New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-01-30

than its boarding would amount to If 1t lived
The root of the matter should be reached.
One or two convictions of the guilty mother
who sacrifices her child to hide her shame
would put speedy end to the trade. But
the law, as we all know, deals gently WIN
the crime of infanticde as long az
is the mother who is the murderer,
from o not unnatural feeling of forbearlng
pity toward betrayed and guilty woman
Walter Scott and George Eliot have hung
about her all the tenderness and charm their
genius could supply. But it is high time 10
consider little the cause of the murdered
or maltreated baby. The proposal that
society for the prevention of cruelty to chill
dren should supplement that which has proved
of such incalculable good to animals, was re-
ceyed at first with faint derision, as useless
and Oujxotic. To people with the ordinary
feelings of humanity it seemed an absolute
necessity that o little child, even OF
the poorest poor, should be tenderly
cared for. But since the Society was formed
we are beginning to find out how many peo-
nle are let loose into the world without the
ordinary feelings of humanity. 1t will be
found, too. that children require protection
where their keepers are neither brutal nor
ferocious, but only ignorant and so wretch
edly poor that no consideration can
weigh against that of money. Women,
too inirm to earn a living in any other
way, engage in the business of taking babies
to board, in what is considered q reputable
manner, as they are furnished with a certif-
,b-ai
clan, and refuse to take any but legitimate
children whose mothers, because of other oc-
cupatiOn, are unable to care for them. The
board paid being exceedingly low, the tempta-
ton to half-starve the poor babies is strong.
One such woman, with two or three infants IN
a sitting foul room where she herself was an
invalid, was able to tell the minimum number
of spoonfuls of milk per day on when
child could be kept alive so as to make IL
"pay.n She refused place as nurse In an
asylum because there was ridiculous tusS
"kept I'D in such places about fresh air Tor
the children and attention to them at night"
The children in her care generally died
natural deaths, as some physician was always
ready to testify.
In relation to this subject of the abuse of
purporting to be an account of the inhuman
cruelty inflicted upon one Daniel FOrdham,
when q child Of nine years of age, by certain
farmer near Riverhead, Long Island. who took
him " to raise" as the term was them The hoy
was barbarously OverwOrked, starved, turned
ont half naked in the bitter Winter weather;
his master whettng his appetite for the days
labor by rouslng the child every morning to
whip him until the blood ran down his thin
back and legs, never emitting family
worship Immediately afterward. This was
forty years ago, at time when the
horsewhip or rawhide formed part of
the family machinery Of government with
many wel-meaning piOus people. The prac-
tee common then of binding children out for
household and farm work until they were of
age, while in the majority of cases it insured
them sound and kindly training, in others
placed in the hands of unreasonable or cruel
men and women helpless victim. The old
patriarchal relation is a very picturesque mat
ter viewed at q distance, but the modern
maxim so much work for so much wages" IL
safer, if less emotional. The "bound boy"
too often became q miserable drudge
in family who treated each other
in Christian fashion, but who never
found his food and clothes paid for by
the longest days service. Human nature ID
not whit moro kindly now than then; al
though tho custom of apprenticeship is done
away with, children are still in the power of
just such cruel guardians, as our daily police
reports prove. Any society which will inter-
pose the force of the law or public opinion
hatwaan thann and thoir victims has set for
itself necessary and noble work.