The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-04-01

Frofa the BaluInore Amoroan, March 81
1t Is said that the improvement ia all tho mechanical
contiyances 10 take away life Is the best security the
world can have Tor the continuance Of peace, The insen-
ton Of u machine that would XIII a hundred thousand
men at a discharge would go far towards inducing the few
thousand war-makers, who play with the lives of mil
lions, 10 adopt a more peaceful mode Of settling disputed
questions. But the rule does not seem 10 apply 10 less
stupendous inventions. Breeoh-loadiDg guns, which can
be loaded and discharged Ia a second on two, aud which
can send a haii-oance ball with murdcrous precision to a
fabulous distance. DO not operate ~ an Argument against
war. Austria has four or five hundred thousand men,
each one armed with a good rife, and each one able 10
shay an enemy half a mile OF yet Sardinia has pushed
her out postst 10 the banks Of a narrow separating river,
within short range, and the opposing sentlies glare at
each other across Its waters defiant aud menacing. III
these we'll armed soldiers should meet on the battle field,
there viii be more slaughter. ia proportion to the num-
beers engaged in the conflict, than Ut any previous period
Of the worlds history.
Probably the revolver Is ~ perfect a weapon for It's size
as can be invented. The single barrel with six rcyoiv-
ing chambers is capable of sending six bullets through
the body of a man at the usual fighting distance. TWEEN
ty years ago, when frontier fighting men wore o pistol
under one side Of their vest and q bowie under tie other,
it WAS u common expression s'down South that Ii the
first shot missed the game was up, az the butchery that
ensued whom knives were produced made one or two
deaths pretty certain. But in our day we cannot tell how
long an enemy is going TO pepper us with bullets. he
has a couple of six-shooters, we may expect q dozen balls
In as many seconds. But the excellence Of the weapon
has not made broils less frequent in their recurrence.
There seems to be a peculiar fascination about the rcdec-
ton that we can carry half-a-dozen lives in our pocket.
This pistol carrying IL a mania-a positive, accursed dis
ease-more to be dreaded than cholera, plague, leprosy,
or yellow fever. All these may sometimes yield to treat
ment, but the revolver mania seems incurable. Those
who suffer most from the prevalence of the calamitous
disease are young persons, who do not usually come I'M
der healing influences. They are half outcasts before
they get the revolver, and afterwards they are more than
half brutes.
Let any one of ordinary humanity ask himself what
must be the moral condition of the man who goes about
the world with one of these implements lurking in his
bosom. We do not object, of course, to a mans aIming
himself if he expects to travel through a wilderness i'm
tested with all manner of wild and ferocious beasts. But
In the streets of a civilized city, where other laws than
those of brute force are in operation, where life and prop
erty are secured by enactments whose penalties are not a
dead letter, such barbarisms should not be winked at OF
tolerated. And yet there are laws enough upon our
statute books to Danish concealed weapons and to inaugu-
rate the reign of peace and prosperity, ii they were
rigidly enforced and no argument is necessary to show
that the practice of going armed is a constant and por-
tentous threat against human life. Avery few years ago, a
man who habituaIIy wore a pistol in his bosom would
have been secuted out of all respectable society, and re-
garded as an outlaw, habitually t~lampling upon the sa-
cred rights of the community and yet the arch enemy
of mankind has succeeded in lowering the moral sense Of
our whole land to the point of regarding the evil prac-
tice with indifference or with half-approval.
If there is u necessity that we shall go armed, let us
not go secretly armed. 1t is base, cowardly, and assas-
sin like. Let Us buckle belts around our waists, outside
and visible, and wear swords like our fathers. There
would at least be some opportunity for the display of
taste, rs we might choose among basket -hllted claymores,
long, flexible rapiers, and curved sabres. If the pistol is
necessary, we may add the pouch on the right side, con-
venient to the hand. True, we would be retrograding
a century or two true, we would be proclaiming to the
world that we were braves and cnt-throats but we
would also be doing it openly and manfully. The cow
ardly rowdy, whom we now allow to prowl around the
city with his six. shooter in his pocket, would not be 80
formidable as at present.
Is it not possible to rake up an old law, or to make q
new one, which will remedy the evil and Danish the
curse ? Suppose we have a law against carrying conceal
ed weapons, with these penalties For the first offence,
one year in the penitentiary for the second, ten years
and for the third, imprisonment for ife. We lean tn the
side of mercy, and therefore propose these light punish
ments, which we consider wholly inadequate to the enor-
nifty of the offence. Does the community care anything
about the matter?