The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-11-02
OUR NEW Me- YORK LETTER.
NEW YORK, Oct. 81, 1881.

To the Editor OF the EErxxrR1sn.
We are in the thick of politics. For an
of year, the political pot never bubbled !.
more briskly, and all factions of all parties
are putting their pound on with vigor to
make the most oftheir time before election
day. In Brooklyn, the Eagle, which started
the Hancock boom, has been so satisfied
with the measure of success attending that
popular arrangement that it has made an
other move on the same tack and nomi-
mated Gen. Slocum as an independent can
didate for Mayor, and great thereat is the
wrath of Bosses, heelers, and both ins and
outs. for small heed to either would the.
General pay. A new deal would ungear
all the local machines. rs r .i5l
BY the way, the gallant Colonel, Rodney
c. Ward, the Brooklyn collector. has inst
appointed as one Of his deputies. Miss
Robinson, q lady well known in her active
inspection of institutions for the State
Charities and Correction, the prisoners
friend and the jailor's terror To her. as
much, probably, as to any one is due the
exposure and abolition of the paddle. the
shower-bath, and other mean and miserable
tortures inflicted on the victims of their
own crimes and the laws, by their brutal
guardians. 1t Is decidedly an innovation.
this planting in one of the best paid of
official positions, member of the so-called
weaker sex, and is likely to make Colonel
Ward decidedly pet Of the Woman Sui.
| frage Association.
Perhaps our methods with criminals are
too harsh after all, though in this busy
| world one hardly knows how to- apply
more tender means of reformation than
we do A little incident has Just happened
however, that has set some people think
ing. A stunted, wretched waif of dirty
boy, who didn't know his name, was unac-
quainted with the virtues of soap. had no
recollection of father, mother, or other
relative, who had dragged along in some
wonderful fashion to the age Of 16, was
arraigned in Long Island City, one of our
suburbs, for stealing horse and wagon
Counsellor Mott, a leading member of the.
Queens County bar, somehow was attracted
| to the little pariah, and came forward as
his defender. The culprit was let off and
1 under the counsellor's eye was scrubbed
and rubbed and barberized and civilized
with new suit of clothes, and then intro
duced as the genial lawyers son by sort
4 of pious fraud to the district attorney. That
stern official umbent at once, and was quite
/ civil to the bright looking boy Well,
said jolly Mott, that's not my Johnny, IT'S
the boy you wanted to send to the peniten-
dary, Pm going to make man of him. ,,
L
family Of eight children. That evening he
caught his rescued lamb praying for his
benefactor and family. Next morning the
| boy was up and groomed the horses and
1 milked the cows before any one was stir
ring, then dressed and went to church. The
next day he repeated his farm labors,
dressed and went to school with the BOYS,
all of his own volition. Mott thinks he'll
grow up something of a man without much
boosting along. The story seems very sug-
gestiye to me.
Considerable excitement has been oc-
casioned by the attempted destruction by
inextinguishable Greek fire of the superb
Cunard steamer Bothnia, and the mysteri-
Gus visit of two men coniectured to be en-
gagged on similar errand to the docks of
another transatlantic company 1t was by
the merest chance the fire on the Bothnia
was discovered in time to enable its crew
to gather up the carpets which were satu-
rated with some combined phosphorus.
naptha and other Ingredients, and heaved
them overheard where they blazed vigor-
ously under the water till carried away by
the tide Of course O'Donovan Rosa and
his skirmishers are credited with this ras-
caIly system of ayailing themselves of what
Gladstone calls 1.-The resources of modern
civilization and they don't deny the i'm
putation. 1t seems pity that such busily
mischievously people can't be induced to
make shoes or something of the sort, where
their energy would be harmless. Liberty
is no doubt grand thing, and the right of
asylum to political refugees is another, but
| it would seem the line might be drawn
somewhere between allowing them an un-
molested residence and allowing them to
actively carry out schemes of blowing peo-
pie up. RADM.