HOW MURDERERS ARE. TREATED IN NEW YORK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3184, 20 April 1872, Page 3

HOW MURDERERS ARE. TREATED IN NEW YORK.

(The (Jrapluc. J

"Gentlemen" awaiting their trial- for murder at New York seem to have uncommonly easy times of it. At all events they suffer from none of the inconveniences of which the Brighton poisoner, Christiana Edmunds, so birterly complained on her removal from Lewes gaol to Newgate. Of " Mr" Stokes, who shot " Fisk," for instance, we read that " his cell has been most handsomely fitted up," that " a new spring mattress and bedclothing" have heen substituted " for the coarse prison articles," that the apartment is " richly carpeted," that its walls are "prettily papered and hung with fine pictures," and that "in fact, it now looks more like a lady's boudoir than a cell in the Tombs "—" the Tombs" being the name by which the common pVison of New York is known. Moreover, "Mr " Stokes is "interviewed" by representatives of the New York press, and holds i levees of his friends. The first thing | "Mr" Stokes does in the morning is to "get up," and "partially make his toilet." Then he "partakes in solitude —though how he can "partake" when only himself is present is a mystery—" of a recherche breakfast;" after which he "peruses the morning papers with evident interest, a smile or a frown playing over his features according as the news is appreciated or disliked by him." The papers done with, he is waited upon by a friseur who "shaves, combs, and curls" him, and next appears his valet, who completes his toilet. After this the newspaper " interviewers" are admitted, and are privileged to hear how the great man spent the night. Photographers and artists from illustrated papers folknv, and the business of the day being thus got through, a general levee is held of Mr Stokes's personal friends, and "even of strangers who. enjoy the privilege of presentation." Dinner and a " quiet I hand at euchre in the evening" complete the round of the day's enjoyments.

A correspondent of the Times, protesting against the paraphernalia of feathers, velvets, mutes, pages, &c, admits that while there are few whose feelings do not revolt against the mummery which has somehow,come to he considered the proper manifestation of sorrow and of respect for the dead, it is scarcely possible to resist the exactions of the trade which lives by promoting it.