Of what followed we cannot write, and we shiver as we draw a veil over scenes that should make the heart of all Christendom ache—­scenes that are repeated in thousands of instances year by year in our large cities, and no hand is stretched forth to succor and no arm to save.  Under the very eyes of the courts and the churches things worse than we have described—­worse than the reader can imagine—­are done every day.  The foul dens into which crime goes freely, and into which innocence is betrayed, are known to the police, and the evil work that is done is ever before them.  From one victim to another their keepers pass unquestioned, and plunder, debauch, ruin and murder with an impunity frightful to contemplate.  As was said by a distinguished author, speaking of a kindred social enormity, “There is not a country throughout the earth on which a state of things like this would not bring a curse.  There is no religion upon earth that it would not deny; there is no people on earth that it would not put to shame.”

And we are Christians!

No.  Of what followed we cannot write.  Those who were near the “Hawk’s Nest” heard that evening, soon after nightfall, the single wild, prolonged cry of a woman.  It was so full of terror and despair that even the hardened ears that heard it felt a sudden pain.  But they were used to such things in that region, and no one took the trouble to learn what it meant.  Even the policeman moving on his beat stood listening for only a moment, and then passed on.

Next day, in the local columns of a city paper, appeared the following: 

“FOUL PLAY.—­About eleven o’clock last night the body of a beautiful young girl, who could not have been over seventeen years of age, was discovered lying on the pavement in——­street.  No one knew how she came there.  She was quite dead when found.  There was nothing by which she could be identified.  All her clothes but a single undergarment had been removed, and her hair cut off close to her head.  There were marks of brutal violence on her person.  The body was placed in charge of the coroner, who will investigate the matter.”

On the day after, this paragraph appeared: 

“SUSPICION OF FOUL PLAY.—­The coroner’s inquest elicited nothing in regard to the young girl mentioned yesterday as having been found dead and stripped of her clothing in——­street.  No one was able to identify her.  A foul deed at which the heart shudders has been done; but the wretches by whom it was committed have been able to cover their tracks.”

And that was the last of it.  The whole nation gives a shudder of fear at the announcement of an Indian massacre and outrage.  But in all our large cities are savages more cruel and brutal in their instincts than the Comanches, and they torture and outrage and murder a hundred poor victims for every one that is exposed to Indian brutality, and there comes no succor.  Is it from ignorance of the fact?  No, no, no!  There is not a Judge on the bench, not a lawyer at the bar, not a legislator at the State capital, not a mayor or police-officer, not a minister who preaches the gospel of Christ, who came to seek and to save, not an intelligent citizen, but knows of all this.