Life, 1917-02-01 · page 11 of 40
Life — February 1, 1917 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This *Life* magazine page satirizes the case of Cable Halstead, a 23-year-old from Poughkeepsie sentenced to 19 years for attacking young women. The article criticizes the justice system's handling of "degenerates," arguing such criminals should remain institutionalized rather than released to society. The top illustration shows two scenes: left depicts violence ("Plighting Their Troth To-day and Yesterday"), while right shows a woman pleading—likely Halstead's mother seeking petition for sentence reduction. The satire targets relatives of criminals who petition for mercy, and argues that rehabilitation is impossible for repeat offenders. The bottom illustration of ordinary citizens ("Among Those Present") suggests society must account for such dangerous individuals in their midst.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ABLE HALSTEAD of Pough- keepsie, twenty-three years old, was sentenced on January 11th to nine- teen years and six months in Sing Sing prison. His offence was criminal at- tacks on two Vassar students and a dozen other young women in Pough- keepsie. He kept that town in a state of terror for weeks by his attacks on young women. Justice Morshauser, who sentenced him, regretted he had not authority to give him a longer term. Evidently the young man is a degenerate, and ought never to be let loose again on society. Harry Thaw’s history, culminating in his attempt at suicide, may be worth the prodigious cost of all his trials and re-trials if it brings about adoption of an intelligent legal method of dealing with such cases: The one well-known case that has been sensibly managed is that of Jesse Pomeroy, in whose behalf PLIGHTING THEIR’ TROTH TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY Keep Degenerates Shut Up there are petitions from time to time for modification of his sentence. Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth has been press- ing such a petition very lately, but Jesse does not get out. Relatives ‘of degenerates ought to be thankful to have them kept in con- finement as long as they live. Mrs. Thaw should have felt grateful for the decision that sent her son to an insane asylum, there to be kept out of mischief. By her unceasing use of money to get her son out of safe hands and turn him loose in a world not safe for him, Mrs, Thaw has herself been a peril to the community. One may pity her; one may pity her son, or Pomeroy, or Halstead; they are all pitiful beings; but to let such unfor- tunate creatures loose, whether they are rich or poor, is utter nonsense, and the law should be adapted to cover such cases much better and a great deal cheaper than it does. “ AMONG THOSE PRESENT” comicbooks.com