Broadside entitled 'Awful Cruelty'

Transcription

Second   Edition.

AWFUL CRUELTY.

Account of the cruel and inhuman treatment of a child, by its own Father, of
the name of M'Gregor, or Rogers, residing in Kirkintilloch, who kept the
child in an empty barrel for some years, till he was more like one of the
monkey species than a human being, and for whole days without any food,
striking and abusing him in the most unmerciful manner, ordering him to be
cast in to the swine; on his body were marks as if the child had been burned
in the fire! he was covered with wounds and his feet were swollen, and large
blue blisters on them; his loins and thighs were skinless, and he exhibited
altogether a deplorable instance of culpable neglect and savage cruelty.

Cruelty.?We have been informed that, in the neighbourhood of Kirkintil-
loch there has been found a young boy, who has been concealed for years in
a meal-barrel, aud fed on the coarsest of food, by its father, a conntry labou-
rer, whose name is Rogers. When seen by Mr Fleming, one of the crimi-
nal officers of the police establishment, the child was dreadfully emaciated.
The Sheriff is making investigation into the circumstances.--Chronicle.

Further Particulars from the same paper.?Upwards of two years ago, a
labouring man in the neighbourhood of Kirkintilloch had a child sent home
to him by the mother, which his relations seem to be so much ashamed that
in order to conceal it from their neighbours, they kept in a meal-barrel. The
position in which it was compelled to crouch and compress itself was such as
to render it completely deformed?its knees almost on a level with its head,
while its emaciated frame renders it an object of pity. It speaks not, but
chatters like a monkey in distress. Death, and not preservation, seems too
evidently to have been the object of those noder whose charge it was placed.
The manner by which it was discovered was merely accidental. A neighbour
happened to call in to talk a little, in passing, when, to his astonishment, a
thing, to use his own words, awful and unearthly came creeping out, utter-
iug cries different from any human creature. He knew not what it was; but
this he knew, that he was terribly feared; and the other person seemed to be
as much confused as he was, for, on sceing it approach, he rose hurriedly,
gave it a kick, and ordered it back to its place, as if it had been a dog. The
visitor, however, seeing distinctly that it was not a dog, went and gave infor-
mation to the authorities, by whom an examination is now instituted.

A friend of ours, who visited the place where the child is, says that he was
completely horror struck when he entered the apartment, on Sunday last,-
The child, he says, had been led on potato-skins, and was a mere skeleton,
being more like a monkey than a human being, hair covering a great part of
the body. It is said, the sums contributed for the support of the child, by
visitors, on Sunday, amounted to two pounds seventeen shillings.

The child was discovered by, the neighbours to be harshly used, receiving
no attention from the hands of its parent, but unmerciful beatings and never
taken into bed, although the wife had no child of her own, but allowed to lie
at the fireside on a miserable shake-down. In consequence of this treatment
the child rapidly lost strength; and in a short time, from being a well-condi-
tioned boy, he exhibited a cadaverous hue and an attenuated form, searceiv
left him a vestige of the human appearance. His unnatural protectors have
frequently, day after day, in the house himself, with the door locked,and have
returned at one o'clock in the morning from Glasgow, while the frightened ann
wretched child wearied with crying, has been ordered to his pallet, without a
bit of bread. Previous to leaving his nurse he could say small words, such
as ' aye, and no,' but under this horrible neglect, and atrocious usage, he
soon ceased to speak a word, and now the only sounds he can utter resemble
the grunt of the sow, which fitly formed one of the household.

Many are the statements made regarding the conduct of the parents wreak-
ing their vengeance and spleen upon the devoted head of their unhappy
child; and even now, though improved by the fostering care of his present
nurse, there are marks upon his body add llmbs that bear out all that has been
stated even to the burning of the child on the flre! She states that when she
received him, by permission of the father, about a fortnight ago, the child was
by all the world line a monkey without hair; he was covered with wounds,
and his feet were swollen, and large blue blisters were upon them. There
were also marks upon the belly, and he had a peculiar way of sitting, as if he
had been accustomed to lie and sit on a barrel, his loins and thighs were also
skinless! and he exhibited altogether a deplorable instance of culpable neglect
and savage cruelty. Now though his skin is healed, save a severe eut on the
head, his appearance is truly pitiable; starvation and brutality have so strongly
marked him, that while his shrunken figure shows but an infantile size, his
comparatively old and intelligent face rather startles the beholder. Have the
authorities nothing to do with the father?

Muir, Printer, Glasgow.

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