some law, which, like our vagrant law, is
utterly vague and indefinite Think of a
system Of justice which, by any possibility,
could send an innocent young girl or woman
TO such place. Yet who, that has noticed
the police reports in this city, does not know
that not only ia this possible, but It Is i'm.
possible that such cascs should not b,
freduent. In fact, 1t seems to be though
that the best thing that can be done 70 keel
a young woman out of harms way, is Il
send her up for twenty days. rIfft.
There is better way Of dlsposing of thi
evil. The perfection of human wisdom ant
the full measure of human duty are NO
reached by aggravating small evil into
great one--a trivial offense into total ruin
and calling It reform. There Is no necessit,
that this curse should rest upon our society
aud let good men and women remember tina
SO long as it does, a responsibility rests upol
tAem which they can not shift upon God. 0u
whole system Of municipal penalties is
wrong that only aggravates the evil which
pretends to prevent. II it be true that
were better that nlnety-nine guilty person
should escape than that one innocent perso
should be punished, If 1t be even one quarte
true, that principle would wipe our whol
municipal police system out Of existence
woman should never enter such prison a