New-York tribune., 1867-04-09
MnRDER or THE INNOCENTH.

Christian men and women whether we ought
not to have a Society for the Prevention OF
Cruelty to Children. We had not recovered
from the sickening horrors of the case of the
Rev. Mr. Lindsay, who whipped his little son
to death because the child would not say his
prayers, when we were called upon the other day
to record a frightful instance of child torture
near Hackensack, n. j., which fortunately
came to the knowledge of the authorities be-
fore it had eliminated in downright murder.
A man and his wife, named Vanderbilt,
had taken an orphan child one Mary Ann
Farrell, from an asylum, for the purpose
of employing her as a servant. For about
eleven months the husband Knocked her about
with broOmstick, and the wife beat her with
an iron dipper They used to take her to the
cellar, strip her naked, tie her up by the wrists,
lash her with a hOrsewhip till the blood ran
down her limbs and then rub the raw flesh
with brine. She made her escape at last, and
was found one morning in the open fields, with
bare feet and legs, and wearing only single
thin undergarment, so saturated with blood
and filth that it had to be peeled from
her body like a scab. She appeared III
court with evidences of torture so pitiful upon
her person that stout men wept at the spccta-
Gle. Her Jaw had been broken; her hair had
been torn out by handfuls; her face was swollen
and defOuned her lips were cut open; her eyes
were blackencd and Scared; her whole body
was bruised and discolored. Little wonder that
the neighbors were with difficulty restrained
from wrealling Lynch-aw vengeance on the
authors Of the outrage.
The same day we reported the discovery OF
the dead body of an infant in an alley way i'll
this city. Its throat had been cut from ear to
ear the head was nearly severed from the
body there were three OF four cuts about the
neck, as if inflicted by the trembling, hurried
hand of woman. On that day also another
case of infanticide was added to the long list
which disgraccs our annual police calendar
An unknown woman was seen to drop
bundle in Twenty-sixth-st When opened it
was found to contain the murdered body OF
child, killed by strangulguV4.
One of the most shocking and inhuman child
murders that we ever read of occurred in the
early part of March in Warsaw, Indiana. An
abandoned woman named Hines apprentlced
her little boy, four years of age, to Mr.. ana
Mrs. Harl. They were to have kept the boy
until he was of age but the process of "con-
"aueringr him which the man Harl Immediately
commenced was too severe for so tender a
baby, and death relieved him OF the
charge at the end of four weeks.
The day after his introduction to
his new home the poor infant was whipped
with "a backsnakc whip" because he did not
know his letters. He was scourged with
knotted wagon-whip, beaten with straps
knocked out of his chair for falling asleep,
bruised with clubs and bits of board until his
flesh was like a Jelly. One day the brute Harl
hanged him by the waist from a hook in the
wall, took off his shoes and stockings, and kim
died a fire under the soles of his feet.
When the flames began to die out, the
child's mother, who was present, was
compelled, with dreadful threats, to bring fresh
GOALS This torture lasted nearly half an hour.
Then the sufferer was taken down and tied TO
bed post. Spent with pain, he fell asleep;
for this crime he was locked up half naked for
two hours and half on cold February day
in cellar. AT night the executioner dipped
his head in a bucket of water and imprisoned
him again in the cellar. Then he turned him
ont of doors in lis shirt and trousers
After the burning, said Harls wife, i'll her
testimony in court, Il" the child was not able to
run around as well as usual.h Sometimes, as
variation of the torture, the boy was hanged
up by the heels. One day. after he had been
whipped as usual, he seemed very poorly
he "did not talk any," and at noon he was
put to bed. Early in the evening Harl sent
his wife TO her room. 1t was very late when
he followed her. 1--WE had no conversation
o. that night says Mrs Harl; 1.-THE child was
mot there in the morning. Mrs. Hines, the
mother, suspected foul play, and applied to
n magistrate. A search was made, and the
body of the poor boy was found in trunk at
the bottom of well. Harl made his escape,
but has since been captured. The women were
both arrested and tried as accOmpliceS in the
murder. They were acquitted, after an examl-
nation which seems to show that the mother,
who had done little or nothing TO prevent the
foul cruelty which had been exercised under
her very eyes, was the worst criminal OF the
three.
few days ago German carpenter was ar
rested in Chicago on a charge OF whipping his
daughter to death. The neighbOrs, alarmed at
the hOrrid outcries of the little sufferer sent
word 10 the police when the officers entered
the house the man and his wife were absent,
and the child was found dead, lying on her face
upon a bed. Her back was a mass of wounds;
her garments were saturated with blood; her
neck was purple with the marks of clutched
hand; the eyes were open, and the face was
distorted with agony.
These things are almost too Sickening FOR
comment. We used to believe that the whole
sale killing of children by slow torture was
refinement of wckcdness in which England led
the world but the records of the last year OF
two 20 far to transfer the bad preeminence to
nnrsnlves Mnrder hY the lash seems almost 10