The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-23


could save his enemy from his impending
fate; but Quasimodo calmly rests his chin on
his palms, and, with eyes fastened on Claude
Frollo's despairing face, waits for him to be-
come exhausted, and then fall. The situation
is one of the most awful and impressive that
can be imagined, and the reader willingly
believes that only in fiction can such an Incl
dent be possible.
And vet q very similar scene occurred in
real life, near Boston, on Monday last-the
difference consisting in the circumstance that
whereas the implacable Hunchback is depict
ed as revenging the wrongs of the being
dearest to him on earth, his Boston imitator
seems to have had no motive for his crime
except sheer cruelty. Further investigation
may modify this aspect of the affair, but as at
present related no incentive whatever is appa-
rent save that which might be derived from
brutal disposition. 1t seems that as the City
Marshal of Charlestown was crossing City
Point Bridge, accompanied by patrolman,
he was accosted by some boys, who said that
a friend of theirs had just been drowned
The officers procured graphing irons,
dragged the water in the spot pointed out,
and soon succeeded in recovering the body of
a youth eleven years of age, named
Eastman, the only son of one of the
officials of the State Prison. The body was
quite inanimate when found, and while efforts
were being made to restore life, the COM
panions of the dead child narrated the cir
cumstances of his death. They declared that
q man whom they pointed out, and who,
while they were telling their story, was
quietly stacking lumber on an adjoining
wharf in full view, had seized and thrown
young Eastman into the water. Some of
their number appealed to him piteously to
save the boy, as he could not swim; but the
inhuman wretch, deaf to their entreaties,
coolly watched the struggling child until he
had sunk for the third time, and then, saying
it was too late to save him, returned calmly
to his work. We recolect in the annals of
crime scarcely any parallel to this. Plunder,
vengeance, sudden and furious passion, have
furnished occasion for homicides innumera-
BILE; but the deliberate drowning of fellow
creature by way of diversion, or for purposes
of mere speculative curiosity has had, we be-
lieve, unless it be in Dahomey, or some simi-
lar community, no recorded precedent.
AS it stands, the tragedy furnishes sur
prising realization of well-known fantastic
essay of De Quincy's. The opium-eater in
that essay gives an illustrative example of
murder considered as a fine art, treating the
subject in a veiE of exquisitely humorous
gravity, the enjoyment of which is unalloyed
by the faintest suspicion of the possibility of
the incident described. 1t seems, however,
that such things really can be. In the Boston
case there are two circumstances that compli-
cate the problem in its psychological aspects.
When the companions of the drowning boy
saw that his assailant would really make no
effort to rescue him, they tried to render him
assistance. One brave lad, named Hunter,
was indeed almost successful in his attempt
having reached Young Eastman, and nearly
got him to the shore, but becoming exhausted
was obliged to let him go. The speculative
artist on the wharf appears to have made no
resistance to this, although it threatened
seriously to interrupt his entertainment
Now, unless we accept the hypothesis that he
hoped, by remaining passive, to have the
pleasure of seeing two people drown instead
of one, his course in this respect is not quite
Ineligible. Again, on being taken into GUS
tody, he expressed not the slightest concern
for what he had done, but accepted the stu
alton with the same philosophic equauimity
which had marked his behavior from the
first. There is no statement that he had ever
shown signs of insanity, nor, unless the pre-
sent achievement is reckoned proof of such
thing, is he now supposed to be mentally
irresponsible. 1t is said, indeed, that he has
on previous occasions thrown other boys into
the water, and as in each instance they were
safely pulled out before he could have the
crowning felicity of seeing them drown, his
counsel will doubtless urge these former
bitter disappointments as extenuating his
present indiscretion.
| Hanging Or murder is not, we believe,
''played out" as yet in Boston, but the pen
atty of the scaffold by way of atonement for
| drowning as a fine art, or for summer day rs
amusement, may possibly be deprecated in
that transcendental city. In any event, let
us hope that some rational check may be put
upon a pastime which, however original and
| ingenious, is conceived trife too much in
the interest of certain theories of Mr.. NAL
| TINS TO be either expedient or agreeable The
| spectacle of heart-broken mother mourning
in desolated home over her first-born is not
good companion picture to that of the cal
lous murderer sitting grimly on the wharf,
and gloating as his unhappy victim chokes in
| his death agony; and if neither the rope mol
| the Massachusetts State Prison is adjudgeG
to furnish resources of suitable application
to the case, the lunatic asylum assuredly
ought to be called into requisition.
THE EXCLUSION OF WHITTEMORE
From the NJ y. World
The decision of the House in Whittemorei
case was technically wrong, but substantially
right; and although disapproved by many
lawyers, it will be indorsed by the mora
sense of the people. Whittemores claim t.
a seat was. denied, and his credentials returned
by vote of 124 to 29-a majority of NOR,
than four to one.
Mr.. Logans argument against the CLAIM
was lame and inconclusive so far as it pro
ceeded on merely legal and parliamentary
grounds. The precedents all go to show tha
when an expelled member is reelected by hi
constituents, the House is precluded from ar
raigning him second time for the same of
fense. But Mr.. Logan contended that Whit
temore's case is taken out of the scope o
such precedents, by an indictable offense
| af fba 1hn ho,