Year: 1873

A COMMONPLACE Murder.


The murder in Broome street was one
of kind too common to excite general
attention and sympathy. Francis
| Gillen, steam-fitter and rowdy by trade,
murdered his wife, q milliner, aged Is,
on the sidewalk as she was going
home to her fathers house. The man
was in blind fury of passion, for he
stabbed the poor young woman six
| times, and inflicted no less than four
mortal wounds. He had no cause Of
quarrel with her, except that he had
treated her so badly that she could not
/ live with him, and so was earning her
own livelihood under her fathers pro-
lection. The case affords no material
| for public excitement or comment. It
will not be discussed at tea-tables, nor
| in the columns of newspapers. 1t is
commonplace and unheroic. The par
ties are all mechanics; the poor victim
will be missed from her shop until her
place is filled; the murderer will be
missed from no place we can decently
mention, and the heart-broken father
will drive his cart as usual to gain his
daily bread, as he belongs to class that
cannot afford the luxury of sentimental
sorrow. 1t is an item Of police news OF
no general interest.


Yet this case contains within itself
the whole question of domestic, author
ity. A pretty and willful girl, only l6,
with blue eyes and blonde hair, two
years ago attracted the attention OF
profiigate young fellow, who found her
pleasant relief from the worse women
he generally associated with, and won
her fancy. This is an easy thing for
dissolute youth to do. These tiashy,
idle, rowdyish boys, whose vices give
them leisure, are creatures of romance
to certain class of working girls. II
they know how worthless the boy is, it
makes no difference. An innocent
woman never admits, even to herself,
the existence of the worst forms of
wickedness. IA little wild" Is the
vague formula that covers the most
grOveling infamies, and the prospect of
reforming the fascinating truant from
the paths of vice, presents an irresistible
allurement. Parental opposition only
adds fuel to the flame. No girl in love,
or what she calls by that name, is capa-
| bic of thinking that her father can tell
| her anything worth knowing about the
object of her fancy. The father of this
unfortunate woman found out this as
soon as he warned her against her dis
solute admirer. After infinite trouble
and wrangling, he had her consigned to
the House of the Good Shepherd,
whence she was released, and imme-
diately made a clandestine marriage


with Gillen. Her honeymoon turned


quickly to gall. She found she was but
one among the many indulgences. And


her position was worse than his most


depraved companions, for she belonged


to him by law, and was the helpless
> l fafi of Efu rruo1fiaG A flor a fnxxr


weeks of this frightful punishment, she


went home to her father again, and by


his help obtained a respectable means Of


earning her living.


But this brutal ruffian, though he
recognized no obligations resting upon


himself from the marriage tie, consid-


cred himself grossly wronged that his
wife should renOunce her allegiance to
him. He looked upon her rs a run


away slave, and meeting her the other


night upon the street, he ordered her to


go home with him, and when she re-


fused, he stabbed her to death in the
open thoroughfare. He probably had
no more sense of responsibility in this


than an angry teamster who beat his


horse. He considered himself thor
Oughly in the right, and when he was
arrested, and the policeman asked him





''YOu would have done the same if your
wife refused to live with you" He evil
IDENTIFY saw no other course open to 3
man of spirit. He might abuse, outrage
and trample upon her; he might make
no secret of the vices with which he
daily dishonOred the marriage cove
nant; he might spend all his earnings
and hers in his own debaucheries, and
yet the idea never seemed to occur to
him that she had any right to escape
from this torture. May not q man do
what he will with his own? was the
only shape in which any question of
duty presented itself to him. This idea
of marital right is not confined to men
like Gillen alone. The policeman who
saw him just before the murder, is said
to have acknowledged that he feared
some trouble, but did not like to inter
fere between man and wife. This man,


Gillen, it is reported, has long been
known to the police as dangerous char
? acter. Yet the law, which muzzles
harmless dogs under the superstition
that they may 90 mad, does nothing to


prevent this wild beast from stealing a


young girl from her father, marrying,
maltreating and killing her-nOt all at


once, but diffusing the crime over two
years. We need not draw a moral


which would be as commonplace as the


murder, and would touch upon two
commonplace and evident faults of the
/ time-the claim Of children that theiI
parents have no right to interfere. with
, the bestowal of their affections, and the
+ claim of husbands that their wives are
their property.-N. Y. Tribune.


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