Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-06-22
PARENTAL CRUELTIE2

1t has hong be- en- the fashion among
English tourists in America to re.
buke, or to ridicule, as the case may
be, the American habit of what the
tourist pleased TO call ''spoilIng" the
children No doubt we do sometimes
grant to our children more and greater
liberties and indulgences than are good
Tor them: but this, we contend. Is far
hetter than the prevalent English Gus
tom OF treating children as il they were
convicted and hardened criminals.
II at this charge Is not too strong
one is proved By the late startling re-
port of the English Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children"
and supported by the observation of
every American who has long resided
IN England.
The details given of the many cruel
and malignant punishments inflicted
upon children by inhuman parents are
sickening in their character. Children
are not only abused aud caused to suffer
by the neglect of parents, but system
attic course of torture hiss been pursued
in many instances that one would
scarcely believe probable among the
most barbarous of saysges. And this,
too, in civilized, enlightened London
the metropolis of nation that boasts
its prowess and culture among the
great powers of the earth.
In this report attention is called to
the case of Mrs. Montague, recently
sentenced to imprisonment for the
murder of one of her children, as the
result of most barbarous aud cruel
punishment. 1t is claimed that her
Ca is by no means an isolated one,
but that there are many Mrs. Mon
tagues throughout England. 1t ap-
pears that this cruelty toward children
is not confined to the lower strata of
society, where ignorance and vice walk
together hand in hand But some OF
the most revolving acts of cruelty have
been found in families of affiuence.
among those who walk in the highest
circles, and who make great preten-
sions to aristocratic responsibility.
The most shameful disclosures are
made in this report. Clergymen.
officers, barristers and others have
been visited by the agents of the So
ciety to check the cruelties tLey prac.
ticed upon their helpless children.
The report relates a number of in
stances III Wnlcu tne most htrOclOus
tortures were inflicted by this class
upon their offspring. Among these
tortures are mentioned that of sticking
pins in them, burning their flesh with
lighted matches, breaking the bones OF
two-year. old babies, and a number
OF inhuman deeds of a SIMILAR cl aracter.
The report relates an instance where a
boy six years of ago was lied with a
rope and dipped into canal repeated
u until exhausted. Other instances
were that Of confining a child in a
cellar until its flesh turned green, ty-
ing cords around the thumbs of a child,
and leaving a babe in a cradle for
weeks until toadstools grew out of the
filth that surrounded the little sufferer.
Some of the instances named in this
report are almost too horrible to be
lieve, yet We are bound to accept its
truth as an official account of the eX-
perience of the Society in its humane
work And this is phase of English
sc sCciety-the nation that boasts OF ats
attainments in all that contributes to
an advanced civilization. What a
travesty on morality aud culture is de-
yeloped in these shocking relationsl