The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-22
BRIDGET DURGM.
A PEN Photograph and chronological
Examination OF the Murdercss by a
WOman's Rights Woman.

The following letter from Mrs. Elizabeth
Oakes Smith, the famous woman's rights
physiognomy of the m1rderess, Bridget Durgin,
who is to be executed in New Jersey next
week, we find in the Greenport (Long Island)
A recent visit to New Brunswick, New Jer-
sey, afforded me an opportunity to see Bridget
Durgin, the convicted murderess Of Mrs COriell,
whose case has excited great deal of interest,
and even malevolence,:in the public mind. A
brief account of the miserable girl may not be
without interest to your readers.
1t has been my practice for many years to
a n sn e sH co5 5n
that may the better understand my own sex
in every aspect in which they may be placed.
Those who form their opinion of women from
what they may see of them in the domestic or
social relation, In fashionable life, base their
quate grounds. 1 have sometimes discerned q
true, noble womanhood amid poverty, misery,
and even in prison cells.
In the scale of human intelligence 1 find
Bridget Durgin on the very lowest level. She
has cunning and ability TO conceal her real
many inferior animals, whose instincts are not
more clearly defined than are those of Bridget
Durgin.
found the girl seated close to the door of her
cell, where am told she invariably sits; and by
her manner and looks think she does this
from secret, indefnable dread-it may be of
herself She was neat In person, her hair
combed close to her head, which gives the OBJ
NAL organization. She is large In the base of
the brain, and swells out oyer the ears, where
by phrenologsts, while the whole region of in
tellect, ideality, and moral sentiment is small.
Her texture, temperament, all are coarse; hair
coarse and scanty, forehead naturally CORFU
gated and low, nose concave and square at the
nostrils, leaving very long upper lip.
She can look no one in the face for moment,
her eyes winking and wavering constantly.
pupil is uncommoniy small 1 should say she
would be naturally dim-sighted. 1t is purely
the eye of a reptile in shape and expression.
The jaws are large and heavy but the mouth is
small think another such mouth would
not be found in ten thousand-narrow gums
whole person is heavy, Inclined to fulness, and
the hands are large, coarse, and somehow have
a dangerous look-for hands, as well as faces,
The character OF Bridget's face is sullen, and
| yet wears a mixed expression of anxiety, even
| TO distress. The line of the mouth, as of the
| eyelids, is oblique. There is not one character
| of beauty, even in the lowest degree, about the
| girl not one ray of sentiment, nothing genuine,
hardly human, except weak, sometimes a
| bitter, smile. The wonder is that any house
keeper should be willing to engage such ser
offered to me in an Intelligence office in Brook
| lyn, and that refused to even talk with one SO
look ed upon. Bridget Durgin without preju-
| dice, and describe her without exaggeration.
| She was born without moral responsibility,
Just as much as the tiger or the wolf is so born;
| and the question naturally arises, what is the
duty OF a wise, humane, and just legislator in
her case? That she Is dangerous to a commu-
| nifty might have been easily seen before she
| stepped her hands in blood. That she ought
no less S evident. But whether Il is right to take
an irresponsible, morally idiotic creature, and
she a woman, whose sex has had no voice in
making the laws uuder which she Will suffer,
and hang her by the neck till she Is dead, is q
| question for our advanced civilization to con.
slider.
| In this case observe the women are unani-
nous in the feeling for 1t is hardly an opinion)
| that she ought to be hung. Many believe that
houseke eepers will not be safe unless an exam
| pie be made in this most atrocious case. There
Is little doubt that the law will have its course
l in regard to her. and perhaps In most CasaQ Of
i lures are repugnant to a benign legislation, re-
| peal the obnoxious features.
| tits most probable that when Bridget and her
accomplace first made their attempt at the
but having been detected, and perhaps resisted
by the unfortunate deceased, Bridgeps ferocous
| instincts at once took fire. and she then had no
| more power TO resist them than q tiger rolling
| itself In the blood of its prey.
| I consider her case one of deep and painful
| interest and hope that one so we'll defined may
| lead the public mind to consideration of the
| question of capital punishment To me 1t is
| a cruel relic of barbarism which ought to be
| expupRed from our legal code; but there are
| many points besides this upon which our peo-
| pie need great and thorough Investigation.
| Bridget is naturally sullen and taciturn, and
| upon the crime of which she is convicted
| totally reticent. She thanked me for some lit
| tie expressions of kindness, and even tried TO
| look in my face, saying:-"Ladiesd don't often
| talk kind TO me-they say ought to be hung,
| and they are glad am going TO be hung" etc.
| do not think she fully realizes her fate. She
| knows the fact of her condemnation, but being
| devoid of all Imagination, is unable to bring II
| palpably to her minds eye. When the final
| crisis arrives and she beholds the parapher-
MALTA OF death, have great fears for her Yours
| respectfully, E. OAKEs SMITH
THE POLITICAL CAhPAIGNLNO OHIO.