Warning: Spoilers Included
Thanks for stopping by the discussion page for The Poisoned Glass!
I’d love to hear your thoughts about The Poisoned Glass, including Jennie and her family, Paterson, the murder and investigation, the sentence and punishment the men received. People often comment about the conditions in the mills and women going to work, and safety.
Some of the most interesting topics people talk about include:
- Were all the men (Walter McAlister, George Kerr, William Death, and Andrew Campbell) equally guilty?
- Was their punishment fair?
- How much weight did their wealth carry?
- Why were some people willing to take the men’s side after the assault and murder?
- Why were the people of Paterson–Dr. Townsend and the saloonkeeper Saal, for instance–unwilling to expose the men?
- Did Sculthorpe deserve any blame?
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old spirituals 
I always kind of felt like Andrew Campbell was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I didn’t feel like he was an active player. But he certainly didn’t stop it, either. So, that’s something to consider.
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I felt the same way about Andrew! I thought he was intimidated by McAlister and looking to Kerr to stop everything. I’m also aware that if he turned them in, or tried to get help for Jennie, it probably wouldn’t have been seen as an acceptable reaction in that time and place. I don’t think his punishment should have been the same as Death or McAlister…
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