The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-10-11
What Are We Coming To!

attempt to ravish his little sister and
murder his brother, two for adultery
: of particularly shameless kind, and
now the three young men from West
minister for the Putney rape. The
local history for the past six months,
including these cases. the Grafton
shooting business, and the arrest OF a
WarGsboro girl for suspected infanticide
in Massachusetts,. though proof of the
; crime does not seem to have been fixed
upon her. with tho revelations last
week in county court in the West ia
maica case of degradation of life
that would have seemed impossible in
old New England and compatible only
with the lowest stages of barbarism,
besides one or two other cases of
simply an unspeakabe nature, may
we'll set students of our social condi-
tions to thinking seriously. Add to
these the abortion cases now on trial
at ST Adams. the arrest Of the aged
beast there this week for assault ON a
little girl. the murder and the abortion
cases that have been tried at Rutland
within a few months. the two other
murder cases to be tried at coming
terms of court and the murderous as
saults case at Arlington Brandon and
Burlington. reported elsewhere. besides
| all the prosecutions for assault with
| intent to kill about the state. and it
becomes us to stop Dragging for time
at least about the superior morality
and intelligence of New England. And
a grave feature of it all is that this
story of crime, in this county at least,
comes from our old native stock The
names of the criminals are every one
old Yankee names. There is said to he
an infusion of French blood in the
young Westminster beasts, but ex-
cept for that none of this crime in this
county, and but little of it in the |
state. can be charged to the foreign
err 1t is home bred, and home
nurtured. all in the shadow of the |
schools and churches and surroundings
and influences that ought to make for
human uplifting.
Why is it:
Is it an epidemic merely. from
causes unexplainable, or is it the
product of conditions of life that have
long been doing their work of degcn
Grafton, a poison that has slowly been
penetrating the veins of our rural life?
If so, how can it be reached and the
remedy applied:
1t certainly cannot be laid to the
influences of heated city or village life
any more than to immigration, for
most of tia share far disproportionate.
develops among our strictly agricul-
tural population such us all human
history under normal conditions has
proved to be most preventative of vir- ,
tue and morality. ,
Men who are acquainted with the ,
of life like physicians can ,
point out sore spots in at least half a
lozen of our Windham county towns
"
Toned and men and women are living r
more and more like animals every year. u
where books and news
papers rarely penetrate. where schools u
ire maintained the very least the law e
will permit, and the children to a S
arge extent kept away from what there d
ire, where there is no hope or ambi- =
ion or care for anything beyond an
NAL wants. And the pity of it is that %
hese communities are extending, by f
lose inbreeding are perpetuating and =,
ntensifying the evil, and year by year .,
re getting Judgment in new towns. "
50 gradually have they grown in their p
that little attention has il
,een directed to them. the decay of G
'ublic spirit has resulted in lack OF
emedial measures and il needs W
cries of events like those of the past Il
ear to sufficiently arouse public atten y
ion to their existence. If the Stats #
les in this line could be gathered all i
yer Vermont the result would be ~
tartling. and doubtless this is also N
rue of all rural New England. In is
Vest Jamaica it is SAID that within II,
} years there have been a half ii doz- .
II deaths of husbands and wives that Il
rere accompanied with more or less W
of murder. g
The material conditions of the past i,
) years have had powerful tendency 4,
0 bring about this state of affairs. "a
he discouragements of a struggle in 1c
'hich farmers have constantly found cl
themselves growing poorer. in spite n,
all they could do. have brought "
hose of the least stamina to an ambi- I,
ionless. priceless state. where the bad pl
ASSIGNS have had rapid growth. The tr
isappearance of the old social life. II
artly due to the depopulation of ~
curse, and partly. we believe, to the u
Elimination of the old landlord. once q
lc center of community activities. by nj
,gisation that has made him crimi ~
al. has been an increasing factor of de !,
cneracy. The constant drainage out -
the state of some of the best of its pc
puth and enterprise. has reduced W,
10 average of what remains behind. ad
he flow of capital under the craze for
istant investments has added vastly VI
, the depressing and dispiliting effect. tn
singular persistence in stupid and pc
lort-sightcd legislation in various di- on
,ctions has helped it along ia
Now There is a change in national Ju
gislation. in fiscal policies. in the 60
lrrcnts of business, investment and in y
le tendencies of migration, that will tie
lrrate surely in the opposite and bet an
n direction. that will at last give the re
IAN on our Vermont hills fair chance ar
18th the rest of the world. In the kl
ext ten years this will be realized so on
lily that the intelligent citizen will fu
ondcr that he ever tolerated the old gu
dor nf n inns In ptbpr words thp Dr