The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1889-10-26
BROADBRIM'S n. Y. LETTER

An INQUEST took place here on Thursday
last which has no parallel in our criminal
records, and which but for criminal in
depreciation of the law by an imbeciie
coroner and jury might have sent young
girl of fourteen to States Prison for the
rest of her natural life.
The inquest reveals state OF affairs on
the east side Of town which is blot upon
our city's record and disgrace toour civil
ization. We talk about the ignorant
masses of Europe and plume ourselves on
our superiority, and vet anothing more
shocking could be seen in the purlieus of
Whitechapel or the sums of the Fauborg
ST.. Antoine, than the crime which was
committed in-the Eighteenth Ward, right
in the heart OF the city. Whist makes the
offence particularly appalling is, that ali
Lba participants we're Young girls, the old
e5S oi them cniy sixteen ysars OF ags snd
the girl accused CT the brutal killing was
under fourteen. Julls C'Connor and
Aaggla Miller we,a cash girls in Hernes
great dryeoo6e atore and had been friends.
On their way home from work they began
to talk Oh the relative merits OF the blocks
Oh which they lived, Julia CConuor as
oertile that the block on which Maggie
E4iilsr lived was 8 very tough blcck, and
deciarirs thai she would not live there on
any account, ana Maggie Miller asserting
that they wouldn't hs7e such . cdaIaoSeT
az Julia C'Cclncr ca their Rlock, for if
she came thers they would knock her out.
Then Jniia asid tners wasn't girl on the
could lick sly girl o. nor size in the Eigh-
tssnsh Wsr&. And right here let me add
tt&6 Sht Eighteenth Ward contains some
c4 ihs Toughest ard hardest characters in
tbs oisy. 1t begins in the Sixth avenue
and runs on the lines OF Fifteenth and
fwonty-ffth streets right across The city
TO the eaet. Fros1 the Sixth to the Second
avenue the quarter may be called aristo-
crctie. II takes in Union and Madison
Squares, many cf the leading theatres,
hotels ald great stores; Tiffany's, Lord &
Hayicr's, Brooks, Sloan's and many 9th
ers, but after you pass the Second avenue
the panorama changes. Whole streets are
lined with tenement houses that swarm
with low class population. 1t is largely
foreign, and on every floor day ard night
is heard the whirr of the sewing machine
and the beating of hammers, for the inhab-
itanto OF this uncanny hive are fighting a
NO c-S Ia fnr 70 10 ait Nrlz
o. arTe. In these tenements there is state
OF continued warfare between the occu
| pants and it is no uncommon thing for
people living on the same floor never TO
exchange word for months except in
anger. OF a summer evening boxing and
wrestling bouts are the principal amuse-
nents of the young men and boys, and
many lively scrap on the sidewalk has to
be stopped by the police; nor are these
bouts exclusively confined to the ,oung
men, young women and girls are infected
by the state of moras there and desperate
encounters among them are not uncom-
mon, while men and boys stand by to urge
| on The disgraceful battle. 1t was in this
community that Julia O'Connor and Mag
gle Miller lived.
When 1t was known in the Eighteenth
Ward that Julia OConnor had said that
she cou lick any girl in that classic loca =
lty, there were lots of female Sullvans
ready to try conclusions with her. So a
number os girls set themselves to work TO
bring about battle. Julia 0'Connor had
just got home from work and had fallen
asleep in rocking chair. Maggie Miller
met Maggie Quinn on the corner and told
her to get Julia o. Connor to come out, she
wanted to fight her. Maggie Quinn went
into the house and reused the young Cir,
from slumber, telling her that some friends
OF hers wanted to see her down on the
corner. Unsusp ectingly she started out
| and as soon as she turned the corner Mag.
gle Miller, who lay in waiting, few at her
like tlgress, and then commenced a
| struggle for life and death, the young girls
standing around and urging them on, and
at last when the Miller girl was getting the
worst of it, four or FIVE of them pitched
upon Julia O'Connor and killed her. She
lid not die Immediately. but fingered
through few miserable weeks and then
passed away. What a scene 10 record as
having taken place on a crowded sidewalk
in the first city of the Union. A pack of
saYages at Uganda or Zambesi could do no
worce. The vii ainous pirates of the
Straits of Malacca could imagine nothing
more bloodthirsty or cruel. The names of
the combatants and the lookers-on are
suggesSiye-Julia O'Connor, Maggie Mil
leT, Mary Ann Muldoon. Maggie Quinn,
Maggie Roach, Mamie McMahon, Julia
Kelly. Bridget McCarty, Honora Lynch
and Katy Aonohan. These young girls
had heard their fathers and their brothers
talking about Sullivan, Kilrain, Paddy
Ryan and Muldosn; they had seen their
faVorlte beaus try conclusions on the side
walk. ana they longed 20 emulate them, and
this is Whist has demoralized and brutallzed
the lower classes of New York city. The
poles, for which we pay millions annually,
have been detailed to protect these dis
graceful exhibitions, and John L. Sullivan
with bis associate ruffians and blackguards
has had better police protection than the
members Of the Episcopal Council who