The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-09-14
THE LESSON OF THE NEW LA
YEN IRA GEDY.
Naahvil1e American.

The Cramer case is of deeper interest
than ordinary cases as a terrible COM
mentary on the life of many American
girls of certain class, possessed of a
little money, leisure, sort of an edu-
cation and a culture which is just suf1-
cient to prove, along with beauty, their
ruin. They have freedom and inde-
pendence which they use in pursuit Of
pleasure without knowing the danger
which environ them. They pursue
pleasure with young men who pursue
them. OF the vile object of their adj
mirers and of the danger they are ig-
norant. They are not sought after rs
wfves=aud perhaps only care to pursue
the pleasure of such society as they have
admission to and the enjoyment Of the
dance, fhe picnic, the seaside, driving,
dissipation, innocent in themselves, but
as they indulge them, with freedom
and careIessness in selection of male
companions, leading to ruin. Such was
the life of Jennie Cramer, whose family
had just got fairly up IN worldly goods.
There are thousands of just such girls,
possessing a certain poor surface culture
attractive to young men, but not sought
as wives by those they seek, as they
think, for innocent pleasures They
lack the refinement aRd delicaCy of
those who have always moved in high
er atmosphere and have had better home
training. No one has taught them how
to conduct themselves in the sphere they
have got into, and they are thrown on
their own judgm Mt to learn by expert.
ence, and their experience is ruin. Such
was the case with this girl. She was
not vicious, and yet she was willing to
pursue pleasure to point away beyond
the limit of safety, and with those who
were with fiendIsh ingenuity planning
| her rum. She did not know that, while
there were but few in the set she moved
with who could have been capable of
the crime comitted yet they were all dan
gerous enemies, young men who at the
best simply sought her company for the
dance, the wine party and the seaside,
many capable of aiming at her ruin, and
one at least of conspiring to compel hel
destruction.
Such being the case, James Malley
finding that she would go unconsciously
to the very verge of ruin, allowed hi'
internal passions to incite him to accom-
plish her destruction. 1t is clear tha
she never suspected danger or doubted
herself, and that she had resisted al
persuasion, and, with all her freedom Il
the point of license, that she would moi
at least so soon have yielded but for the
devilish means devised. The fact
already brought out make it clear tina
Malley introduced the Douglass girl as
an accomplice, concealing her character
that the foolish girl made companion
of the unknown girl, and thus became
the companion of the Malleys at thci
wine suppers that she was drugged a.
she drank, carried unconcious to a room
and that the f1end, bent only on the sue
cess in his plan, drugged her to he
death. He did not intend her death
he had no motive for murder. Thi
hypothesis consists with all known facts
and is the only one that does. The
wounds upon the body may have bee
caused by the tide and the rocks, Q
, may have been inflicted to conceal tn
cause of her death aud to mislead.
more hideous crime was never commit
ted than this murder, done in pursuit o
an unlawful object, and plainly murder
although the intent was not to kill.
The freedom of American girl lif
among the classes who are just eMerf
ing from poverty is fixed fact, aud
is hard to see, where 3 remedy is to b
found when home training and careful
guidance are lacking. 1t must be learn
ed that young women who go wit
young men so far In their pleasures, t
the dance and the party and the mid
night supper, will go further, perhaI
not so terribly or through such DEVILS
means as were employed in this cas-
but Jennie Cramer would soon hay
found all self-restraint broken down
: her. way of life. and the laudanum an
!. chlorofprm were only swiftcr means
ruin. Thousands of American girl