Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-05-09

Srhuhuiou ana crime, sign lor inc hopeless,
repulsive life that is a sickening blot upon
humanity. One by one they drop away,
are borne to Potters Field, and vacate the
records of the court for others, without a
prayer for their souls or tear for their
memories.
/ saw another class on whom all pity
would be lost. That class possessing the
bulldog physiognomy of the ruflian, with
the thick, round head, short cropped hair,
small eyes. straight mouth and square jaw,
with large chronological development
OF all the worse passions, and not bump
upon their heads to indicate virtue.
This class are brought up for murder, for
fighting in low grog-shops, where they
knaw each others ears, lips, and noses Off
like dogs, or beat and bruise up some poor
inoffending object of their ill-wll. They
are the midnight garroters, the dark
browed, relentless wolves who prowl the
city's by-ways; the pirates of the land,
who quietly consign their victims to the
murky waters of the docks. They are
the ward roughs who terrify good citizens
at elections for political purposes, the men
who can be hired for any deed. They do
not possess intelligence enough for profess
sional bank-robbers and sate-openers, or
forgers, nor the appearance to make con-
fdence operations success; but as the
rough pioneers of crime and vice and i'm
morality, they are perfect in the role they
play, and when brought before the court
it is safe to conclude that whether they are
guilty of the particular crime or not, the
community is safer with them behind the
bars than in the enjoyment of their Ques-
tionable freedom.
Then saw others whose Characters
tics were not so easily read from their
appearance. Among this class are conf
dence operators, professional pickpockets,
burglars and bank-robbers. These men
have learned the science oftheir operations
and possess professional pride in appear
ance and behavior that often render,
them undistinguishable from honest men.
They are the class whose money and po-
lititical influence often breaks the meshes
of the law; but they are by far the most
dangerous criminals that come before the
court; they are not what they seem, and
in their hypocrisy lies the success of their
operations. In nautical comparison, they
seem like harmless, sporting dolphins when
they are the most rapacious sharks, and
they seldom get their deserts save when
they lie quiyerng, pinned with lance to
the Judicial deck.
Among this class of respectable Hooking
offenders are also to be found honest men
who have unfortunately gotten on q spree
and are brought up for being drunk and
disorderly; those who have unintention-
ally gotten into some squabble and find
themselves up for breach of the peace ;
men brought up for fast driving, obstruc,
ting the sidewalks, or for similar violations
of the nnumerable statutes of the city
and in many of these cases the offender is
dismissed with an admonition to ego and
sin no more"
One other class saw, and oh! how the
hearts of all fathers and mothers every.
where should yearn for them. Those
poor, fallen, degraded girls, who have
wandered out from happy homes, who
have left purity, hope, JOY and peace be.
hind them, and nightly walk the streets
in the debasement of q lost life, from
whence they are brought up before the
court as street walkers, for drunkenness
for fighting, and for making the nigh
hideous with their hollow voices, which
once sounded sweetly in the pure songs O.
home.
This is enough to see for one day of the
sad, unfortunate, and repulsve side of hui
man life, and as | went from the court
room thought that within those weather
beaten, self-abused bodies, within those
brutal physical tenements, within those
fairer structures of manhood and those
delicate forms Of fallen womanhood, {
soul beats its prison bars in restless long
ngs for evil or good, and when it breaks
away it will go up to tribunal of sternel
justice or more tempered mercy than thu
| Tombs.