THE HEATHEN CONVERTING THE CHRISTIAN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1455, 2 April 1873, Page 3

THE HEATHEN CONVERTING THE CHRISTIAN.

It is stated, we know not with what degree of truth, that a society is being organised funds subscribed among thp Sion* ''and Ohippewaa of Montana, Dakota, and Arizona, in the United States^ for the purpose of sending missionaries to New York to convert the inhabitants of that city to the principles of common humanity. It has come to the knowledge of these Indian tribes that. 2000 children are annually tortured to death in that enlightened capital ; that most of these slow murders are perpetrated with the knowledge and connivance of the constituted authorities, and that the means employed are selected with mal|gnant ingenuity, bo as jo protract the sufferings of the victims. These means, it is explained by the New York Tribune, from whence we derive the particulars, "comprise beating, laceration, poisoning by repeated small doses of opium, exposure to contagious diseases

and neglect in subsequent treatment, and slow "starvation. The actual" murderers are of the more ignorant and brutal class, as executioners in all lands, are." It appears that in the year 1870 there were nearly 3000 illegitimate children born ill the city of New York, and the/officia: records show that at least ninety of these died of neglect, ill-treatment ; opium, anc disease. As this sort of itifariticide conic be effected more economically and efficiently by concentrating both the victims and the torturing and murderous applij ances in one large building;- a (< * public; nursery" was established on Randall's Island, and it was in this institution that the children were done to death on a, really grand scale, for in one year the mortality reached 95 per cent of the ad-j missions Whether the humane inten-) tion of the Sioux arid Chippewas will be carried into effect, and if so whether the Indian missionaries will make many converts, remains to be seen.; We fear they will not ; for it is one of the triumphs of civilisation that it begeta an indifference to infant life, and it is oW of the proudest achievements of modern science that it supplies a variety of subtle methods for the "taking off" of what society denominates "the surplus population." In fact, some of the wealthiest; physicians in New York and other largej cities derive their magnificent incomes; from practice of this kind among the opulent classes, But, in any event, the movement is creditable to the Indians.; The white men have expended large sums of money in efforts to evangelise the red men, and it will be an act of delicate gratitude on the part of the latter to endeavor to humanise the pale faces. \