St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-05-27
SHALL THE LAW PROTECT GIRL
CHILDREN?

| Massachusetts is greatly stirred Over
a bill in the state legislature raising
the age of "consent" so it shall be i'm
possible for fiends in human form to
escape legal punishment for the fonlest
of crimes by pleading that girl-child
of IL years consents" to crime. One
Of the largest and most intelligent au-
diences ever assembled in the state
house listened intently to the hearing
on Thursday.
Senator Forbes of Worcester, in pre-
senting the bill proposed, spoke ably
in its support, showing the rank in
justice of law that will shield the
male beast who excuses his devilish
crime by managing to prove that the
ignorant child victim consents" but
Furnishes severely the female beast,
who leads boy astray.
DIR. Duryea gave a startling array of
facts many of which had come under
his own observation, proving the dire
necessity of severer legal restraints to
check the crimes prompted by sensual
ity, crimes whose horrible results are
suffered only by the girl victims, while
the cnlprits go scot free to seek new
victims.
Mrs. Eastman gave some facts learn
ed in an experience of 20 years as pres
ident of the moral reform society,
which should be known by every fa-
ther aud mother. Absolutely appall-
ing were the histories given of young
girls whose worse fault was love of
amusement and admiration, betrayed
by men who used drugs and arts bOr-
rowed from hell and of which decent
men, with all their boosted knowledge
of the world, have no knowledge.
Revs. James Freeman Clarke and
w. H. Baldwin protested eloquently
against the injustice of laws that will
not permit girl to dispose of property
till she is d, but will permit her to
sell her person at III
Mrs. LivermOre pleaded for the bill
with an impassiOned ability that can
not be mirrOred save in verbatim re-
port. She made telling point of the
indisputable fact that fallen but re-
pentant women are barred out from
respectable" society forever, while
their vice-steeped betrayers are re-
ceived anywhere and everywhere, if
gold only gilds their rotten souls.
What protection, said the speaker,
have our girl-children if their own fla
theirs, under the gilded dome of the
state house, consent to make twelve
years the legal age at which their
daughters may sell their honor, in the
market, or to any trafficker in woman's
purity
Senator Morse read Il letter from
Judge Russell, regretting his inability
to be present, and citing the following
examples of the infamous inconsistent
cy and injustice of Il law that disgraces
Massachusetts legal record: "In adj
ministrating the law for IA years, /
often had occasion to note the made
quate nature of the extreme penalty
that could be imposed in cases of ag-
gravated seduction. Whatever the
meanness, treachery and inhumanity
attending the Offense, the severest sen-
tence possible was, and is, fine of
$50 or imprisonment in Jail for three
months, unless the Offense included
abduction or adultery. Even this could
only be done by resOrting to a statute
passed for other purposes, and almost
obsolete as applied to the exact Offense,
for which it was intended. The dis
crepancy between the punishment for
this Offense and that awarded to other
crimes still exist. The man who ne
elects to feed his horse or dog is
liable to a fine of $3.50, or to imprison-
ment for year, or to both penalties.
A person who enters an orchard in
tending to take an apple may be sent
to the house of correction six months,
or to be fined $500. The wilful MAIN
ing of anOther's horse subjects the Of
fender to five years imprisonment in
state prison. A tramp, i. e., beggar,
may be sent to the house of correction
for two years, and many other similar
examples might be given"