New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-05
A SINGULAR CASE-TIE TREATMENT OF CRIME
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SlNuULAH CASE-lHE 1KEAIMENI Uf CIuME.
A correspondent in Wyoming Co. sends
us an account of case Of mental malady, moral
halucination, or whatever it my be called, which
lately occurred in that region, and which may
suggest some useful reflections for the student of
spiritual pathology.
Something over a year since, the people of
quiet district of that county were startled with
report charging the crime of theft upon the wife
of one of the most esteemed citizens of the place.
What rendered the charge still more exciting, was
the fact that both the accuser and the accused
were members OF the same church, and both Of
hitherto untainted reputation. A suit for SANDER
was the consequence but before the trial came
on, such was the difficulty in the way of justify
ing, and such the drift of public opinion in favor
Of the accused, that, yielding to the advice of
counsel, the defendant, who was also woman,
proposed terms of settlement, and procured a re-
lease from prospective damages by paying the
plaintiff some forty dollars to discontinue the suit
Meanwhile, the church took up the matter and
tried the accuser, who seemed thus wrongfully to-
charge her sister with so grave an offense. On
this ecclesiastical trial the accuser adhered to her
IL,
expelled from the communion of the society AT.
ter this, the accused went before the Grand Jury
OF the county and made an earnest endeavor to
procure an indictment against her accuser for per-
jury. But this failed, and for some time the DO
sition of the parties remained unchanged-the ac-
cused justified by the church and the world. and
the accuser eclipsed by suspicion of perjury, and
In disgrace among those she had been wont to
love and honor as brethren and sisters.
But suddenly, from some cause not fully ex.
planned, the accused party, after having trumphed
over the accusation and its author, has confessed
the trath of the charge. She admits too. that il
Is true not only in the single case alleged but that
Tor years she has been in the habit Of plfering. A
person OF good education and respectable con-
nectlons, she was in the possession of ample means
to SATISFY every desire, and stole merely to crafty
an irresistible passion. What she took she used
to destroy Immediately aiterward. Though
haunted by the keenest sense Of sin in the act.
ana wont before goipg where she might be tempted
TO commit it, to retire to her closet, and on her
knees and with tears Of agony streaming down her
checks, to mplore the help of Heaven to subdue
the propensity, she still perpetrated the oaense
on every occasion.
On this confession, the husband Of the unfortu-
nate woman fastened to make restitution to all suf
ferers. Our correspondent adds, that in this sore
affection he is sustained by the sympathy of all
who know the parties.
We recoect several similar instances of ha-
btual theft occurring within the past twenty
wears in Albany, Boston, this City and other
places. They would seem to require modlica-
ton of the usual view of crime and TO suggest
more humane treatment of its perpetrators. In