The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-12-12

j, is to be hoped, will prove unsuccessful. The
recent Mayoralty election in Boston proves
tina; the people Of that ultra abolitionist city
repuoiste it, AID are willing to make atone
ment for past wrongs; but the pernicious re-
concentrations Of demagogues who are aggra-
waiting present evils ought never to be forgot
ten. They are striving to reduce the country
to pauperism, and if their efforts should be
mercifully frustrated, they would none the less
deserve to be the scorn of all who wish for the
continuance of the prosperity Of the Union.
The Twelfth street Murder-The Police
and the Press.
1t seems very probable that the perpetrator
of the late daylight murder in Twelfth street is
in the hands Of the authorities. The young
man whose suspicious appearance about the
store of Mrs. Shancks excited the alarm Of her
friends was brought to the city yesterday, and
lodged in the police headquarters, where be is
kept in entire seclusion, no one being permit
ted to see him, and no information concerning
the case being vouchsafed by our very efficient
press, ii seems are religiously excluded, and
denied the slightest hint Of intelligence upon
the subject. Some bright idea seems to have
struck the police authorities that the newspa-
pers have been encroaching upon their priyi-
leges Of late; and the idea is perfectly correct,
because it is not the police, but the newspa-
pers which arrest all the notorious criminals.
Were it not for the minute descriptions which
the press give of the suspected parties upon
the commission Of some great crme-descrp-
tons which follow or preclude their flight and
are always in advance of the police-the guilty
persons would not be discovered in one case
out of ten Yet we find the police exercising
the powers of people dressed in little brief
authority" by endeavoring to conceal all the
facts and incidents connected with the arrest of
this young man. Whether the cause of this
course of action be traced to stupid ignorance
or petty jealousy, it is equally contemplate
and reprehensble.
Deputy Superintendent Carpenter it ap-
pears, has expressed an opinion that the police
force will never be perfect until it is reduced
to a completely secret system; but we are
strongly inclined to think that when it comes
to that pass, and is deprived of the eff
cient aid Of the daily press, it will
have become worthless as means
of protection, and odious as a despot-
not do better than transfer Deputy Carpenter
to the service of Louis Napoleon or Alexander
Of Russia. His opinions precisely coincide
with their system; whether his capacity would
cope with that of their agents is a question
which his career in this city may leave in some
doubt.
1t is notorious that the newspapers Of the
metropolis have done more to effect the arrest
Of murderers than all the police put together.
1t was the newspaper descriptions that caused
the arrest of Hicks, the pirate, and of Jackalow,
the oyster sloop murderer, after they had fed
from the city. But in no case perhaps was
the arrest of criminal more clearly traceable
to the press than in that Of young Buchanan,
who Is charged with the Twelfth street murder.
What are the facts! The police were entirely
of his track. They thought he was in the city;
and on Saturday night they confidently stated
that they knew his whereabouts, and were
almost ION the top of him. while, at the same
time, he was three hundred miles away on the
Erie Railroad In our report of the tragedy
we stated that inasmuch as fresh blood had
been found on the handle of the outer door,
which must have been left there after the muir
derer had wiped his hands on some of the gar
menis found in the inner room, he must have cut
his hand in the execution of the bloody deed,
and, therefore, that any unknown man with
cut hand should justly become an object of sus-
picion wherever he might turn up. The conse-
quence was that the appearance Of the alleged
criminal, a stranger, at little town on the
Erie Railroad, with his hand wounded and
bound up, at once caused some person to make
bis suspicious known to justice Of the peace,
who caused his arrest. Our police had nothing
to do with it; they were looking for him in the
city; and had il not been for the newspaper re-
ports the chances are that he would have made
good his escape.
The truth is that the daily newspapers are
the real police Of the city, and not the Metro
poIitan force, who draw their pay to such
handsome amount from the treasury. In al
most every instance il is the newspapers that
cause the arrest of alleged criminals. How
absurd and stupid it is, then, for the police
authorities to attempt to keep the facts from
the knowledge Of the press in cases Of this kind.
An IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENT DEMaNpED-Rg-