The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-18
ESCAPED PUNISHMENT BY REA-
SON OF A BARBARIC LAW.

particular except the use of force, escap-
ed punishment for their base conduct
only because North Carolina has a bar
barrie law. The particulars of the crime
| charged against them by fourteen year
old girl have been printed in these COL
umns In our Indignation that such
base conduct could happen In the suburbs
of the city of Raleigh, this paper thought
| il to be it's high but unpleasant duty to
print the awful story. Written in great
haste after midnight, the story was too
| full and contained expressions that
| would not have been printed il there had
been time for re-readng. Frank
| ness comuels us to state in print what
we feel and what our readers must
have felt was our indiscretion. The first
news that came to the paper was the
story of the young girl and her father
| Confederate Home, and the fact that
| warrant charging these men with the
basest of crimes had been issued by
magistrate. Assuming that it was true,
this paper would have been derelct in
its duty if it had not printed enough
of her pitiful tale to arouse the indig
girl fourteen years old, without money
or friends, the daughter of a man too
POOR to hire a, lawyer to prosecute the
men charged with her ruin. seeks the
protection of the law, it is the duty OF
the press to make sue public senti-
ment in her favor as the publication of
the proper facts warrant. In such cases
the woman or the girl, If wronged, can
get no redress except through an aroused
public sentiment. Men accused of such
crime always seek to blacken the reputa-
ton of the girl. If she is innocent, public
sentiment will demand the condign pun
ishment of her assailants if the papers,
with proper elimination, print her story
Of the wrong done ner so the people can
be informed If the press covers it up,
can be stamped out by the application of
cologne, no wronged girl may ever hope
for justice. If the girl Is poor, humble,
a mere child the public will see that
those who wrong her are punished if
the law is sufficient to do so. That was
the view of the case that caused the story
% No.
right or wrong, in its execution, the mo-
tive was one that will be approved by
all good men who are appalled, at the
growing immortality of the times.
1t was disgrace to the city of Raj
eigh that men--men who have sisters and
mothers-could stoop so low yesterday
as to manifest the brute in them as was
manifested at the close Of the nauseat-
ing trial. The undeveloped and hayward
girl of fourteen, mere child with no
moral perceptions, ought to be placed in
a reformatory where she could be res
cued. Instead of pity that the a slip of
a girl was not what she should be, there
was levity and jeering and a leering
that made men ashamed to know that
they belonged to the same race as the
men who by their conduct showed they
had fallen lower than the girl whose
character base men were backening.
Of moral degeneracy, caused by cigarette
smoking, whiskey drinking and vulgar
'ty and lowness. The poor girl-not yet
a mountaineering in moral sense went
out OF court after making admissions that
showed her extreme youth, lack of sense
and her waywardness. The men escaped
trial for the worst crime in the cata-
logue of crimes because the victim of
their drunken debauchery was five
months older than fourteen years of age
If she had been five months younger, the
nen could not have escaped the severest
punishment. In this State the youthful
age of fourteen is the prescribed age of
consent.
This crime-for it is nothing less than
a crime even if it goes unpublished
ought to stir the people of North Caro-
ina to the point where they will de-
Dand of the next General Assembly that
he age Of consent be raised 1t ought to
| be eighteen years of age-not a day less.
Young girls lacking in moral perceptions
ought not to be the prey OF bad men
rhe law ought to make men like those
II trial yesterday answer for their
wrongs. There is but one way to do it
and that is to raise the age of consent
SO that they will be estopDed from set
| ting up the plea of consent when faced
with their wrong doing. Our present law
| IN this subject is a barbaric lava dis
| race to our civilization.
Il
The people of Raleigh need to quit
| sprinkling cologne and to remove the
| 'oul blots that disgrace the city. There
| has not been harmony in the city ad-
L nj soma fip,o With .he