The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-02-25
The Gentlemen In Sing Sing.

unaccountable eccentricities; but the
maudlin sympathy which it sometimes
delights to entertain for all sorts of Grim
inals, is the most, unaccountable of all
This sympathy is not consistent. e., il
does not pour itself in wishy- -washy
food ovor criminals as q class-but it is
spasmodic, and is apt to select man
who has been guilty Of -blooded
and diabolical crime, and weep over him
as though he were martyr instead of a
murderer. When Wagner, for instance,
coolly butchered whole family for q
few paltry dollars, and was sentenced to
be hanged-a fate richly deserved-the
aesthetic ladies of that part of our great
and glorious country known as Down
East, went into an ecstacy of excitement,
and sent him bouquets, and sat by his
side talking to him in silver tones Of the
"Sweet By-and-By," into which the
coarse rope of the brutal hangman was
soon to hurry him.
The air is at present filed with wall
about Sing Sing. The gentlemen who are
living in that castle on the Hudson, it
has been ascertained, are compelled to
labor in stove-polishing shop, where
the smoke and dust are positively disa-
greeable. They get their hands grimy,
and their clothes unutterably dirty. The
little particles of iron which the swift
grindstone flashes from the castings amid
q shower of stars get into the lungs and
produce pulmonary diseases. Such cru
city is intolerable in an age like this. A
man may be criminal, red with the
blood of his victims, but he certainly
ought to be treated like a gentleman!
just think of putting those delicate
have never done an honest
days work, which have been So skilfully
trained that they can write another mans
name on note with the accuracy of an
such base use as pulling
iron castings out of vile oil of vitriol!
Just think of subjecting the finely
wrought organization of a man whose
only misfortune is that he sn1othered his
wife or snapped pistol against the brain
of traveller who happened to have a
small sum of money in his pocket-book,
which in fit of mental alteration the
murderer transferred to his own posses
sion, to the hard compulsion of ten weary
hours work day in sooty and disa-
greeable blacksmith-shopi The idea OF
such unnecessary rigor is appalling, and
so contradicts the advanced moral senti-
ment of the nineteenth century that we
stand aghast.
To be sure, there are 100000 other
men, not in prison, who never committed
q crime in all their lives, who maintain
their affectionate families by doing the
same kind of work; but 1t must not be
forgotten that they like to do it. They
go to their tasks willingly and with a
light heart, and would hardly change
their labor for the delights of a compe
tency; while the martyrs of Sing Sing
go to their morning work with great
fined sentiment of their natures rebelled
at it. Beside, the honest workman has
his liberty. He is not confined within
four granite walls, with a sentinel to
watch every action lest he take stray
opportunity to bury knife into the
Warden's heart. He is held in du
rations that he is innocent as newborn
SO patiently suffering was committed by
an unprincipled Wall-street broker, or
by some irreligious millionaire of Fifth
avenue, who persists in concealing his
guilt and compels an innocent man to
go to prison in his stead.
The case is assuredly a very hard one.
But, alas! it is wicked world in which
we live, and we cannot hope for any
radical reform in such matters at pres
emit. We greatly fear that even the maud
lin sentiment of those delicate souls who
weep over the imaginary crimes OF the
will not avail to supply wine
and flowers to grace the somewhat frugal
board of Sing Sing whose liberty has
been restricted because an unreasonable
community bas suspicion that they were
cut throats and pickpockets.