Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-01-24
A INDUSTRIOUS IN1QUITY.

sheltered in comfortable homes are
ignorant Of the needs of struggling
women and comparatively small
proportion of the favored women of
this state, as elsewhere, appreciate the
desperate demand for the safety and
protection for daughters which prevails
on account of numerous crimes, the
most horrible, and, almost Invariably,
unpublished.
Mothers in the cities of our land,
many of them, live in state of
chronic terror for the safety of their
daughters when outside the home.
Is there to come no relief from this
nightmare of dread ? Will the women
of Chicago and elsewhere sit dumb
while children and babes are outraged,
and juries of men. and courts, con-
clude trial in which positive evidence
is produced to identify the guilty
parties, by throwing out such evidence
and making the most absurd, unreason,
able and distractihg pleas to bias the
minds of the jury, resulting in the
acquittal of wretches of whose guilt
the general community entertains no
doubts.
Every woman in the land is insulted
and wronged by the action of the jury
in the recent case Of Emma Bond
Every woman in the land is remind
ed how insecure is every female person
under the ruling of courts and the
SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE.
When monsters have wreaked the
climax of violation and outrage upon
a woman, lawyers plead that "the
story is too unreasonable for belief"
This is the protection afforded by the
sex whose superior wisdom and
strength and Offices Of administration
are the only refuge of victims.
Will every woman who reads this
appeal take it home to her own hearth
stone, apply it to her own daughters,
and ask herself if she has all the
rights she wants.
If any household is wrapped in woe
because Que of the children or women
in its loved circle has met similar
fate to that of Emma Bond, would it
give you a sense of security that a
court and jury and number of law
yers, all men, were to deal with the
case
And what right have you to remain
Indifferent to the dangers of other
daughters than your own ?
| would ask every woman in this
State to keep a record for year of
these crimes against the person of
women and children, and of the dis
posal or escape of the criminals This
horror is not like railroad disasters,
one of which the reading is only a
useless agitation of mind.
Every decent woman and man in a
community is directly responsible for
the abatement Of such terrible crimes.
There is something to be done, and
community that fails to do something
and something effective, is guilty
virtually of aiding and abetting
THE INDUSTRIOUS INIoUITY.
Were the woman of any commun
ity in the state Of white heat indigna-
ton, and uncompromiSing resolve, that
the situation deserves at their hands,
we might secure some suitable action
on the part of men and lawmakers.
Judge Thornton. in his final plea
for the defense. said /: at has been
stated that had the defense desired to
reveal the indecencies of this crime
they had right to do so F" "But he
called attention to the fact that when
the unfortunate girl sat upon the wit
ness stand suffering from a disease he
would not undertake to define, he
treated her as tenderly as he would
his own daughter Were women as
determined to protect themselves from
the iniquities of men, as men are to
sprotect each other from the penalties of
such crimes, we would have tribunals
of women to investigate such cases,
and thus abolish the possibility of a
''reveling in indecencies.