Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-12-23
Y, " ITWWEEs
Publisher and Preprieto
CHILD CRIPPLING.
An Informal HOstlsTy nRd its BIuti-
lated InmhteH.

When Victor Hugo published
that most ghastly of all modern
romances, "L'Homme Qui Rit,"
the groundwork Of the story was
denounced as an atrocious fable.
The hero Of the "Man Who
Laughs" was described as miSera-
BILE child stolen from his parents,
who had in earlier youth been dis
figured most awfully in order to
render him an object Of charity,
and who had been forced to prose.
cute the trade of mendicancy until
he had effected his escape from his
masters. Apocryphal as the story
read, it was true.
The great French novelist barely
exceeded the facts Of the case when
he created the character of the
horribly dis6gured hero Of the
story, and the trade which -four
ished at the period of which he laid
the scenes Of his romance is by no
means dead to-day.
Some months ago Professor
Ember, of the Medical College at
Prague, applied to the Austrian
chief of police at Vienna for assist
ance in ferreting out and bringing
to Justice the most monstropf
society Of criminals that ever ex.
listed. The required support was
extended him, and the patient work
of an experienced detective, added
to that of the professor himself,
eventually achieved the desired end
A month ago a body of police made
a descent upon the headquarters o.
the criminals, and their trial is a
present pending in the imperia
courts.
The story which the facts eliciteC
by this trial tells is worthy of
place in Dante'g "Inferno." The
widest dreams Of a distemperet
nightmare never painted a picturl
so fraught with horror.
On the first day of the trial
bowling mob endeayored to tear thC
malefaotors piecemeal, and it wa
only found possible to continue The
investigation by garrisOning thu
courtroom with soldiers and call
ing ont two regiments Of horse tt
protect the criminals on their wa
from the court to their prison.
Radna, the chief city of Centra
Hungary, is the scene Of o con
tinuous pilgrimage, The cathedra
IOf the city possesses as relics thC
bcaes of st. Mepomuck, and tn,
yearly sum Of pi0us visitors to thei
Shrine numbers hundrpds Of thous
ands. AS natural consequence o
this heavy foreign visit, the tow
swarms with beggars, who are re
ported to be the most miserable am
hidcously deformed in the world
Men, women and children, in al
degrees of terrible mutilation, eK
hibit their crippled forms and ap
peal for charity, and the pilgrims
. who believe that by honoring thei
claims they will command tn
prayers Of the unfortunate mendI
canta, rarely refuse to crafty them
/ Professor Ember, on his retur
from a geological toHr in the intC
! rior Of the empire, spent two day
in the Radna during the early pa,
of last summer. A daily visitor s
his inn was a young girl Of sixteer
E of remarkable beauty, who had los
l her right leg, and who usually too
her stand in the court yard at earl
: morning and remained there mt
late ia the afternoon solicitin
charity. The beauty and misfo.
, tune Of he poor creature excite
the Professors sympathy, and /
summoned her to his room, 81
came and was presented by hi
with Q liberal gratuity She ha'
according to hsF own account, bee
a cripple from earliest childhooc
and from her remarkable de4terit
: in the nee of her single limb, tb
n assertion seemed a likely one.
. During the recital Of her oW
: history she mentioned a number
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