The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-07-04

both in England and in this country,
the lesso, from the condemned cells
are just rs pregnant with warning for
those who are already toying with the
painted flowers which grow on the
brink of the precipice. There are
now confined in the Cook county Jail,
nine murderers, mostly young men.
This latter statement is painfully
suggestive. ''Mostly young men,"
1t is suggestive of the coming of a
new crop--an unnatural, shocking,
reckless. and dissolute crop of young
men. I visited the Jail yesterday, and
had talk with some Of these men.
Two Of them, Jeremiah Connolly and
George Sherry, had but two days to
live, and, if not reprieved; the tele-
graph will furnish you a report of
their execution before this letter is
published. "We were drunk said
Connolly to me, 'when the deed was
done.' The facts in this horrid trag-
edy are brief. Two abandoned boys
started out with their wages in their
pockets, and with all the possibilities
Of human depravity in their hearts.
They were deliberately bent on mis-
chief. They met several respectable
people and insulted them. Presently
Il beautiful girl and her uncle came
along. Sherry insulted the girl by
placing his polluted hands upon her
pure face. The uncle attempted to
defend his niece's virtue. when Con-
molly comes up and with brutal force
drives a butcher knife into the heart
Of the unfortunate man, and rs he
sinks down, Sherry, with his horrid
boots, kicks the dying man upon the
side.
But, however horrid the details of
the crime may appear, their own ac-
counts to me of the manner in which
they spent the Saturday OF the murder
and the Sunday following, must be-
equally sickening to rightly constitu-
ted minds; and rs finishing touch to
complete the gloomy picture Of hu-
man depravity, comes the atrOciOns
manner in which they have spent
their time in Jail since the sentence
of death was passed. Sherry, who is
a young fellow Of two and twenty,
smooth face, small, restless, treacher-
Gus eyes, grossly sensual face, irregu-
ular fe;.tures, and strongly knit anus
cles, said to me. in reply to 4 question
as to how they spent the night of the
murder, that the two hours prior to
the murder were spent in visiting the
lowest doggeries in Chicago, and in
drinking the vilest compounds Of
death and destruction. At FIVE or six
of Il ese places, Sherry said, "We
owed little scores and we went in to
pay up,' and then he added: eve
drank beer or whisky at all Of them"
Again he said: '.Me and Cooney
drank bottle of whisky between
u.s." Having INDUCED without re-
straint in their evil passions with dis
solute and impious companions, the
crime. Both before and after the
murder these young rutlians seemed
to have spent their brief carnival of
license on the drcariest Of treadmills
lin the midst of the vilest whisky !,
with The worst Of companions. On
the Sunday evening after the murder,
Connolly told me in his condemned
cell yesterday: 1--WE enjoyed Hal
sted street variety show" While
they were listening to stupid songs,
sung by sirens with plastered faces,
their victims bereaved family were
morning over the corpse of Hugh Nc
Conville. But a little more talk with
the jailor Of the county Jail, before
leaving opened an entirely new chap
tsr to the public.
He informed me ii at all the occu-
pants Of murderers' row have big
time. These desperate young aretcl1-
es amuse themselves by drawing re-
voting pictures and writing filthy
letters to each other. Some Of them
were shown to me. As looked at
them it occurred to me that seldom
the table talk Of the condemded cell
pointed out so forcibly the result ol
laws unenforced as did thu saying and
doings Of the young ruffians. Death
is not 50 much of joke after all, and
it is hardly probable If Sherry and
Connolly are hanged here tomorrow,
t.,at the remaining inmates OF the
"murderers row" will be f0un d pass
ing miserable cartoons representing
each other in the last throes Of death
at the hands Of the public execution
er. With their own lives trembling
in the balance they will hardly care 70
vent their rivalry on their associates
in crime.
One Of the most surprising things
in connection with the two murder
ers who will be executed tomorrow
is. that during their incarceration in
the county Jail large numbers of fool
ish womer have constantly visited
them. These visits are the results OF
Of maudlin sympathy and stran e in
fatuations. The jailor told me that
he had Frequently observed very
pretty blonde, whom he had every
reason to believe was not woman of
the town. induleiDg in osculatory ex-
ercises through the bars with Con-
molly. Indeed some of the numerous