was an occurrence without precedent. If we do not greatly mistake,
quite as disgraceful a violation of the law occurred when Langfeldt was
executed. And we do not hesitate to say that, whether they mean it or
not, those who have permitted or countenanced these palpable violations
of law in the very act of executing its stern decree, have done quite
as much to defeat as to enforce its sanctions.
But all the revolting story in Spring’s case is not yet told, and we
return to our former authority for its shameful details:
The lifeless body of the vile criminal was given up to the anatomist.
Of this fact alone no one need complain. But a community has a right
to ask that anatomy should do its hideous work with some reserve--and
instead of parading its loathsome details, should cast a veil over
them. The execution was witnessed by a thousand, and the dissection by
(as we may infer) some hundreds. An elaborate newspaper report informs
us that the post mortem examination was made “in the anatomical
theatre of the Philadelphia College of Medicine, by Professor James
M‘Clintock, in the presence of a large audience of medical students,
physicians, members of the press and others.” According to the report,
it must have been a very theatrical sort of exhibition--the follies
of phrenology contributing largely to enliven it. Science may have
gained something by such a piece of work, and by the lecture that
accompanied it: it is possible, we suppose, that the knowledge of the
theory and practice of hanging may have been a little increased, and
perhaps some small addition made to the science of anatomy: but when
we are told by the reporter that the Professor who made the dissection
was “pleasantly facetious,” in his performance, we must say, that if
science gained any thing, it was at the expense of human feeling and
of decency. _Pleasantry!--facetiousness!_ What an occasion for the
exercise of such powers! We would fain hope that the reporter used the
words inconsiderately and inappropriately, and that he must have done
the Professor injustice: but if not--if the man of science, standing
over the ghastly carcass of the broken-necked criminal, from which an
undying soul had so lately passed forth so fearfully, did accompany
his explorations with any sort of facetiousness; and if his “large
audience” did at all sympathize with such ill-placed levity, then--not
trusting ourselves to picture what sort of a scene it was--we will
only say that thus conducted, the anatomical theatre is as brutalizing
and demoralizing as the public hanging ground itself. When Hogarth,
with all his wondrous powers of commingling the grotesque and the
ghastly, carried the vicious apprentice on to the last scene in the
dissecting room, he did not venture, if we remember rightly, to
picture there a facetious anatomist.
If we had space we should be disposed to comment somewhat at length
on several points here presented, and others which have come to our
knowledge from parties who were present, but we can only advert for
a moment to the indirect influence of the published report of the
examination.
It would seem that the physical _structure_ of the murderer was such as
to indicate the ferocious and brutal disposition which he manifested.
With such a development of brain, muscles, &c., it would have been
quite a perplexing problem to scientific men, had he been less tender
of the lives of his fellow-creatures. Now it occurred to us, as
philanthropists, that we might perhaps do away with a great deal of
crime and suffering, and almost the whole expense of the police, of
criminal courts, prisons, &c., by a simple process like the following.
Let a commission of discerning and judicious men of science be
appointed in every county or large town, (like vaccine districts) who
shall be required once a month to examine all persons within a given
district, with a view to determine their developments. As soon as there
is a perceptible tendency to thieving, burglary, fraud, robbery, rape,
murder, or other criminal course, let it be duly recorded; and without
waiting for the actual consummation of the deed, which is really the
expensive feature of it, let the development suffice to put the public
on its guard, and subject the party in whose unfortunate brain it is
detected, to the same pains and penalties which he or she would suffer,
were it to be allowed full expansion. A moment’s reflection will
satisfy any one of the economy and efficiency of this plan.
The whole course of legislation, adjudication and punishment would
thus be resolved into a plain matter of professional science; and all
questions about the sources and preventives of crime would be brought
to the surface of the cranium, and there be settled by square and
compass!
Miscellaneous.
INDISCRIMINATE ALMSGIVING.--Great is the glory of benevolence; it
outshines that of wealth and war. Hence, the wide and lasting fame of
John Howard. All men revere his memory. The story of his life thrills
the soul. None can read it without learning to admire the beauties of
his goodness, and the moral gorgeousness of his charity. We enshrine
his name in our heart of hearts. But John Howard was not benevolent
only--he was wise; his insight into remedies was consummate. He sought
to understand the sources of crime, and the character of criminals. He
was prudent, methodical, firm; his wisdom and his love went hand in
hand. Both his spirit and his understanding were consecrated to the
great work which formed his mission.
Many wish to do good; they long to repress crime; they wish to diminish
human sorrow; the poor look to them for help. Ready are their hearts to
pity and their hands to bestow an alms. But they do not give _wisely_.
Like Howard, they are full of compassion; unlike him, they have no
system, no principle of action, no wise mode of dealing with the
criminal, the ignorant, and the poor. They give profusely; they do not
give thoughtfully; the fruits of their deeds are therefore corrupt and
full of evil.
Let us explain. To bestow money, soup, blankets, and Bibles, is an
easy duty; plenty of people will come for them; the demand is always
equal to the supply. Society abounds with mean, lazy, drunken persons
who do not wish to sweat and toil. There are men redolent of strong
drink, tobacco, and filth, who “take the liberty of waiting upon your
honor” to narrate tales of woe. They cannot get work; they owe five
weeks rent; their wives are ill; their children have no bread. They are
“poor fellows who wouldn’t come, but hunger is a sharp thorn,” and so
on. There are women who knock at the door, and send in little, cramped,
flattering, lying notes. Their husbands are in the hospital; they are
going to be confined of their sixth child; they have four children ill
of the small-pox; they have nothing to eat; they smell of whiskey, but
that is of no consequence. A leetle drop they say, is a comfort, and
they don’t get drunk.
There are little girls who call upon us to say that their father fell
from a scaffold, and greatly needs some money to get him a morsel of
fresh meat--the said father being then waiting round the corner for the
anticipated gift. There are boys who follow us from square to square
with a wretched whine, and telling a score of details about their daily
sufferings, but taking care not to whisper a word of the short pipe,
the smoking pudding, the pot of ale, and the visit to the Circus or
Theatre, with which they solace themselves after the public labors and
sufferings of the day. And there are the dramatic beggars--men who
crouch behind a scroll, on which is written STARVATION; the pathetic
beggars--women who sit on door-steps, with cold tears rolling down
their cheeks; the rural beggars--picturesque beggars--and all other
kinds of beggars.
Who is to be held responsible for this army of beggars? To a large
extent, (we reply) careless alms-givers. People who give to any and to
all that ask, create pauperism. They bribe the feeble and the wicked to
adopt the disgraceful profession of a mendicant. In saying this we do
not depreciate, nor do we seek to hinder that charity which God loveth.
To bestow an alms is often a duty; when well bestowed it is pleasing to
God. Not so with almsgiving as it is. That is a moral blight; it has
produced a generation of liars, thieves, drunkards, and prostitutes;
it is a demon in the garb of an angel; idleness, falsehood, dirt,
ignorance, and crime, are its foul results.
We appeal to facts and witnesses. Mendicants, paupers, and thieves
abound; they are of all nations. We have them from Ireland, from
Africa, from India, and from amongst ourselves. They are of all ages;
old and young, parents and children come before us. They are of all
kinds; some in silk, some in broad-cloth, some in fustian, and some in
rags. Their sores are artificial; their tales are got up; their lives
are most unholy shams.
The evil influence of indiscriminate almsgiving is not confined to our
own country. The continent is also the sphere of their operations.
“It happened that on two occasions, (says _Fraser’s Magazine_,) at
the interval of about eighteen months, we travelled from Paris to
Boulogne, and stopped for a few minutes at a village on the road, of
which we have now forgotten the name. An Englishwoman, in an agony
of supplication, and with her cheeks wet with tears, rushed to the
window of the diligence, and inquired whether there was any Englishman
inside. We owned the soft impeachment, when, with an earnestness of
manner which would have done honor to an accomplished actress, she
stated that her husband, a week before, had broken his leg, and was
now lying dangerously ill in the village. Of course, it was impossible
to verify her statement, but, we confess to our shame, that we
received it without hesitation, and dropped into her hand a five-franc
piece. At the same town, eighteen months afterwards, the same woman,
with the self-same story, appeared at the window with the old inquiry.
We threw ourselves forward with the sudden impulse of surprise; the
trickstress recognised us, and fled in confusion.”
Time would fail us in attempting a complete exposition of the manifold
evils of this system, and we will therefore confine ourselves to its
influence on the education of destitute children. Now it is plain
that whatever depraves the parent injures the child. Make the parents
indolent, false, and drunken by reckless benevolence, or by anything
else, and you peril the future welfare of their offspring. What do
they care about the ignorance, the rags, and filthy aspect of their
little ones? Ignorance will excite compassion--rags will induce all
kind people to bestow shoes, linen, bonnets, and gowns. Dirt draws
money--vermin bear interest. These--brutish ignorance, fluttering rags,
uncombed hair, shoeless feet, an unwashed body, a dramatic cast of the
eye, and a voice carefully attuned to utter the true whine--“wot tells
upon old gemmen and wimmen,” are the stock-in-trade and fixtures of the
mendicant; take these away, and you rob him of his capital. What does
he or his children want with Ragged Schools? They would bring him no
money by going there, therefore he will not send them.
In all such cases as these, and in a thousand more, the children,
though awfully ignorant, are wilfully kept from school. They make
money; they bring beef to the pot, tobacco to the pipe, cards to the
fingers, and rum to the lips. Send them to church! Not so. “Sunday is
our best day.” Send them to school! “We cannot afford that,” said a
father. “How much will you pay us?” said a drunken mother. Send them
to work! “Bedad! we knows better than that!” said a son of ----, we
shall not say where. Nay, so profitable is begging that children are
hired for the purpose. Hence, the difficulty which many a missionary
experiences when he tries to get the right sort of children for the
Ragged or Mission School.
“A spirit-dealer in High street informs me that he draws £10 more on
the pay days of the Glasgow poor than on any other days of the week.
Another spirit-dealer says that the paupers regularly come to him
and spend in drink what they receive. I asked him how he knew they
were paupers? He replied, that they made no secret of it; he heard
them talk about what they got, and how long they had to wait for it.
They go in hundreds from the long closes in High street. An inspector
informs me, that he observed a lame pauper, not two hours after he
had received 8_s._, carried to the police office drunk on a barrow.
He also found a pauper, aged eighty years, so drunk that she was not
able to rise from her chair, and singing, ‘The world is bound to
maintain me, sing yo, sing yo, sing yo,’ to some other jovial paupers
who joined in her revels. He frequently finds paupers drunk on their
beds after they have received their aliment; and having spent all in a
single night, they live in a starving condition, _or beg, or steal_,
until next pay-day comes round.... Widows, left with children under
ten years of age, receive a great deal of out-door relief from this
Board, to bring them up. A large proportion of these are dissipated
characters, who drink the money which is intended for the benefit
of their children, _whom they send out to beg, and thus grow up
uneducated_, and become, if they survive the bad treatment to which
they are subjected, pests to society, like their mothers.”
Mr. Bishop, of the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society, in his annual
report for 1852, speaks as follows:--
“As long as people will give to little children in the streets and to
beggars at their doors, without the trouble of inquiring into their
character and circumstances, so long shall we have a continual supply
of juvenile criminals, and numbers of idle, worthless people, living
on their wits, to the injury of honest industry, and the perversion
of true views of charity. The polite heaps of rags that accost us at
our doors and in the streets are, for the most part, tricksters in
disguise. One little merry fellow, who has followed the begging trade
for dissolute parents ever since I have been in Liverpool, and is
particularly successful with the softer sex, will, sometimes, knowing
that I am up to the secrets of his business, show me what he calls
‘the crying face,’ which, when necessary, he puts on to the ladies.
He is a clever, sharp boy, but I have in vain endeavoured to reclaim
him from his Arab life. It is far too profitable to his parents, and
has become, I fear, too pleasant to himself. But to show the ill
consequences of encouraging such lads--I was lately remonstrating
with a man who lives near this family, because of an ungrateful and
dishonest trick he had attempted to pass on a benevolent lady, when he
said to me, as if the wholesale trickery of his neighbors justified
his smaller practices--‘Why, there’s little Ned,’ referring to the boy
in question, ‘he brings home every day more than any labouring man can
earn, and sure we are worse off than they.’”
“The charity of the metropolis is too indiscriminate, says a London
coroner, and thus the deserving poor are unheeded, and drunken,
reckless characters are well provided for, either by private
munificence or work-house relief, which enables them to lead an idle
merry life. The money they get is squandered in drink, and at night
for a few pence they obtain a bed in a wretched stinking hovel, where
all ages, all sexes, and all diseases are crowded together, forming
so many plague factories and disease depots. So long as a vagrant
can live without working, he will do so. So convinced am I of the
consequence of the evil that I have ceased to be a vice-president
to the Soup Kitchen. In fact, begging has become a regular trade. A
few years ago, one of the fellows who followed that avocation was
examined before a committee of the House of Commons, and stated that
he had travelled over the kingdom for nine years as a beggar; that
he was treated as a gentleman in prison, but most disgracefully
in workhouses, especially in Lambeth, where he had to work before
breakfast; that a slouched hat and smock-frock, with a bundle of
herbs in his hand, formed the best garb for a London beggar; and that
there were not ten out of one hundred vagrants worthy of relief. Such
(continued the coroner) are the disclosures made by him regarding
the begging trade. I am, however, happy that the press has taken up
the subject, and trust that it will not cease its efforts until this
monster evil is completely put down, and thus prevent charitable
institutions being abused, and their funds wasted, upon lazy worthless
characters. The jury expressed their fullest concurrence with the
opinions and observations of the coroner.”
The opinions of such witnesses more than corroborate our statements,
and the force of these opinions will not, we trust, be unfelt by our
readers. They may ask, what should be done when application is made to
them for pecuniary relief? We would suggest--
1. That no money be given to street beggars without inquiry into their
cases and an unexpected visit to their abodes.
2. That persons who are acquainted with the tricks of the vagrant
class, such as tradesmen, City Missionaries, Ragged School teachers,
and others, be applied to on such occasions.
3. That societies whose business it is to afford systematic and
well-timed relief in cases of distress, such as the Union Benevolent
Society, be more liberally supported, and cases sent to them instead of
being personally attended to. The adoption of these or similar rules
would tend much to prevent imposture, to add scores of children to our
Mission Schools, to increase our power of doing real good, and to rid
us ere long of the nuisance and abominable annoyance in our streets of
“confirmed vagrants and sturdy beggars.”
SHOOTING WITH RED PAINT.--A work has lately been published, called
“Notes and Narratives of a Six Years’ Mission, principally among the
Dens of London.” By R. W. Vanderkiste.
The title gives a correct idea of the contents of this volume. The
writer, for six years, was an agent of the London City Mission, and
labored in one of the most unhealthy and morally depraved localities
of that great metropolis, known as the “Cow Cross District.”
The volume presents an interesting exhibition of what can be effected,
under God, by an earnest and self-sacrificing man. The most romantic
narratives are occasionally introduced. The following is one of them:
“An Old Bow Street officer, who yet lives in the neighborhood, has
detailed strange and terrible scenes to me. One I will give as nearly
as possible in his own words, omitting some unpleasant vulgarities:
‘One of my mates come to me, as near as I can guess, it might be two
o’clock in the afternoon. Says he, ‘P----, you must come up to the
office directly.’ It was in Hatton Garden then, sir, close by. ‘What
for?’ says I. ‘Oh!’ says he, ‘there’s the Irish murdering one another
on Saffron Hill, and the place is blocked up with the mobs.’ So I
takes my staff, and my cutlass, and my pistols, and away I went up to
the office. It wasn’t a minute’s walk scarce, you know. Well, sir,
there they was, breaking one another’s limbs on Saffron Hill, hundreds
of Irish with great sticks and pokers; ever so many had been taken off
to the hospitals wounded; they was so spiteful, the shopkeepers put up
their shutters, and the place was full of Irish, cutting and slashing
like mad, and coming from all parts, taking sides and fighting one
against another. Well, sir, there was only six of us, and we found we
must turn out. ‘My lads,’ said the head constable--and he didn’t like
it at all, he didn’t--says he, ‘this is a queer job, but go we must!’
Well, sir, away we went, but it warnt no use at all; the mob didn’t
mind our cutlasses a bit; great big fellows come up to us with their
pokers, and we warnt in no pleasant situation in no respect. Well, I
saw there’d be murder very shortly, and suddenly a thought struck me,
and away I went round the corner--may be you knows the shop--it was
a shop where they sold almost every thing then. Well, I knocked, but
they were afraid to open the door. Says I, ‘It’s me, Mrs. ----, and
do let me in;’ so they let me in. Says I, ‘Let me have some red paint
of some sort immediately;’ so they gave me some rouge or carmine,
I don’t know which it was. So I took out my pistols and put in a
charge of powder, then some paper, then I wetted a lot of this paint
and put it in, and some paper loose over it, and off I went. Well,
there was my mates hemmed in, but no lives lost, thank God; they was
fighting away; well, a great chap come up to me with a poker or a
fender a-fighting with, so I outs with a pistol, and, says I, ‘Stand
back!’ and presents it at him. Well, he didn’t stand back, so I fired
at him. Well, sir, you may depend on it, (I shall never forget it,)
the force of the powder and wadding knocked him right off his legs.
It caught him in the forehead, and the red paint made his face look
just as if it was all covered with blood. They made sure he was a
dead man, and some carried him off to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and
the mob got frightened at us and dispersed. They didn’t know whose
turn might come next. Well, sir, when they came to examine my man, at
the hospital, and washed his face, it set ’em a wondering, for they
found there wasn’t no wound at all. The man was partly stunned, and
soon walked home. Well, sir, the story got wind, and them Irish was
so pleased with it afterwards, (when they come to their proper reason
and sobriety, they could see it had perhaps prevented real murder,
for they was getting terrible spiteful when I let fly)--they was so
pleased many of ’em would have done anything for me afterwards. The
housekeepers in the neighborhood, too, made us a handsome present, and
I was told about that red paint job a long while afterwards, you may
depend on it, sir.’”
If this hint could be taken by our war-makers, it might save a large
portion of the miseries which past generations have endured, and which
ours may not otherwise escape.
* * * * *
NEW WORK ON THE EFFECTS OF SEPARATE CONFINEMENT.--We regret that want
of space forbids us to insert in the present number of our Journal
a notice of a volume of 300 pages, published a few weeks since by
Longman & Co., London, entitled, “_Results of the System of Separate
Confinement, as administered at the Pentonville Prison. By John Burt,
B. A., Assistant Chaplain, formerly Chaplain to the Hanwell Lunatic
Asylum._” The positions taken in this volume, and the facts and
arguments by which they are maintained, are such as the opponents of
separation will find it difficult to controvert or rebut.
Suffice it for the present to say, that in the author’s view every
departure from the principle of rigid, individual separation in that
prison, has been attended with evil consequences.
* * * * *
THE ELIZABETH FRY REFUGE--Instituted in London for affording a
Temporary Asylum for Destitute Females on their release from the
Metropolitan and other Gaols, their moral and religious improvement,
and the arranging for their future destination and welfare, was founded
as a memorial to the late Mrs. Elizabeth Fry. It has been in operation
three years, and has admitted above 200 cases, varying in ages from 12
to 35, most of whom have been either provided with situations, restored
to their friends, or sent, after a probationary term, to other asylums;
and it is gratifying to state that comparatively but few cases of
disappointment have occurred.
* * * * *
OHIO LUNATIC ASYLUM.--The Lunatic Asylum at Columbus, (O.,) is now
full, containing upwards of five hundred patients. In 14 years there
have been admitted 2,116 patients, of which 1,038 were discharged
recovered. What is very singular, it is stated that of the number
admitted, 505 were farmers, being more than twelve times the number of
any other occupation, except laborers, of which there were one hundred
and sixty! The next highest on the list is teachers, being 40.
Perhaps the opponents of convict separation will account for this
phenomenon on the ground that farmers are isolated, and have so little
intercourse with any body or thing except oxen, horses or ploughs; but
this would not account for the still more extraordinary proportion of
_teachers_ who (as others might contend) lost their wits for want of
seclusion.
* * * * *