The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-09-19
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.

WV sasatssVh' WIN kiOht VII ttfC UOITOTH
of the Penny Awful, has been upheaved
from its foundation by the hanging of
Kate Webster, the Irish monster, who
murdered her mistress and then at
tempted 10 boil down the corpse In or
der the more easily to get rid of 1t.
The wretched woman was left to swingl
without any effort being made for the
mitigation of her sentence, confessing1
her guilt OH the gallows, and exonerat-
ing from all participation In tthe crime
the several parties she had previously
implicated. Then comes the sentence
of death on young Gerald Mainwaring,
belonging to q, well-known family, for
shooting a policeman in Derby. He
had lived long enough in America to
adopt the diabolical habit of carrying
loaded pistols, and driving one day
about the streets of Derby drunk, in
company with woman, also drunk,
they were both arrested by policeman
and taken to the station. Just as Main
waring was being put into q cell he
suddenly turned and shot the man
dead, and with second discharge
wounded another. The jury consider
ing that to be mad drunk is an "exten-
uating circumstance" recommended
the young man to the mercy of the
court, but the judge pronounced sem
tence ofdeath upon him, which will, no
doubt, be commuted to penal servitude
for life, a solemn warning to all foolish
fellows who get drunk and carry pistols.
And now comes the bonne-bouche of
scandal for the Upper Ten, the great
and exciting topic of discussion at the
Goodw God races during the past week.
I'll . Hon. Captain Wellesley, son of
Earl Cowley, for many years British
Minister at Paris, has eloped with Kate
Vaughan, the dancing girl. The gay
Lothario, who married daughter of
Lord Lotus, late Minister at st. Pc
tersburgh, is the father of several chill
dren, and was military attache of the
Russian Embassy under his father-in-
law, and his escapade has produced a
profound sensation throughout all
swelldom.
have before me some very startling
statistics in regard to infant mortality
in Paris. Only thirty-five per cent. Of
the children born in the foremost city
of civilizations" as Victor Hugo calls it,
survive the teeth cutting period-that
is, only thirty-fve in hundred live to
q second birthday. Tho disciples of
Nautilus may regard this fearful NOR
tality OF the innocents, who come and
vanish like snow-flakes, "ere sin can
blight or sorrow fade," as an encoura-
ging fact. But surely there must be
very gross violations of the laws of life
and health to cause this Herodian
slaughter, and to violate n law of nature
is sin. We need not look far TO dis
cover the nature of these criminal
transgressions. Most children are con-
ceived in sin and born in iniouity.
Worse still, the fountain of life, or
where that fountain should be the moth
er.s bosom, is dried ALPHABETICALLY
dried-by the fiat of fashion. Great
Natures Nile that rises higher than
Egypts river" is no longer permitted
to flow, as in the honest old days of
Greece and Rome, when mothers were
proud of their babes. Now the disin-
herited infant. disappointed in its first
thirst for life, is given to alien breasts
for nonrishment, the milk of cows, of
goats, and of those unhappy FILES nures,
or girl-mothers, who, with their agi-
tated and aching bosoms, throng the
nurse-markets of Paris, in search of In.
fants, selling their redundant and curd-
ling milk - which can give neither
health nor serenity-as the girls of
Switzerland sell their superfluous hair.
And there are eleven of these nilk-bu-
reaus, where the supply is always
greater than the demand. A very large
proportion of these sad applicants come
from tho country, having got rid of
their own offspring, legitimately or
otherwise, while the applicants for
nurses are generally from the haut
monde of Paris-fashionable mothers,
who blaspheme nature and insult the
divine artist by pretending that lettin g
their own milk flow Injuries the symme.
try and beauty of form. On the con-
trary, it improves ii, with sumptuous,
maternal, Juro-like opulence, as every
man of taste will testify. Child-murder
is crime punished by law. There is a
large and respectable society In Paris,
organized for the announcement of
mother-nursing. The very existence of
this association, commendable as it is,
seems almost like satire on woman.
One would suppose that the tenderest,
the pleasantest, and the most sacred of
all domestic duties-that of giving the
breast 10 the newborn child, in obcdi-
SAASC w - ~ W Va hAtuIGy WHICH Is ALWAYS
pleasure-.would hardly require to DO
enforced by formal organization.
Even the Lady Macbeth, half-masculine
as she appears with her blood-stained
hands, exclaims, with a touch of ma
ternal ecstasy that never fails to thrill
an AUDIENCE
And know how sweet il 10 70 feel tho babs that
milks me"
One of the saddest sights in Paris is
what may be called the nurse- cts,
where crowd of young girl-mothers
are always YEARLY waiting to sell their
own milk.
II seems rather strange that the Uni
ted States government should address q
circular to foreign governments on the
subject of Mormonism at all: still more
strange that 1t should 60 to the length
of protesting against further Mormon
emigration from England, Germany,
Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Such
document is said to be, however, on
its way, and the respective govern
ments are requested to dissuade their
subjects from "yielding to the induce
ments of the Mormon missionaries. :"
This Is all very well, and no doubt &C.
cording to the law of the United States
bigamy is criminal offence. But the
right place to begin to put stop to II
is in Utah. To attempt to prevent the
landing of Mormons Is absurd. The
people will come in as ordinary emf
grants and then 90 on in the usual way
to the Mormon settlements. Mormon
ism had its origin in America, and if
the law were enforced there polygamy
would SOON come to an end. But the
truth is that Mormonism is not so easily
stamped out. To confess the failure
openly would not suit the Federal gov
eminent, so it resorts to this rounda-
bout method of action. It's, however,
Doc much TO expect that foreign gov
crnments will bestir themselves TO ac-
complish indirectly what the Ameri-
cans ought to do on their own account.
ALPHA.