Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-12-10
uQSRghlA II NEOTS.
[From the Baltimore Americana
THE CARNIVAL OF CRIME.

IdE CAhN1 AL Op
We are sick of the subject of crime,
weary of the wickedness with which the
land is filed. As journalists, the duty that
devolves upon us daily of looking careful
ly over the columns of our exchanges, has
become in the last degree disheartening.
We read of murders until the very letters
in the printed columns before US appear
bloody, of arsons until the light of confa-
grafton seem to throw its lurid glare through
out the apartment, of crimes yet fouler and
more bestial, until we tremble lest the light
nings of offended Heaven should descend
from cloudless sky and overwhelm the
earth in ruin. There is no escape from the
sad contemplation of violence and outrage
In the cities, the evil passions of men are
running riot. From the country, where
we might suppose the temptation to COM
NIT crime was less powerful from the more
simple life of the people, we hear of con-
tlnual excesses rivalling the worst brutali-
ties of the vilest purlieus of the metropo-
lis. Whoever happens to be in Rome du-
ring the gay week of the Carnival may en-
deavor in vain to stand aloof from the gid
dy whirl and the bewildering excitements
of that festive and frivolous season. He
cannot move without coming in direct con-
tact with the intoxicated merrymakers, he
cannot look into the streets without witnes
sing the absurdities of Harlequin, and if
he shut himself up within doors, the noise
of the revelry will necessarily interrupt his
meditations and disturb his slumbers. Vii
lainy is now celebrating its carnival through
out the United States, everywhere its hor-
rid and sanguinary rites are observed, and
amid the Saturnalia of Sin it is impossible
to get out of the reach of the uproar or to
shut our eyes to the atrocities which are
going on around us. 1t is with real pain
that We sit down to recur to the dreadful
condition of public morals, and in doing so,
we confess We cannot help asking ourselves
to what purpose we write a line What's
the use? Cal 6ouoP Can we hope to
say anything that will lead to amendment?
Dare we believe that our expostulations will
result in the public good Nay, is there
no danger that by constant repetition our
"obvious comment" will lose what little
force it may have in itself, and our inev-
table inference" be utterly disregarded
Alas ! we know not. But the preacher of
Gods word, though he speak to an untow-
ard and wicked generation, does not weary
of declaring the law Of eternal truth, and,
to the praise of the ministry be it mention
ed, has ever, from the day when Paul bold
ly addressed the trembling Felix down to
that on which Massillon openly rebuked
the luxurious Louis, continued to teach the
doctrines of divine revelation under cir
eumstances the most adverse and discoura-
ging. The duty of the press, in our judg-
ment, is only less solemn and imposing than
that of the pulpit, and under a sense of
this duty We write, however hopelessly, to
warn the country against the impending
danger of the hour.
There was time, in the better days of
the Republic, when the occurrence of a
heinous crime startled the whole communi-
ty and turned universal attention to the
spot where it had been enacted. The MUIR
der of the old uncle by the Knapps and
Crowninshield in Massachusetts, was talked
of with horror all over the United States,
long before Daniel Webster had made it
forever memorable by his grand speech for
the prosecution upon the trial. So the af-
fair of Beauchampe in Kentucky was a
topic everywhere discussed in public and
private circles, and such fascination had
it upon the minds of the people that it was
seized upon by the novelist as the founda-
ton of romance. But tragedies like these
are now of weekly happening, and succeed
upon one another with such fearful rapidity
that they are all quickly forgotten. 1t is
only some grotesque and fancifully wicked
homicide that can now create even mo-
mentary impression. Mere stabbings, shoot
ings, poisonings, midnight assassinations,
however largely mingled with the hate in
spired by jealousy, madness or revenge,
have lost the charm of terror The devils
incarnate, branded for the galleys, who
perform an Internal dance through the ex-
citing memoirs of Vidocq, the vulgar scoun-
drels of the Newgate calender, the refined