Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-07-29
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THE ENGLISH SAVAGE.
CARDINAL MANNING'S STORY OF
SUFFERING CHILDHOOD.

Some of the Cases with Which Pro
tective Society Had to Deal-A House
Where Children Were Considered q
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Brutality.
In the most fagrantly wicked case with
which the society has had to deal, IL shil.
ings a week was the mans pension, and
regular wages made this into e.; with full
time work it was e2 10 shillings: yet his
dwelling was horrible. Nor had he many
mouths to feed At no one time had he
more than two children, and only three in
all He was SO good a workman, too, that
his employer, anxious not to lose six months
of his services, volunteered him high tes-
timonial, which was produced in court
Yet he deliberately got rid of his three
children, all of them, one after another.
The first passed away before this society
had made his acquaintance The neigh
bors said it had never had enough to eat;
in plain English, that it died of starvation.
The death of the second took place thus:
IL was in winter, in bare room, on a mat
tresS The child, girl, had but two gar
ments on: chemise and a print frock
There was no blanket, no coverlet, no sheet
The window was curtainless; the nights
were frosty. There was no fire in the
CRATE, nor had there ever been through all
the long illness There was no food, no
physic, not even cup OF water to drink.
Through ali the pain of her slow, weary
dying she had been INTENDED, while for
some weeks before she pas ed away she nad
been quite unable to attend to herself; she
could not turn in bed, she could not raise a
limb Her bones almost protruded through
the bed sores which added misery to her
misery. Happily, during many of the EAST
days through which she lay in darkness and
bitter cold, while actual death was slowly
taking place, inconsistencies must have
been as kindly to her as death; she posi-
bly, felt nothing, but gently breathed her
self away.
CHILDREN WERE NUISANCE
Downstairs sat pair with whom she had
lived from her biUth-her father and
mother. They brought her no share of their
tea nor crumb of their bread They had
blankets for themselves; they had fire there.
During these cold weeks baby was born.
That Was brought to her and laid in an
onion box i'll a heap of rags in one corner of
her room; it was not wanted. Children
were a nuisance. Population was a NUS
ance. Men were right who said So 1t
made times bad and bread scarce and there
wasn't much money tor pyramids and
billiards. The parents did not care for the
newborn baby in the box, nor for that vast
ing child on her couch. While the wailing
OF the. hungry little stranger" continued,
February II, the girls heavy breathing
ceased. On her coilin-lid was written
Sarah aged years" and she was laid on
the top of her sister in the cemetery. To
people who tend their own offspring, new
born or sick with such wistful care, such
story seems simply impossible, But I'M
happily these narrowing particulars have
all been proved, and have been admitted,
too, by the accused parents in a court OF
law.
Again we urge that it is not the humble
fellow, with the short black pipe in his
mouth, lettering with slovenly gait at the
streetcorners with whom the friends of
child-life and happiness have to contend.
Too often it is with well spoken, we'll
dressed men, who would call him but an
animal and to his credit, be it said, he
does not disgrace the name; and who will
discuss with you "superstitions" and high
questions of state. Twice i'm six months
one father had to be sent to prison whom it
seemed a shame to send at all When he
had gone his second time there was found
on his table The Floating Matter of the
Air." by Tyndall, with his book mark at
page 2iO, TO which he had read Had you
passed him and his wife together in the street
you would have unconsciously felt GER
tain pride in the British workman; yet was
he not ashamed to express openly a desire
to be rid of the tasks and limitations his
children set to his life, and twice in one
night he gave ali infant OF - months Old
a Gaming for crying of teething. His
clenched fist would have broken open
door at blow, and with it, in his anger,
he felled a child 80 years old, making the
little fellow giddy for days, and while he
was thus giddy felled him again: and be-
cause the terrible pain he inflicted made the
child cry, he pushed three of his huge fling
ers down the little weeper's throat-"plug-
ging the little DEVILS windpipe," as he
laughingly described it, He denies none of
the charges, and boldly claimed his right;
the children were his own, he said
ADDICTED TO CRUELTY.
Like most cruel men, he added to cruelty
the wickedness Of false witness. which, be-
ing only against n child, nobody ever pros
ecutes He said that they were bad child
rem, little liars and fendS Three months
We're they in the societys shelter, while
their maliSner was in prison, and when
the grave, frightened little looks with
which they came had passed away, they
were full Of the ways of sunny childhood;
and more docile child. Or one more ready
to Irvine his arms around your neck, you
seldom find than was the little fellow he
again and again made giddy by his deadly
blows He was a man whom no pretty
words, no tender caresses could mollify.
Such mems children-and they are many
are subject to an almost eternal punish |
ment
So far as the society can see the real root |
of persistent savagery to children is mainly |
two-fold it is first, a sullen, ill conditioned /
disposition; and secondly, a cowardice /
which limits its qualification to unresistIng |
and helpless things 1t is due not to pecul- |
iarity in the spirit of the abused child, but |
to popularity in the spirit of the adult /
abuser Of the child. Men become addicted /
to cruelty as they become addicted 10
drink and gambling. 1t is vile pleasure
in which they indulge, some occasionally, /
some persistertly; making their homes into
little bells. Cardinal Manning in Contem-
porary Review.
Lodgings of San Francisco Servants.
The bulk of Cinnamon employed as SER
wants in San Francisco sleep in what is
known as Chinatown, leaving the house at |