Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1875 — The Protection of Children. [ARTICLE]

The Protection of Children.

At last the man has appeared who has humanitarianism enough to take active pleasures for the rescue of little children from the perils to which they are barbarously subjected m the tight-rope and trapeze performances at the variety theaters all over the country. That man is Bergh, of whom the cheap stock joke has been that his humanity extended only to brutes. Last Saturday, at the Tivoli Theater, New York, just as the “ infant prodigy, Leo,” —a child six years of age—was .about to be sent upon the stage to go through his “thrilling” performance on thte ''tightrope, Mr. Bergh appeared on the scene' with a couple of policemen, and the reputed father —who pockets the profits of the child’s engagements—was locked up, while the latter was removed . from the ..theater, and, doubtless, will be placed in charge of a guardian by the court. The best feature of the w’hole affair, perhaps, was that the audience attracted there to witness the thrilling performance—the thrilling part of which consisted in the chances of the child’s falling and meeting a horrible death—instead of hissing, applauded Mr. Bergh. The like barbarous exhibitions are given in nearly every city in the United States, and it is to be trusted, now that Mr. Bergh has taken the initiative, those will be found everywhere who in like manner will interfere to put a stop to them. There should be in every State a statute severely punishing both the parents and the managers who thus speculate on the wanton imperiling of the lives of children. But even without such statutes the courts everywhere, in exercise of their general power as guardians of minors, will, on application, interfere and remove these children from the custody of such unnatural protectors, and place them in control of guardians answerable to the court for their care of the little ones.— Chicago Tribune.