MORE ABUSE OF SAILORS
Yesterday afternoon a Commission was engaged in the United States District Court room, taking testimony in the criminal proceedings instituted against Luther Hopkins, Master of the American ship Carlisle, for brutally treating Andrew Anderson, one of the ship's crew. The affidavit of the prosecuting witness states that on the 2d April, 1864, Captain Hopkins cruelly beat him with a belaying pin, while he was sick, inflicting serious injuries on him; and also, on the 27th April, Anderson being still sick Hopkins, the defendant, beat him on the head with a belaying pin; and again, on the 27th June, still being an invalid, he was beaten with a heavy, knotted rope, more than twenty blows, by the Captain of the vessel, who also caused him to be bitten by a dog. Poor Jack seeks redress and protection in a United States Court. When the Captain marshals his subordinates, from first officer down to forty-ninth cook, all dependent on him for the tenure of their dignities, they will with one voice swear they never saw the Captain do any such thing - blind as bats - while the poor victim felt it sensibly, and his quaking comrades in the forecastle saw it distinctly enough. It would be a hard thing should a Captain be punished for merely killing a sailor or two, as a matter of pastime.
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