The Daily Phoenix

Of all the political newspapers at the North, Harper's Weekly is doing more to keep up the unhappy strife between the two sections than any other. Professing to be "a journal of civilization," it has presented to its readers, in its wood cuts, lying representations of acts of barbarism alleged to have been committed at the South, which its pious proprietors knew to be false, when their artists brought in their abominable caricatures. Now, here is a subject for the pencil of the artist who leads in this branch of illustration. It is taken from the New York Herald:

On Prince street, New York, there is an asylum for orphans and destitute children, under the care of the Sisters of Charity, where girls are maintained from childhood till they are able to fulfil a situation in life and "do for themselves." One little girl, named Mary Ann Farrell, thirteen years old, was taken from this house, on the 9th of May last, by a Mr. Vanderbilt, residing in Pleasantville, about six miles from Hackensack, to perform general house-work. Some months after, the new home began to prove uncomfortable for the girl, and she received very bad treatment, which she could not disclose to any one, being locked up, if she desired to go out. The poor creature was at times stripped naked, tied up by the wrists, and in this manner, she states positively, was lashed with a whip by Mr. Vanderbilt till her tender flesh was completely mangled. Horrible as this may seem, the torments to which she was subjected afterwards were more acute. Mrs. Vanderbilt, who had been a calm spectator of the bloody process, applied, according to the girl's statement, what she understood to be a pickle dipped in salt to the bleeding wounds, which inflicted the most intense agony. Last Wednesday, the girl expected to be placed, as usual, on the rack; and watching an opportunity, providentially vouchsafed to her, she made her escape, and took refuge for the night under the shade of some trees, where she was picked up in a prostrate and fainting condition. She then related the horrible details of the cruelties inflicted on her, which so aroused the indignation of the hearers that a resolution was formed to proceed to Vanderbilt's and lynch him forthwith, "unshrived and unshrouded," but the execution of the plan was frustrated by the Roman Catholic pastor of Hackensack, who threatened to denounce the individuals connected with it. The girl's statement is borne out to the letter by the revolting appearance she presented. Her head is covered with small lumps, her teeth displaced, the white of the eyes hardly discernible, the face swollen and deformed, the lips split, and the remainder of her body one mass of scars. Her under-clothing, which had not been changed for a long time, was thoroughly saturated with blood and purulent matter. She is now under medical treatment, but her condition is likely to be hopeless. She was handsome and interesting, and bore an excellent character in the asylum, where she had been for eight years. Vanderbilt and his wife were arrested by order of Justice Breckel, and the case will come before the grand jury, at Hackensack, this morning.