The New York herald., 1873-08-23


The Cry OF tho Italian Chfldyen.
An exposure which has long been threat
ening has at last taken place. We allude to
the traffic carried on in this city in young
Italian children and the tyranny exercised
over them by their kidnappers. The chief
wonder is that these cruelties and other
enormities did not sooner come to light; for,
Notwithstanding the reign of terror maintained
by the 'padrone, it is natural to suppose that
at least one or two of the more spirited and
audacious in his keeping would venture to
brave his threats, and, by seeking to escape
the accomplishment of them, be the indirect
means of making his villany public. The
length of time which the Crosby street kid
napper has been allowed to ply his business
without interference is an excellent satire
upon the humanity of the age. At time and
place where sympathy is given-and
very rightly given-to the tortured
turtle and the overworked beast of
burden the public apathy to the suffer-
ings of foreign children, enticed from their
parents and slaves to the brutality of self
appointed masters, offers a strong and not
very grateful contrast The hour for redress
ment, however, seems to be at hand. It
would be pleasant to be able to believe that
the public has never entertained suspicious
that all was not well with these little Italian
vagrants. We are oil familiar with them in
their dirt and picturesqueness. They have
furnished subjects to more than one genre
painter, and the writer for story papers has
several times employed them with all the de-
sired effect But the public is not given to
scrutinizing very deeply the private lives and
secret sorrows of juvenile waits. If it ever
bestows thought upon them at all it is to
hope that they are more comfortable than they
look and quite as happy in their way as the
children of rich parents. Still some man
Of excessive sensibility may from time to
time have stopped, and, gazing into the
dark eyes of some little Neapolitan, wondered
how he lived and where he slept, and whether
he was treated kindly and what his surround
ings were in that dismal place he called
home. Fortunately the gentle illusion in
dulged in by those whose selfshness makes
them take pleasant view of other peoples
misery is now dispelled, and, thanks to the
hearing had before Commissioner Osborn in
the United States District Court room, there is
no excuse for any one not knowing that the
kidnapping and slavery Of Italian children
ore reduced in this city to system.
From the testimony given by one of the
boys it appears that he was enticed from his
home in Italy; has been obliged to work and
beg in this city in support of the kdnapper
who brought him hitheH and has been
habitually beaten and otherwise ill-used for
failing to bring in as much as his master de-
manded of him. We pass over all such in
cidentals as bad and insufficient food and
clothing, vile associations and wretched Sleep
ing Accommodations. These, inhuman as they
kidnapping and cruelty We hope that the
benevolent gentlemen who have been instru-
mental in exposing this outrageous traffic
having done one good work, will not suffer
themselves to rest there, particularly since
they declare that in Crosby street alone there
must be one hundred and fifty children in
predicament similar to that of the child from
whom the above facts were cleaned, and that
in the entire city there are not less than eight
or ten thousand Now is the time to punish
the offenders and remedy the evil-a reflection
to which we hope Commissioner Osborn will
not fail to give due weight We shall not be
accused of lavishing sentiment upon a trifing
subject if we close these remarks by quoting,
in reference to just such a case as this, from
writer who is as much celebrated for the depth
of his human sympathies as for the heighth
and breadth of his genius. He says 81
take some miserable child here in this city,
sdualid in dress and look, ignorant and
wicked, too, IS most men judge of vagrant
vice, made so by circumstances over which
that child had no control I turn off with
shudder at the public wrong we have done
and still are doing but in that child I see
proof of another world-yes heaven glittering
from behind those saddened eyes," The
sooner men sympathize in sentiment like
this the sooner will great public wrong be
swept away
Our MUTUAL FRIEND. The quarrel between
Mr. Winston of the Mut1al Life Insurance