The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-07-10
She Chilly grgas.
ROCK ISLAND, .rLLrrors
CRUELTY TO CHILDREN AT THE
ILLINOIS SOLDIERS OR
PEANs' HOME.

In the Bloomington Leader of Thurs
Iday, the 5th, appears the following articl
giving an account of an assault upon al
inmate of the Illinois Soldiers Orphans
Home at Normal, by Mrs. Y. G. Ohr, tn
superintendent:
AN OUTRAGE!-AT THE SOLDIERS OR
PHANs' HoME!-THE MATRoN CELE
| BRATEs THE NATIONAL ANNIVERSARY
BY PUTTING STRIPES, ON A BOYS BACK
HOW ONE SOLDIERS ORPHAN WAS
TREATED THE BOY LIVES TO TELL HIS
STORY AND SHOW HIS WOUNDS!
The Leader has been slow to condemn
the management of the Soldiers Orphans
Home, but the brutal punishment inflicted
upon one OF the inmates yesterday BY Mrs.
Ohr, the matron, calls for the prompt con
demnation of every right minded citizen.
and ought to be made the subject of an
Immediate investigation. The circum.
stances, as we learn them are as follows.
Mrs. Anna Schott, who lives on South
Lee street, in this city,is a soldier widow.
and being poor woman dependent upon
her own exertions for livelihood her three
children were placed in the Soldiers Or
phans' Home, Yesterday the mother
went to the Home to see her children. and
when she started to come away, Willie.
her son. bright intelligent boy of nine
years OF age, asked the matron If he might
walk part of the way home with his
mother. The reply was gruff negative,
The boy. boy like, commenced to cry.
when the matron, in the presence of the
mother. commenced beating him. The
mother, unable to witness the cruel sight.
left with the groans of the child and the
thud OF the whip sounding in her ears even
after she had left the building After the
whipping the boy was locked up in the
bathroom, until after the supper hour.
when he was commanded to go to bed
without bis supper. The little fellow
watched his opportunity and made his es-
cape from the Home. and walked to the
home of his mother in the city.
The above is story as we gather it
from reliable sources. We have seen the
boy, and the great black wets on his,
neck, arms and body, tell a story that
cannot lie. Such a beating on the person
OF mere child is an outrage for which
there is no justification, no matter what
the faults of the child might have been,
and when that fault was simply the ex
hlbltlon OF natural desire to accompany
his mother, it is simply damnable,
The children in the Home are the wards
of the State They wear upon their bodies
the army blue-the badge that shows their
fathers died in defense of the principles
established on the day of which yesterday
was the glorious anniversary, and if the
dictates OF humanity would not ac-
cord to them better treatment than this,
a thought of the cause that brought them
to the position of dependents upon the
charity aud gratitude of the State certainly
should do So
The public had settled down in the hope
that the recent stories regarding the man
agement of the Home were exaggerated.
ii not untrue, but the facts connected with
this outrage will go far to convince every
body that Mrs. Chr is not safe person to
dispense the States charity on the HELM.
less orphans of our fallen soldiers.
The ofense of the child may have been
worse than above represented, but that
makes no difference. The marks of the
blows upon the child's body were inflicted
by cruelty, and the person whose hand in
tilcted them deserves to be punished to the
full extent of the law. Such treatment to
any child is brutal, and the people of hi
nois should demand that there shall be
stop put to such punishments in this insti-
tuition.
There is probably another side to the
story, which will no doubt vary in MANY
particulars from the above accountant
until Mrs. Ohr can speak in her own de.
fence it would be unjust to censure her.