The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1858-01-30
The BOnEanti AAray-Fast Young Meh
The Police.

The BOnfant1 A0ray-Fast AOu"S
The Police.
A few days since our reporter gave, III tht
local column Of this paper, an account Oh al
affray OH Monday evening, the loth inst'' ~
the Old Napoleon Saloon on ST. An'hony
Street opposite the American HOTEL II
which a youug American named CHARLIE;
BoNFANrI, whilst in a state of lntoxlcation
pursued a comrade with revolver; and
when policemen GAVIN and MAHER inter
posed To arrest him, resisted the Lo,c i'll the
persons of its officers, by thrice firing upon
the frst-named policeman, and at the last
fire slightly wounding him in finger of his
right hand, just 'as he put his gloved hand
on the muzzle of the pistol to knock it to
one side" 'At this stage (says the Pionee'
report) officer MAHER knocked BoNFANTI
down and gave him an unmercitut beating.
The prisoner was then taken to jail, and on
Thursday had his examination before Police
Justice SIMoNs, who bound him over in the
sum of $4,000 to take his trial, for assault
with intent to kill, at the next term of the
District Court for this county.
Such is the melancholy termination of a
"spree" in which, with other fast bloods, the
accused, young man of education and re-
spectacle training, finds himself in danger of
a felon's fate for simply giving away to an
abuse of his appetites, and while mad with
liquor threatening the life of his cOmrade,
and resisting the majesty and the officers of
the law
We trust this affair will prove warning
to our fast young men how they "put an en-
emy in their mouths to steal away their
brains )" and warning also against the dan
gerous practice growing too common in mod
ern times, of habitually carrying revolvers
and other deadly weapons which a moment
of angry passion or drunken madness may
tempt to the Use Of unnecessarily and for
light and trialng causes. Rum and revolvers
invariably form dangerous conjunction of
and death and disgrace, and some
times both, are frequently the result of the
In the case in question which gives point
to these remarks while we feel sorry for the
predicament in which the friends of Mr..
BoSFANrI see him p ced by his own insane
act we must acquiesce in the business of
that law which will undoubtedly infict a
punishment upon him calculated to deter
both himself and others from those excessive
indulgences of appetite which turn men into
fools in mind and into wild beasts in action.
Drunkenness is small excuse for such acts
and the penalty of the law should net be the
less sternly, surely, promptly inflicted for
crime committed whilst drunk from drink,
than when perpetrated in the drunkenness
Of passion.
In the isles of the Indian Ocean, amongst
he people called Malays, who are semi
DarbarouS race, the practice is common of
eating an intoxicating drug which inspires
hem, when used to excess, with desperate
erocious madness, under the influence of
which they "run a muck" with drawn
:reeses, as their curved swords are termed,
into every crowd of people they see, and
stab kill or wound every person they come
across in their wild career.
Now suppose in this country, men should
deliberately swallow such drug, knowing
what their conduct would prob
ably be whilst under its peculiar influence
should the law excuse the crimes they might
IN consequence commit under the plea that
they were mad and did not know what they
we're doing?
A universal answer in the negative must
be given.
And this leads to another conclusion.-
Every man knows pretty nearly his own
and is aware how he would
act when greatly in liquor; and if he knows
It makes him reckless, pugnacious or de-
structive, he ought 10 more to touch the in
draught than he would the Malay's
But if knowingly he drinks,
and the poison circulating through his veins,
inspires him to bludgeon or shoot his fellow
citizen, neither sympathy nor impunity can
be claimed for him by himself or his friends
And the more edu cation he possess, the bet
ter training he has received, the higher his
obligation was to have restrained his appe-
tites, and the deeper his offense against the
nd
either whilst under the effects of the premed.
itated insanity of rum! Therefore we hope,
that while all due mercy will temper the JUS
tice meeted out TO Mr.. BoNFANrI, justice will
nevertheless strike boldly and surely him, as
we'll as all other offenders in this way. The
protection of society demands it.
But though we have no justification for
Mr.. BoNFANrI's conduct, in drinking to ex-
cess with revolver in his pocket, when he
knew from the past his failing of recklessly
.esorting to it whilst under such influences,
We desire to call attention to the remarks of
the reporter of the Pioneer, that the police
nan MAHER, after he had knocked BoNFANrI
lown gave him an unmercifM beating."-
That is, he beat him Without mercy! That
S, when the two policemen had this young
man disarmed-rrostrate on the ground
where he had been "knocked"- weakness
Of drunkenness unnerving him-wholly in
their power-two great men to one almost
BOY, and more help within call, if they need
ed it-one Of these Celtic-Irish ministers of
the law vented hi spite, or gratifed his
cruelty upon the defenseless human form w.
ing before them, by Numerically" striking,
beating, humping, abusing it
oJnmercyaNy!-this implies brutally. Un-
',ercitatly!-this means cruelty Numerically!
that is, without forbearance or stint. Uaa-