Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-10-09
TIMELY TOPICS.

NEW YORK reporter, under the necessary
escort OF policeman, recently made tour OF
inspection of the slums of that city, and he
gives an instructive and entertaining descrip-
ten of the localities know as "Hell's Kitchen,
"the House of Blazes," "Battle Row." and
"Sebastopol." These sections are probably
the abode of the most depraved people IN the
country. No mans life is safe there. Squalor,
wretchedness, filth and crime reign supreme.
One OF the police officers who has been on
that beat for some years, has made 9SS arrests
| for every known infraction of the law. Some
| OF the characters of the place are deserving OF
mention. Mrs. Fitzpatrick and her daughter
| treated child of the latter with such shock
ing cruelty that they were sent to the peniten-
tiary. One of the babe's ears was missing and
it was blinded by sores. 1t died in hospital.
In another room a babe only few months old
was found in the arms of its drunken mother.
1t was dying. Mother and child were covered
with filth and partially covered with rags.
"Bully" Morrison, an Orangeman, who is
hated and feared by the other Irish OF the
| neighborhood. He has habit of getting
drunk, taking a club in his hands and running
wildly about, swearing he will "kill all the
Popish -- in the city, One Gordon,
who has a wooden leg, is known as the
"Terror of Battle Row." He makes
use of his artificial member to great advantage
in fight, and is SO strong that it takes three
or four men to hold him. One of these tene-
ment blocks contains $50 families-over 81 900
persons. 1t is owned by one of the large In
surance companies.
A few days ago at Philadelphia died William
Brandon, young man whose name recalls
one of the most remarkable episodes in the
criminal annals of the country. In 1875
Brandon was a street gamin and bootblack at
Baltimore. Sam Mcdonald, then twenty five
years of age, was a profigate gambler and
roule whose father had left him quarter of a
million dollars. His first notable exploit was
the stabbing of companion in a bagnio.
Next he killed gambler named Berry Amos.
This deed was done in front of a hotel bar
room in the presence of several witnesses.
The row was provoked by Mcdonald and his
companions. The murderer was arrested and
imprisoned at the Towsontown Jail, quiet
place in Baltimore county. Here he lavished
money, and wild stories were told of costly
banquets and drunken orgies held with the
Jail officers and authorities, and it be-
came known that thousands of dollars were
being spent to pave the way for Nc
Donald's acquittal at the approaching trial.
Branson, the bootblack, called Crooks" was
one of those who saw Mcdonald stab Amos.
He was sent to the Townsontown jail ostensi-
bly, to carry cigars to the murderer but in re-
atty that he might be bribed to leave the
State or swear falsely in McDonald's interest.
The bootblack could not be bought. He told
his mother of the munifcent offers made
him, but she told him that 'such money
bought BLOOD" and he would not touch it.
He testified clearly to the commission of the
murder by Mcdonald. But the jury and the
other witnesses had been purchased with the
rich mans money, and many who had sworn
before the coroner to having seen Mcdonald
do the stabbing now turned and testified in
his favor. The verdict was acquittal, but tine
community felt disgraced, and there was talk
of prosecuting some of the witnesses for
perjury, but nothing came of it. Mcdonald
went to Terre Haute with his mistress, lived
there in princely style for two years and died
in torment, the image of his victim being
constantly before his vision. Great interest
was taken in Crooks" after the trial and ef-
forts were made to give him chance to rise
in the world. He got a situation in Philadel-
phia and went there to live with his mother.
He was doing very we'll when consumption
carried him off.
The mails from Europe bring accounts in
detail of the recent landslide in Switzerland,
by which the village of Unterthal was blotted
out from the face of the earth. After five