The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-02-10
WHAT DRINK DOES.

She attention OF Agent Sweeny, OF the
Anti Cruelty Society of Pittsburg, was
called one morning recently to a sad and dis
tressing case of poverty, cruelty and neglect.
A little tumbledown house located on Jones
avenue was occupied by two families and a
boarder. OF these there were a man and
his wife and two little children, both girls,
aged respectively four and six years. The
others were a widow her son and another
man. The officers say that when they en-
tered the building such sight of misery
they never witnessed. The interior was
literally reeking with vermin and filth, while
the stencil was such that the officers were
sckeDed. The neighbors state that the oc-
cupants spend their whole time in drinking,
neglecting. abusing and starving the little
children, who were compelled daily to go out
barefooted, bare-headed, in an almost en-
tirely nude condition, to beg for sufficient
food to keep body and soul together. When
the mother and her babes were brought to
the station house she was, with the excep-
ton of an old and filthy calico wrapper, en-
tirely devoid of clothing; the children were
even in much sadder plight, the youngest,
especially, being in sorely afflicted con-
dition. Its little back was one mass of sores
and scabs, while from sheer neglect and
starvation its little body had dwin6led down
| to that of living skeleton. The younger
| child is in such a condition that it cannot
possible live.
What horrible state of affairsl And
still it is an everyday occurrence in our
| large cities
| ALCOHOLIC INSANITY IN PARIS.
At the police station the quietly disposed
| are sorted out and separated from the violent
criminals. In the morning the latter are
brought up for examination by the chief
medical officer Of the Prefecture of Police,
who does his best to ascertain whether he
has to do with lunatics or malefactor-. The
eminent man who has filed this post for
many years is DR.. Paul GARNER, and he it
was who kindly consented to suspend, in my
favor, the rule which excludes from his ex-
bers of the staff. This small, low -ceilinged
room has witnessed many dramas, for be-
tween its narrow walls are conducted nightly
the malefactors who the Paris police have
caught in the meshes of their net. They en-
ter, held by each shoulder, between two
warders. In their eyes one reads the terror
of an animal caught in a trap. They are
aware that here are the crossroads where
their fate is to be decided; on the right the
madhouse, on the left the convict prison
And all, whether mad or only feigning mad
ness, take refuge in incoherent or outrageous
language, in stupor OF commissions.
Closely observant, taking notes, or draw
ing up reports, DIR. GARNER sits behind hi
table. Sad indeed is the conclusion arrived
at by his medical experience. His figures
prove that during the last sixteen year'
lfrom 1875 to 1855 lunacy has increased II
Paris in proportion OF thirty per cent
This increase is due to the fact that tw
morbid types, general paralysis AMI alec
holic insanity, are spreading TO an alarming
extent. The progress of alcoholic insanit.
] has been so rapid that the evil is now twic
as prevalent as it was fifteen years ago. A
most third of the lunacy cases observe
} at the Denot Intirmary are due to this dis
ease, and every day it declares itself NOR
violently and with more marked homicide
tendency. The accomplice Of two-thirds {
the crimes committed, upon whom the Grim
inals themselves throw the responsibility c
their evil deeds, and whom the police neve
, succeed in discovering, exists. That az
complice is alcohol! 1t visits upon the chill
the sins of the father, and engenders in Il
D following generation homicidal instinct
D During the last ten years the criminal tyI
has entered on a new phase. Before thI
date the assassin was generally a man
i the vigor and strength of his manhood;
, had tasted lifein all its forms. Such we
Tropmann, Prado, Eyraud, Pranzini. No'
adays il is the youth of barely twenty wi
? murders. The jurymen hesitate to condeu
Z him on account of his youth, although the
are Mortified at his cold-blooded ferocity, al
at the absence of moral sense which he d
Z plays.-Fortnightly Review.