St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-08-26

ol ilt sugar consumer DN JHt ClNlllLtu
world is manufactured at a profit from
sugar-beet.-[Nt. Waterman.
Her Feet Go Down to Death.
Forty eight hours from the time Jen-
ME Cramer walked under the Temple
street elms in New Haven, the ''pret-
test girl in the city," her dotted white
muslin fresh and starched, and her
whole figure trim, trig and breezy from
her white straw and its brown feather
to the little clinking brass plates on
the heels of her boots, her body was
lying face downward in a Shiny pool
on the edge of New Haven harbor,
the tide rocking the motiOnless body
back and forth and at every motion
winding her draggled skirts tighter
about her round, full figure. How she
came there inquest, Indictment and tI'i-
al have yet to decide bnt her death
has written her last weeks history at
large and the path by which the young
woman went to her fate is familiar
enough to any one who watches the
young girls who swarm on the streets
of Saturday night, pretty, bright and
loud voice, skating on thin ice over
depths of which they have the barest
knowledge and that little delusive.
Jennie Cramer was not bad girl as
girls go who have stepped over the
line which keeps girl at her mothers
side and limits her acquaintance by
her fanily's, and the number of girls
who do this is not large among those
pretty enough to be admired and old
enough to enjoy the freedom of an
American girl, not hedged about by a
card-case, visiting-list and formal in
Productions. The man with whom Jen-
ME was last seen, James Malley, IA
young, boyish-looking fellow with IA
narrow, black mOustache, she met one
night about a year ago on the college
green. 1t was doubtless one of the
neutrality-suspicious. to be seen any
evening on Main street; but it was
very far from being concealed from
her parents and when Malley wrote
three weeks ago asking Jennie to put
off an out-Of-town trip to drive with
him, Mrs. Cramer, with every sorry
that he was $50 disappointed" wrote
him that Jennie had already gone but
would be back "Thursday morning -
just week before the Thursday morn
ing the mother drove the daughter
from the house for passing the night
away from home in Malley'S company.
One week more brought Jennie to
New Haven harbOr. Three weeks ago
the well-spelled, well-written notes
which passed between her and young
Malley point to formal relations, for
NAL for sidewalk Irritation, but Jen-
ME had already known for week
Blanche Douglass, a pale, delicate
looking girl, dressed well but not over
dressed, whom Walter Malley had
brought up from New York city. She
was professional prostitute. This
acquaintance begun by night on the
college green, ripened by sidewalks
and suppers, brought Jennie for the
last fortnight of her life to be one OF
! four, of whom two were men rotten to
the core, third woman fresh from a
house of ill-fame, and she, the girl now
| dead, the fourth. For two weeks there
were trips and excursions, restaurant
suppers and rides, all bringing the end
closer and through it all Jennie seems
to have been ignorant that her com
panion was not like herself, Il wild girl
running needless risks. a night came
at last, Wednesday, August Sd, which
Jennie spent away from home will
her companions. She may have wan
dered before, but if she had not, the
net in which the reckless young cir
was caught with the other woman o
this party of four schooled to vice
might well have swept stronger ma
ture away. Thursday morning she
! 1riN- from hAr hnp,n do,
evening she was again at supper anC
drank her share of four bottles of wine
and then she disappears, to be found
when the tide came in, Saturday morn
ing. For IA while, there was more OF
less lying by the survivors but the ar
rest of the young Malleys and tn,
testimony of Blanche gives clews which
connect Jennie to the last with hel
evil companions.
Down to the last appalling catas
trOphe, this story might easily enough
he matched in any city and in many ;
village. Night-idleness and petty dis
sipatiOn work their sure result. Ig
norance does much, but evil more anC
no man or woman can play with the
DEVILS own fire and come off unscorch
ed. There appears to be no dOub
that, in this case, the parents permit
ted a risk for which they are blamable
but it is tolerably clear that this young
girl wandered along a path in which
she .iostled the bad and vile in blank
Ignorance of her company. 1t takes
experience, a cool head and a clear eve
to see below the plausible surface il
which vice of this sort cloaks itself
and she had none of these. No CIR
has of the hundreds who walk nightly
through dangers for which they have
neither been prepared nor warned. II
is too late to put up the bars in Ameri-
can life. For good or for evil, custom
has established a free social intercourse
and the paths by which a girl passes
beyond home influences are easy, and
all alike dangerous but the risk i;
vastly increased by ignorance of the
facts and conditions which breed dan
ger and bring disaster. A healthy
home life is the soundest of all safe
guards but, as long as village life has
disappeared for good and all in oul
provincial cities, and all of them share
the overflow of vice from New York,