The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-08-23
DEATH OF A YOUNG GIRL IN THE roMBy.

We see, by the latest advices, that strenu-
Gus efforts arc being made to procure the
release from the penitentiary of Calicot and
his friends, who defrauded the government
out of enormous sums of money. The
same accounts inform us that the President
did not yield to the pressure. But, first
attempts in such cases are not expected to
be successful. In the end, money and in
flucnce, in like instances, rarely fail to
accomplish their object; at least, such has
been our observation. Let us look at late
case reported in the New York Evening
Telegram of the 18th inst, for an illustra-
ton how the poor and friendless are dealt
with:
70 The records of our police courts, so fruit
full in melancholy incident, have rarely
afforded a saddcr story than the following /:
In the clearinghouse No. 40 East Broad
way, u blithe and pretty little girl, named
Kate COnnor, was recently arrested on sus
picion of having purlOined watch, the
property of one of the boarders. Although
many of the bOarders, with whom Kate had
been a favorite for her many beautiful traits
of character and her sweet disposition,
We're ready to declare their belief in her
innocence, they were too poor to offer bail,
and she was, consequently, committed to
duSWSI. MC kLW III Ills icpuDlhC VI green
backs is said to be sometimes very elastic
when great criminals ard wealthy are
brought up for judgment; but it is always
the stern, uncomprOmising law to the poor
and helpless. The political Ioafer may
murder an innocent man the loyal Radical
may plumber the people of millions of dol
lars and fraud and villany may flourish in
every department of the government; but
the murderer, the plundcrer, and the villain
has ever friend to shield him from the
l,,,x,
good the character of an accused party
may be in this free land of ours, if he
happens to he poor and fricndless, bail is
refused him the possessor of grecnbacks is
alone the proprietor of virtues. Kate
Connor was fifteen years of age, and a
stranger in our city. Crime and its Meme
sis We're unknown to her; and the world,
outside of the humble home fortune had
provided, was to her an unexplained mys-
terry. The teachings of her pious mother,
in that far off land where at least female
purity is guarded faithfully, caused her to
shrink with horror from contact with the
unfortunate creatures who are nightly gath
cred from the streets to fill the cellars of
the Tombs. Kate, happily, did not know
what bail meant, and was saved from in
diligence in false hopes which such knowl-
edge might have OccaSiOned. In her inno-
cence she might have wondered why it was
that in this great country, of whose Justice
and mercy the valleys Of her own land had
rung, the hardened villain accused of great
crimes against the law and all good could
be set free from prison, while she, child,
was compelled to mingle with the vile and
infamous beings of the gloomy cell. She
did not expect to be bailed, aud was not
disappointed from that cause, when hour
after hour went by and the sunlight of the
morning, creeping through the bars, re-
vealed the hideous forms that night had
thrown into the lap of the law. But Kate
ha6 n Itnn nrIr, fhof ,r,al
some friend, would hear her prayers and
come to rescue her from her awful position.
The hope was Elusive; for, apparently,
none but Him whose ear is never closed
heard the cry of anguish that the poor, un
shrunk from view. Exhausted by crying,
and, doubtless, with a broken heart, she
died last night in prison. Poor Kate!