Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Psychology, Crime, Human Development

    Identifying himself as a 'medical man', the narrrator discusses a report of a young girl who had been remanded in a police station for 'stripping children of their clothes', one child perishing after being stripped of practically every item of clothing. Hopes that the girl will not be punished and suggests that her actions may have been prompted by 'the beauty of the undraped infantine figure' at the Crystal Palace, or a compulsion to clothe the less 'well-cared-for' children, or a feeling of revenge on the children's parents, or the need to sell the clothes in exchange for a Christmas present.