The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1870-07-01
.oxE MORE. UsFORTUNATE.'

ZONE MORE USFORTUNATE."
Two storoies with the above hack
neyed heading come to us in our ex-
ehangss: one, the history Of young
girl in Warren County, who has just
been. committed for trial foa the mur-
der of her illegitimate child. She Is,
it appears, the daugter OF an honor
able and respected family, and was afa.
vorite in the village for her own beau-
ty, and innocent, kindly, generous
nature. About year ago she be-
came acquainted with certain Joseph
Housed, was engaged to him, betrayed
and then deserted. She concealed
her situation even from her own fami-
ly, until last week, when dead body
of child was found under an out
house floor. The girl, who was i'll.
confe sed that she had spent the pre-
vious night in agony in the garden.
and toward morning, believing the
child to be dead-born, had hidden it.
1he lungs Of the child were subjected
to the usual tests, and proved to have
been inflated; the girl in consequence
was removed from her fathers house
and thrown into the county Jail, to-
await her trial for murder. The un-
fortunate prisoner" the report adds,
feels keeniy the horrors Of her ter
rible situation, and has twice attempt
ed to commit suicide since she was
imprisoned. ~
There is the story. It needs no
words Of ours to give it meaning and
force. The woman, credulous, affec-
tionate, loving with such absolute
trust as to forget even. her honor for
the sake Of the man to. whom she had
promised her life: the desertion. the
months of terror and loneliness that
followed the night of agony in the
garden, the child, dead in all proba-
bility, if it lived at all, from neglect and
cold the wretched. mother, herself
but child, with blind hope Of escnps'
from the disgrace more terrible than
death, before her, making a feeble.
silly effort to hide it; the conclaye of
grave doctors and jurymen the girl
taken from her bed to the Jail cell as o
murderess; after while trial, and >.
if the law be carried out, death: for
these are not the kind of murders for
which insanity is an acceptable defense.
So the law and custom punish the
crime of an unguarded passionate mo-
ment in woman. Meanwhile, Jo-
seph Housed, the partner of the crime,
who has coolly, during all these long
months, refused the promised hOnsra-
BILE marriage which might have saved,
her and his child, goes in and out as
usual umong his fellow men without
rebuke.
The other story is brought to US by
the Dublin papers. A,certain Annie
Brown, we'll known in the Irish capitaf
as the most noted of the demi-
monde, for her beauty, wit, and (with'
the one exception) fine womanly traits.
was so fortunate as to die the other
day. AS soon as the breath was out of
her body, the poor corpse was taken to
a hospital; her carriages, and house,
with its luxurious appointments, were
put up at auction; the Irish press is'
reveling in the sensational details of
the sale, and of the post-mortem ex--
animation we have picturesque.
sketches of the face SO noted for its
beauty, with the false teeth removed >,
the golden hair clotted with blood.
which followed the operators knife,.
the ghastly, sunken cheeks" She
numbered among her admirers" we
are told, '' some of the most promi--
nent men of the time, who will doubt
less read with sigh of pity this last
record of the unfortunate creature. -
A sigh of pity? Let us hope for So
much, at least, from the noble mascu--
line nature. Heaven forbid that the
story should be told to us without its
moral. The rigil censors of the pub
lie vice could Ill afford to let such o
frightful example as poor Annie
Brown, with her wealth and beauty.
her generosity and wit, pass unim--
proved to the grave. The peshlen-
tial nuisance" they say, of which this
woman was type, is largely on. the
increase among us. Our streets, our
seaside reports, are haunted by these
unfortunate beings. Public morality
demands that this perhaps necessary
social evil shall at least be kept out Of
sight of our decent women. Hus-
bands have their wives to guard from
contamination, fathers their daughters.
brothers their sisters. Let them ioin
in some effort which will purge our
streets of such abominatienss and
make them pure for those who ars
dearest s' to them." By all MEANS,
let Annie and her sisters~be kept out
of sight until their dead bodies, the
story of the rare womanliness mur-
/ dered In them, be needed to give
zest and point to newspaper artieis:-
But for the men who murdered it,
these prominent men of the time,
these husbands, brothers, lovers"
who first debased this woman, the
only duty is to purge the streets Of the,
abominaation that they may walk,
there comfortably with the woman.
dearest to them.
So much for our latest modernstoa
ries of the social evil. There. is an-
other we remember of how, q. long
time ago, men with as zealnos re-
gard for decency as these husbands
and brothers brought before the Great
Master o woman taken in adultery, in
the very act. It was upon the men
alone that: His rebuke fell, swift and
searching. a He that is without sin
among you, Let him first cast stone
at her, )" until they,i being convicted
of their conseiences,s scrept out and left
Him alone. But tosthe woman he only