A Boy Unjustly Sent to Prison
By Editor
The St. Albans (Vt.) Weekly Messenger of July 6 gives an account of a boy of nine years who had been found in the penitentiary, clothed in convicts' garb, the daily associate of abandoned criminals, and yet there was no charge of crime against him. It appears that his unnatural mother had taken a dislike to him, had "neglected and shamefully abused him," while caring for her two others, and, on the plea of inability, had him committed to the poor-house. From the wretched asylum the boy escaped three times to get back to his brother and sister, to be sent back each time by a heartless judge. He finally escaped again, and this same judge consigned him, because of his love for his wretched home, the penitentiary. Had the boy been in reality a criminal, he would doubtless have been sent to some reform school and taught a useful trade, "but," says the Messenger, "as he has been guilty of nothing worse than running away from a place where there was not the least justification of sending him," "a prison was decided to be the proper place. He had done absolutely nothing to warrant the least punishment; was only a poor, ill-treated, homesick little fellow." The spirit of this judge well illustrates what may be expected in many places when this nation is more fully rigged out in the matter of religious laws. This mother, this judge, deserve—well, we leave it with God. It is just such things as these which make us glad that God lives and reigns, and that he will sometime execute judgment and justice.