The true Democrat., 1857-03-24
From the N. r. Day Book. Detailed Descriptions of Crime Propapate if


 Gan there be a reasonable doubt, says the Newark Advertiser, that crime tends to propa- gate itself? And how Is this effected? Of course by spreading information of 1t. That iS the way good deeds and influences the Gospel included, are diffused. These are made known. published to men. The consequence is im- provement, standardization. When an enor- nous fraud Is committed, horrible murder perpetrated, If all the particulars are scattered far and wlde, do they not preach fraud and murder, good books in their way do virtue and religion? We cannot doubt, that an un- limited, unnecessary exposure of vice and crime serves to create vicious and criminal people,
 This IS the reason that certain classes of crimes sometimes are epedemic as much so almost as contagious disease The moral atmosphere Is tainted, for instance, wi;b de- tails day after day ot the Bond street assassi nation. The way in which that accomplished scoundrel, Edward Agar succeeded in robbng the South Eastern Railway, in England of a large quantity Of gold Of which oliense ne and three others, who were in the employment of the road, were convicted, has in all it's enter talnlng details been spread before an admiriny as well as astonished public. Does a story oi oi so much boldness and ingenuity nfuse no poison into the veins of society? No doubt 1t will by such publicity be productive of mita- tors, just as the story of any other successful speculation is to stimulate to a similar advan- tage. The appetite for garroting grows, too by what 1t feeds on. A particular description 'of the various ways In which this atrocious crime IS and may at any time be performed, has been largely circulated Tn the papers. Have not that and other details of these outrages which only need an efficient police and deter aOinnl m otrist trata ta .L. 1t into the minds of vagrants and outlaws to practice upon this gainful teaching?
 Every new phase of crime, not absolutely new, indeed, for there Is scarcely any such. but every species that has not bees common for anany years, should be met by energetic and lnfexlble action on the part of the magistracy, including also the pardoning power. Especially should this be the case, when 1t has tendency to become epidemic. Nothing but prompt and rigid justice Is needed for its repression. Dis. ease does not need prompter handling, than crirne, for It Is not less infectious As to this last assertion, II It needed any support it could have It from experience and history. Who has not read ot the effects produced upon society m Ehgiand by the performance of the Beggar's Vpera by Cray. Young men were so fascinated by It, With the romantic life Of highway rob- Der, that they went out for sometime in nun. bers upon Blackheath to try the actual experi- ment, and It was not without some difficulty and many executions, that the fashion was suppressed.
 The publication of the immoral story of Jack Sheperd had a similar effect And what Is to the point Is, that the specific felonies ex- posed and dwelt on by the press or by public exhibitions, are the very ones that are prop agated by those mears.
 The public morals no doubt are impaired in the general. but the poison seems to run in the channels pointed out and ma e popular before hand by description and ilIustration.-Licen- uouS pictures be,ong to the same category.
 It Is in vain to hope that society will be dis. gnsted by the descriptions of crime, and there fore shun It. On the conarary, they are never dsgusted, but only instructed. They will flock around of murder like that in Bond street, or about a gaows in thousands, like buzzards over a carcass l: because the for mer love the sight as much as the other do the taste and thereby not unfrequeutly learn to re- fish and indulge both.