Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-05-11
MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS.

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MURDER OF THE INN0CENTS.
From the New York Tribune.l
It is getting to be q serious question
among Christian men and women
whether we ought not to have society
for the prevention Of cruelty to children.
We had not recovered from the sicken-
ing 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 in
stance of child torture near Hackensack,
N. j., which fortunately came to the
knowledge Of the authorities before it had
eliminated in downright murder A man
and his wife, named Vanderbilt, had
taken an orphan CHILD, ore Mary Ann
Farrell, from an asylum, for the purpose
of employing her as servant For
about eleven months the husband
knocked her about with a broomstick,
and the wife beat her with an iron dip
per. They used to take her to the cellar,
strip her naked, tie her up by the wrists,
lash her with 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 morn
ing in the open fields, with bare feet and
legs, and wearing only single thin I'M
der garment, so saturated with blood and
filth that it had TO be peeled from her
body like scab. She appeared in court
with evidences of torture so pitiful upon
her person that stout men wept at the
spectacle Her jaw had been broken;
her hair had been torn out by hsndfuls;
her face was swollen and .deformed; her
lips we're cut open; her eyes were black
ened and SCARED; her whole body was
bruised and dscolored. Little wonder
thai the neighbors we're with difficulty
restrained from wresking lynch law
vengeance on the author of the outrage.
The same day we reported the discovery
Of the dead body Of an infant in an alley
way in this city. It's throat was cut from
ear to ear; the head was nearly severed
from the body; there were three or four
cuts about the neck, as if inflicted by the
trembling, hurried hand Of q woman.
On that day. also, another case of in
fanticide was added to the long list which
disgraces our annual police calendar.
An unknown woman was seen to drop
a bundle in Twenty-sixth street When
opened it was found to contain the muir
dered body Of child killed by strangu.
lation. H
One Of the most shocking and inhuman
child murders that we have ever read OF,
occurred in the early part of March in
Warsaw, Indiana. An abandoned wo-
man named HiAes apprenticed her little
boy, four years of age, to Mr.. and Mrs
Harl. They were TO have kept the boy
until he was of age but the process of
"conquering' him, which the man Harl
Immediately commenced, was too severe
for so tender baby, and death relieved
him of the charge at the end Of four
weeks. The day after his introduction
to his new home he was whipped with a
"blacksnake whip" because he didn't
know his letters. He was scourgsd with
knotted wagon whip, beaten with
straps, knocked out Of his chair for be-
ing asleep. bruised with clubs and bits Of
board until bis flesh was like jelly.
A few days ago a German carpenter
was arrested in Chicago on a charge Of
whipping his daughter to death. The
| neighbors, alarmed at the horrid out
cries of the little sufferer, sent word TO
the police; when the officers entered the
house the man and his wife we're absent,
and the child was found dead, lying on
her face upon bed Her back was a
mass Of wounds; her garments were
saturated With blood her neck was pur-
ple with the marks Of clutched hand +;
the eyes were open and the face was
distorted with agony. Hh
These things are almost too sickening
for comment We used 10 believe that
the wholesale killing Of children by slow
torture was refnemsnt Of wiekedness
in which England led the world but the
records Of the last year or two 90 far 10
transfer the bad pre-sminence 10 our
selves. Murder BY the lash seems almost
10 have become an spidemic, and one OF
the worst features in the case is that
women are 90 often implicated IL the
unnatural brutality. A state Of society
! In which such horrors can become ire
Quent such inedable crimes Be perpe-
trated by parents on their own offspring,
cries out 10 Heaven for signal punish
neut, With cry 10 which God eanno'
long Be deaf IL rNfn
M The Victor CoioHisf, the Oldest
ana most widely circulated journal 10
Vspeouvers Island British Columbia
savs esitorially. April 80 Nine out o.
evrrv ten men in the colony in theii
pressut STATE Of wrsiehedness and pov-
! civ would welcome anneratiou % the
United Siafea The remarks uers
called forth By The rumor that Englano
4 ahout % cell The possessions 20 The