Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-11-26
Whole Number 1851

menG inserted IN L nllaQelplla pa
per. He says that he had seventeen
answers to that advertisement. Sew
enteen persons were ready to fur
nish him with children to be taught
to walk the the tight-rope. More
over, he was confident that he could
have had one thousand children for
this business, if he had advertised IN
New York. He did not remember
that be had beaten the child often;
but he knew a woman in the same
profession who used the children
whom she trained with great cruel
ty. This woman, he said, had sew
eral very small children in training
for acrobatic performances, one OF
them being five years old, and the
other a mere baby. The father Of
"Prince Leo" testified that he had
apprenticed the child to the trainer
for term of years, but as the in
dentures were not legalized, they
amounted to little else than an in
formal agreement. He also said that
he was living apart from his wife,
and that the most of his children,
of whom he had eight, had been put
out or adopted by the assistance of
others. This child, it appears, had
been hurt by falling down stairs at
some time. His trainer, Leonar d,
otherwise Husband, was formerly a
butcher; he had taken to the show
business, 'sto benefit his health" 1t
does not appear that his pupils
health was improved by his kind at
tentions.
For the exposure of both of these
cases we are indebted to Mr.. Bergh
and the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children. And the in
cidental details prove that that use
full organization has work enough
to do. It is evident from the facts
brought out in the inquiry into the
treatment of the acrobat that the
traffic in children is by no means
small. What Leonard says about
the woman who has company of in
fants in training for acrobatic per-
formances is, quite likely, true
enough, although the animosity of
the witness toward this person seems
to arise from the fact that she haG
deprived HIM of one of his pupils by
means of legal process. Nor is ii
probable that this ex-butcher's asser-
tion that he could get thousand
children for this purpose was an
empty boast. The fact that one ad-
vertisement in Philadelphia brought
him seventeen offers for children,
shows something of state of things
with which the trainer is more fa-
milliar than almost anybody else can
be. The question is, whence CONT
these children so freely offered to
cruel task-masters? The lad rescued
from Leonard was one of eight chill
dren left with their father, a poor
man, living apart from his wife. The
little Italian drudge was an orphan
left in charge of stranger by his
mother, who died at sea. From such
waits as these, or from the overlarge
families of very poor and unnatural
parents, thousands of hapless chill
dren are gathered by people who are
enabled TO live comfortably on the
gains of these drudges. Toe streets
are infested with squalid boys and
girls who sell small wares or flowers,
black boots or beg, and generally
appeal to the sympathies and gene
rosity of passengers. 1t is pretty well
known that these poor creatures are
nearly all little better than slaves
Now and then some case of extreme
cruelty to them is made public, and
there is a general cry of ''Shame!'
1t is evident that the root of this
growing evil is deeper down than
appears in the conduct of the brutal
fellows who live on the gains of the
enslaved children. 1t is fortunate
that a society for preventing the
cruel usage of children has been or
ganized. 1t has sufficiently proved
its usefulness already There is still
something radically wrong in state
o. society in which so many poor lit
tie children may be led into q state
of bondage, Mrs. Browning, in her
poem of "The Cry of the Children, u
has very fOreibly pictured the
wrongs of boys and girls oppressed
by cruel task-masters in mines and
factories The few gEmpses which
we get of child-life among the poor
in our own cities are pathetic enough
to stir the sympathy of every gener-
GUS person. MultitHdes of children
are trained for criminal life. If they
live, they will by and by erey on So
cietY which neglects them now.
" Y. Times.