The New York herald., 1874-07-26
The New Crime.

from Philadelphia and which we continue tnis
morning. So far as we understand this story
1t seems that q company of rufhans, ANXIOUS
for gain, contrived plot and took forcibie
possession of an infant child, the only son OF
a citizen of that community. The child was
too young to betray its captors or even to give
an idea of its home or associations. After the
capture an intmation was sent to the father
TO the effect that if he would pay twenty thou
sand dollars the child would be restored to
him. This payment was to be made under
! circumstances that would make detection or
capture of the kidnappers impossible at mid
night, on q wide open plain, where there could
not be an ambush OF policemen. The father
has announced his willingness to make this
payment, but there is the constant fear OF dis
covery on the part of the criminals, and 1t has
\ not vet been done. In the meantime the
theory has been advanced and plausbly de-
Tended that the whole story OF the kid
mapping is plan to extort money from the
authorities in the shape of o reward or from
sympathizing citizens in the shape OF sub
scriptons. We must confess we have all
along had suspicion of this kind, but Cir
cumstances seem to leave no more room for
doubt. Our suspicion arose from peculiar
circumstances that came to light during the
Investigations, and from the incredible char
acter of the crime and the impossit tility that
it should ever be practised in America. In
one of Macaulay's essays he speaks of an
attempt to assassinate the Prince OF Orange
and in discoursing the causes OF Its failure
proceeds to show that nations have their char
acteristic crimes just as they have their GUS
TOMS legen nds and traditions, and that assas-
sination could never be an English crime. We
can understand how kidnapping and bandit
ism, the poisoned cup ut the feast or the
stiIetto at the masked ball might be common
in otner countries, where secrecy and passion
and revenge seem to follow warm skies and
tropical associations. But these could never
be American crimes, no more than kidnapping
or assassination. 1t is very certain that the
authors of this offence learned their trade in
other lands.
The horror which has fallen upon the CON-
munity in consequence of its apparent success
cannot we'll be exaggerated. For this is
crime that strikes at once upon the holiest
and most beautiful emotions in our nature
There is not mother who clasps her first
born to her bosom and prays for the guardian
ship Of Heaven over his young budding life
who does not feel that she would rather see
him dead than submitted to the fate that has
fallen upon little Charley Ross The imagina-
ton surrounds the victim with terrors COM
pared to which death would be blessing
Death, Imprisonment, starvation, stripes,
neglect lonely weeping through the long
night watches, no love to caress him, to min :.
lister to his childish ailings, to rescue and
whether he is olive or dead-all combine to
increase the agony of the bereaved parents
and the sympathy Of the community. For
there is nothing that appeals to our sympathies
so readily as the sorrows OF children. We
read without sentiment, except perhaps one
of martial exaltation, of hundreds of thou
sands OF stalwart, noble men, in tho hope and
expectancy of manhood stricken down in the
channelled fields of Austeriitz, Waterloo and
Gettysburg but we never cease to mourn
over the little Dauphin starving in the Tower
and Marie Antoinette dragged IRON her chill
dren to the axe In our religion we note as o
distinguishing trait of that charity and love
which separates Christianity from other sys-
TENS Of faith that the Master loved the chill
dren and bade them come to him, and found
in little child the highest type Of faith, truth
and purity. So it is that no one event will be
more dwelt upon in our homes to-day than
this extraordinary affair in Philadelphia, and
to no woman will tho prayers and sympathies
of mothers go forth more earnestly than the
bereaved mother whose son is in the hands Of
rufians.
We have spoken Of this as o new crime, and
it is certainly new To America. But it is
new chapter in an old, old story. We find in
the Scriptures no incident more sad than that
of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his
brethren. In the past we had those who made
o trade of stealing children, and still another
horrible band who made trade Of mutilation.
AS an ilustrious writer who has studied the
subject remarks, "They made children toys"
The seventeenth century gave US the men who
did this, just as it gave us Vincent de Paul,
whose love and tenderness for the young have
made him one Of the most attractive saints in
the calendar. We read of dwarfs educated to
be the companions OF dogs, just rs we read the
other day OF combat in an English town be-
tween dwarf and bulldog. So that if we
60 back to the seventeenth century in Phila-
delpha, they go back also in England. Sell
ing men is not altogether ON obsolete crime.
Swiss we're sold to be soldiers to the Bourbons
and to be massacred in the Louvre courtyard
Hessians were sold to die on American soil
under the English standards. We do not
know how many thousands of various races
England purchased to fight Napoleon, as
England never sends her own sons into the
front until she fails to hire other nationalities