The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1894-01-13
MURDERED FOR MONEY.
BABIES KILLED FOR THE LIFE
g.--4, Z, INSURANCE.
The Terrible Crlmc Practical In Lon
don-Horrib,e Torturcs to Which the
Little Ones Are Observation-Disclosures
the Favorite Method.

become business and the basis OF
operations which declare handsome
dividends. The recent imprison-
ment of Lady Montague for killing
her baby by hanging her by the
arms is but the punishment of n sim
gle conspicuous instance of inhuman
cruelty among The thousands that
happen yearly and are never brought
to light. The terribleness of the
practice exceeds the atrocities of the
Widest savage in darkest Africa, and
no cannibalistic native ever tortured
his victim with fewer pangs of con
science than does the English pro-
fcssional murderer wipe from the
earth his share OF children whom
levil-possessed parents sacrifice for
paltry life assurances. Spanish his
tory, or the red pages of the days of
the inquisitions, show no such art of
diabolism. 1t is officially known
that at least 1000 children 4 year
are killed for hire in the worlds
metropolis alone,
The slaughter OF the babies on the
Ganges was two-fold more human
death by an alligator's iaws-than
the new methods employed by the
English Bill Sykescs. Some are
hung by straps until they become
limp; others are SCARED and burned
with hot pokers; one case was re-
Gently reported where the child had
been held against blazing stove
until its body was cooked; one was
held in tank OF ice water until
dead; others were tortured by having
! hot oil poured in fresh wounds, sew
eral were killed by alleged accidental
falling from high windows. Yet
used-means likely to betray the
murderer. Starvation is the favorite
method. 1t leaves no Glow, and is
equally IS deadly rs arsenic or lauda-
mum. Other favoritc procedures are
medicines for diseases the child has
not, mans food for sucking infants.
neglect for the ailing. chilling drafts
for tine fcyerish-killing the victim
and earning the reward rs easily as
they would pluck a petal from rose
The greatest incentive for tho
slaughter of the children is the re-
ward offered for their death. While
the original in tention of the system
of child life insurance was to enable
the needy to suitably bury their dead,
the good end of it has been entirely
perverted 1t has now become simply
a plan whereby persons OF no CON
science obtain a cash profit by =
comparatively safe method OF murder
a scheme of neglect varying in
degrees OF cruelty with tho age OF
the victim. The younger the child.
after it is old enough to be insured.
the easier the killing and the less the
reward. The prize increases with
the difficulty of the nefarious game.
and so it happened that children OF
very mature age are the most reluent
victims
In fact, tho business has grown so
extensively that it is ono of the
problems now before parliament
There are $1,000 men in England
working from door to door. restoring
parents to insure their children.
These are working for profit. and Tor
each first penny premium they get
twenty pennies pay. 1t matters not
to them that they are selling tickets
in lottery, where the thriftlcss par
cnt CANDLES his penny II week
against the company's thirty shill-
ings that the child will die. and the
coroners OF the kingdom swear be-
fore the investigating committees
that one half of the children who
die mystcriously die with this thirty
shillings on their heads.
The cold mathematics to which the
profit and loss of this child-killing
has been reduced is one Of the most
awful of modern facts. Tho law al
lows value of $50 to be placed upon
the life of child under 6 years;
mp to ID years it is $50, and over
that 81, 900. The traffic is largely
among the desperately poor people.
those whompoverty has made desper-
ate and debauch has made brutes.
The parent usually insures for pen
ny n week premiums. The figures
show that the crisis is usually
reached within SIX months, when the
premiums paid amount to IS I'd. Com
scquently the family has Melted IL
lbs cd upon the death OF an infant
From this must be paid the funeral
expenses. which thrifty London I'M
dertakers have reduced to II mini
mum by burying poor children in lob
lots-five and often more in the same
man-size coffin.
There is q society waging an un-
equal war against this busincss-the
Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty
to Children. 1t has big hospital
on Harper street, BLOOMSBURY, with
in shadow OF the British museum.
and here are Sc n scores of children
rescued from the hands OF their in
tending slayers, Hardly an hour in
the day passes but that a carriage
rolls up to the door and there is
lifted out child covered with dirt,
filth and mlldow. found by some
agent in stench-fillcd attic, alley
shed or damp cellar. But the other
day five victims were brought from
single slaughter. When the
door was broken in Il strong man
tnI %, h.