Not long since, in New York, a policeman, about 11 o’clock at night, was surprised to find the front door of a jewelry store, in Broadway, unlocked, and on entering he found a boy named Joseph Bascom, seventeen years of age, employed by the firm, tied down upon a bed and gagged. After being released, the boy said that about ten o’clock, shortly after the store was closed, he heard a rap at the door, and supposing that one of the clerks had returned for something, opened it, when three men rushed in, one of whom threw a large sheet over his face, while the other two grasped him by the throat, and after gagging him, took him to the bed and fastened him there, his head all the time being covered. After this he heard them open the safe, and in a short time they left. The officer doubted this plausible story, and subjected him to a severe cross-questioning, which resulted in Bascom confessing that the whole affair was contrived by himself and another lad named Primrose! They obtained an impression of the safe key, and selected the time when the holiday stock was in store for the commission of the robbery. Bascom admitted his accomplice after the store was closed, and then laid down upon the bed and was gagged and tied by him. Their plan was a success, and $15,000 worth of goods were taken from the safe. The police were soon on the track of Primrose, whom they followed to the establishment of a well known receiver of stolen goods named Schwartzwelder, who, with Primrose, was arrested. On searching the place all the stolen goods were recovered.
Ought a criminal of this stamp to be sent to a reformatory school? Is he to be regarded as no more depraved and desperate than a truant, or an insubordinate child? If he is sent there, should they be?
Compromising with Rogues—In a former number of this Journal, we entered somewhat at large into the mischievous consequences of concealing or winking at, or compromising deliberate, overt, criminal acts. A clerk in a store abuses his master’s confidence, by abstracting money from letters or purloining letters containing remittances—he being entrusted with the duties of mail clerk. The fraud has been practiced for weeks, and the adroitness with which it was perpetrated and the ingenuity displayed in concealing the disposition of the funds, evinces a singularly depraved disposition. The father or friends interpose, and a public prosecution is avoided. The young scape-grace is sent from the country, and having unusual shrewdness and audacity, succeeds in winning confidence. He writes home and tells of his good fortune, and hope is excited that his ways are reformed; but soon a bolder and deeper game of villainy is played, and the scene again changes, but with the same result. At last, however, he is brought to the bar of public justice, and now a revelation is made of the successive steps in his downward path. Each of the delinquencies has its witnesses and victims; but silence has been volunteered, or purchased, or imposed, and so the reckless career has been encouraged. This is not a fictitious case and it may serve to introduce an illustration of this misconceived leniency which has lately been made public. A man of glib tongue and imposing appearance, professes to be a physician. He takes up his residence in one of our suburban districts, and, in process of time, is guilty of gross malpractice. To avoid an exposure of his ignorance and cruelty, he pays the injured parties $1200 and removes to another part of the country. There he defrauds a bank of $1,000, but the evidence is not absolutely conclusive, and upon his refunding the amount the bank forbears to prosecute. By-and-by he is arrested for a felonious assault on a female patient, (the wife of a college student who wishes to conceal the fact of his marriage,) and so the offence is hushed up. Next he marries the widow of a man who had died suddenly while he was in professional attendance upon him, swindles her out of her property and then abandons her. He now turns his attention particularly to the practice of procuring abortions. Three young women, who, to hide their shame, put themselves under his care, died at his house during one summer, and not many weeks apart. And not long ago, he was convicted of manslaughter, in causing the death of a young woman who had resorted to him for the same inhuman purpose, and of this he was convicted and sentenced for it.
It turns out that the man is a native of Ireland, and that his name was assumed. He was sentenced to the Penitentiary, but who can tell how soon he may be liberated by an improvident pardon, and find himself in full practice, under some other name, and in some unsuspicious community?
Why was not his character properly exposed, when, by successive criminal acts, its settled traits were discovered, at least so far as to put the unwary on their guard?
Consumption of Intoxicating Drinks.—Some persons have flattered themselves and the public that there has been a sensible decrease of the consumption of ardent spirits in the British Empire, but it is confidently affirmed that the population statistics and excise returns show a very different state of things. In 1821, the population of England and Wales was 11,978,875, and they consumed 7,261,581 gallons of spirits. In 1856, the population was estimated at 20,000,000, and they consumed 13,964,284 gallons, besides over 600,000,000 of ale and beer. In 1821, the population of Scotland was 2,093,456, and they consumed 2,558,285 gallons of spirits. In 1856, a population of 3,000,000 consumed 7,402,643 gallons. The population of Ireland in 1821, was 6,780,826, and they consumed 3,340,472 gallons of spirits. The population in 1856, about the same as in 1821 (famine and pestilence having taken off 1,500,000 of consumers), they consumed 6,936,938 gallons of spirits. We apprehend the state of the case is but little, if any, better in these United States.
Prisons and Prisoners in South Carolina.—In his late message to the Legislature, the Governor of South Carolina suggests the propriety of making a breach of trust a higher offence than larceny, and making the punishment equal, if not more severe. He thinks their system of discipline needs reform, (of which, we apprehend, no intelligent citizen can doubt,) and he justly complains that, while witnesses are subject to close confinement, prisoners held on criminal charges, have the free range of the prison!