Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-07
An Unkfssed Little Girl.

CAN any one imagine little girl eight
or ten years old who has never been
kissed? Caressing is such an early and
often experience of children, and sweetens
so many of the little bitternesses of their
young lives, that it seems almost incredi-
bic that girl, poor or rich, could live
eight years without feeling the pressure
Of fond lips to hers. Yet one such has
been found IN New York, and her exist
ence suggests that many others may not
only be going unkissed by affection, but
starved and beaten and outrageously
abused by barbarity. A charitable lady
was on visit to a poor, dying woman, in
a miserable quarter, and heard wild
screams, apparently OF a child suffering
abuse. She inquired about it, and the
neighbors told her they were made famil-
lar with that music by hearing it every
day. 1t was the COnnollys beating a
child. The neighbors had never seen the
child, but knew it was there, and had been
for years, by its daily and nightly walls
of distress and shrieks of torment
Now there happens to be no society for
the prevention Of cruelty to young
children. The law is supposed to protect
them by giving them to their masters,
parents or guardians. The law contem-
plates and pTesupposes humanity in a
civilized state, and there's where it some
times errs. Where the error exists, there
the poor little babes are worse off than
the brutes. The best the lady could do
under the circumstances was to go to Mr..
Henry Bergh, President of the Society for
Protection Of Dumb Brutes, and report
the case. If it had been a dog or cat or
a rat, Mr.. Bergh would have had IN
doubted and complete jurisdiction to lib
crate the animal and punish its tormentors.
But it was a child, and in truth Mr. Bergh
had nothing to do with the case. He,
however, interested himself in it, and col
lected evidence, and heard for himself,
and laid the matter before Judge The
Judge issued writ to bring the child
before him. Her appearance revealed
years Of torture, and her manner confessed
| that she told the truth when she gave in
her young experience to the court.
She said her name was Mary Ellen Nc
Cormack, and that she did not know how
old she was. Her parents were both dead
but she called Mrs. Connolly mamma
never had but one pair of shoes; had no
shoes or stockings this winter; had never
been allowed to go out of the rooms
where the COnnOllys live except in the
hlSAI, anu GlICu Ou1y LII CIG ydIu; udu
never been in the street that she recollect
ed; never wore fannels, only a frock
slept on piece of carpet with a quilt
over her. Mrs. Connolly whipped he1
every day; the whip made black marks
on her; never knew what she was;whipped
for; supposed it was the way al
children had to be served. A deep cut
over her forehead was made with pail
of scissors in mammals hand. She had
no recollection of ever being taken on any
body's lap and kissed Didn't know
what kissing is. She was always locked
up in a bedroom when Mrs. Connolly
went out, and whipped when she came
in. This was the substance of her story
The Judge declined to let Mary Ellen
go back to the Connollys, and the little
girl will probably be placed some day
where she will be kissed, but she car
never make up for lost time. A society
for the prevention Of cruelty to young
children could probably find hundreds Of
such cases in every large city.-St. Louis
Republican,.