The Mother Of Criminals

In the meeting held yesterday oï tne State Charities Aid Associatiofi, Dr. Harris bronght forward Bome of the most re-narkable statistics whioh have over been obtained in the soienoe of criminal reform. Whi!e reading of the efforts of the Prison Association, the attention of the doctor as called to a county on the Upper Hudson, where there was a remarkable proportion of crime and poverty to the whole population. The county contained but one town and only small villages, with a population of Bome 40,000 ; yet the number of paupers in its almshouse was 480, or about 1 in 80, not ! ing a considerable nnmber assisted by out-door relief. TMs proportion is probably gre iter than that of London or Paria, but of this we cannot be certain, owiug to the detective method j everywhero adopted in the statistics of ; pauperism oL enumerating names as persons. It is certain, however, that the proportion of paupers and nals in the county is alarmingly great. Tlie attention of the dootor -wa? ed to certain names which everywhere appeared in the crimirial and j house records of the county, and he i ■was Jed to follow up the trace3 of tain families. These again seemed to be connected, and he was induced to searoh still further the genealogies of these families. The results will remain as permanent and most startling faots in the history of crime and its eoncequences. It should be understood by our readers that ordinarily it is extreniely difflcult to traca the deseent of a criminal family. In cities, such families become broken up, and their membeis are scattered everywhere. In villages, though their Hne3 of descent may be followed, yet the retributivo laws of Providence usually Ciirry the effects of crime only " to the third or fourth generation," and thon the race comes to an end through physieal and moral degenera tion, the final members being comparatively idiots, imbéciles, lunatic, 1 and. in some countries, cretina. It happened, however, in this oounty, that the physical vigor of the ( particular family traced, preserved ome of its member3 for their evil , tiny, and enabled the investigator to trace them during six generations of j wiekednesB and niisery. Some seyenty years ago a young gir) named"Margaret " was lef t, adrift in one of these villages- it does not appear -whether throngh the crime or misfortune of others. There was no almshouse in the place ; but she was a subject of outdoor relief, probably receiving occasionall food "and clothing f rom the officials, but never educated, and never kindly theltered in a homo. She becamo the inother of a long race of crimináis and paupers, and her progeny has cursed the county ever since. The eounty records show 200 of her descendauts who havo been crimináis. In one single generation of her unhappj line, there were twenty children ; oL these, three died in infancy, and seventeen survived to maturity. Of the seventeeD, nine served in Stat prisons for high crimes an aggregate term of fifty years, whila the others were frequent 'inniates of jails, penitentiaries and almshouses. OL the 900 descendants, through six generaíions, frtm this unhappy girl who was left on the village streets and abandoned in her childhood, a great number have been idiots, imbéciles, drunkarus, lunática, paupers aud prostitutca ; but 200 oL the more vif?üroua are on record aa crimináis. This neglected little child has thus cost the ootinty anthorities, in tho effeots slie has tranamitted, hundreds of thousanda of dollars in the expense and care of crimináis and paupers, besides the untold datnage she has inflictcd on propviety and public moráis. When we think of tbc multitude of ■wretcht-cl beings she has left upou the earth ; oi the suffering, degradation, ignorance I and crime that one ohild has tima IvauBmitted : of the evü she has cauHet to thonsatuls of innocent families, and the loss to the coramuiiity, ro can all feebly aparecíate the iniportance to tho public of the care and cducation of a single pauper ohild. - New York Times. The rabbit forma au important artiole of food in Great Britain and Irelund. In addition to tho very largo nunabar imported from the Continent, it. is tstimated thero are annually bred for for 27,000,000 rabbits. The fleah is Bold at an average rate of twelve cents (gokl) per ponnd, whiek is fully a third less than the ptico of beef, and considerubly nnder that of the choicer portions of the sheeri. The value of the Huaual tjuppiy is estimated to be. $7,875,000.