, 1875-11-28
HOW 70 MURDER BOYS SAFELY.

arrested IN an Eastern city, charged with pur-
| suing the trade Of manning children for a
livelihood It WIS said that she bought chill
dren for few dollars apiece from their un-
natural parents, drove them into streets
crowded with vehicles SO that they were al
most sure to be run over, and then e1totted
money from the sympathies or fears Of the
owners OF the carriages that had killed or
wounded them. The disclosure furnished
food for nine days horror, and was then for
gotten. The feminine tiend escaped punish
ment, We believe, through so1ne legal techni-
cality, Since then, the business Of torturing
children to the brink Of death, and sometimes
beyond it, has assumed larger proportions.
The trnpeze is the favorite instrument
Of death. It is regular business
to keep it supplied with victims. When
HENRY BEReH rescued little "a *4Prince LEO :"
whose real name was probably something
like JD1 PoDGERs-from the men who were
making money by risking the child:s life
from day to day, the evidence taken show
ed that the proprietor OF the brutal show had
advertised for boy to be trained in this
way, and that he had had fifty children Of
fered him! He selected the poor little
Prince" and purchased him from his real
or pretended parents, ,-brutes who sold their
own flesh and blood into slavery, and proba-
bly, spent the proceeds Of their sin on day
drunk The rescue OF s'Prince LEO " wes
the first fruit OF the formation of Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
These little animals certainly need the pro-
tecting care Of such an organization quite
as much. as sick car-horses and vivisected
vagrant dogs. prince LEo" is safe in New
York, but *sMaster FREDDIE LAznLE" is
dying in Cleveland At the present moment
he is the last victim OF the deadly hapeze.
But before these words are put in type
there may be another bundle Of bruised flesh,
another little quivering heap Of 1acked
sinews aud tortured nerves, another white
face, another baby candidate for coffin,
lying on hard, wooden stage before an audi
ence gluttonous for the death Of q child, and
satisfied with getting its moneys worth
For this slaughter Of the innocents is going
Oh in cities from Maine to Oregon. The
same spirit which rang through the cities Of
HKll! Kill" in the Roman Coliseum lives
now in the hoarse and brutal applause that
halls child,s jump for life from trapeze to
blanket, while the fingers Of Death clutch at
the little body from below, and hell-f there
be hen-yswns for his murderers.
FREDDIE LAzu1E was 8 years old. Tbs
baby fingers that should have had nothing to
hold except toy or q spelling g-book curled
around trabeza close to the ceiling Of Low
theatre in Cleveland. Away down below,
fec. above the hard floor, was q piece of
carpet held by couple Of men- With one
strong swing, the child filings himself from the
bar, turns once, twice, thrice in the air, and
alights on the carpet. Somebody slips-the
carpet flies sideways, and the babya head
crashes upon the stage. He groans, gasps, and
is still, -butchered to make Cleveland hoi-
day. That is all. The child is dying at
hotel. A single monk put an end to the
butchery Of human beings in the Coliseum By
giving up his own life there. The sand that
drunk his blood has not had its thirst slaked
in gore since. It is too much to hope that
FREDDIE LAzm1E's murder will save other
children from like fate- The stage Will
still be spattered with baby blood and brains,
while the Church is powerleas, and the stata
is idle, and civilization is dlsgraced