The Portland daily press., 1864-12-10
Crime and Criminals.

1Surely, the world grows worse and worse
every dagw exclaimed gentleman in our
hearing recently, as he impatiently flung down
the paper In which he had been reading the
account OF some new horror.
We could not wonder at his words. WIN
out being prepared to accede to the Proposi.ion
that mankind in the mass are any worse tnan
they have been at any previous PERIOD o. inc
world, we are yet compiled 70 no'e INC ~
cent appalling frequency OF a'rociouS ciilnes
Every ;oprnaI ,vb,cb we take up teens with
accounts Of stabDings, robberies, and every
snoo;oa 81 i wJess violence. If it were only
n .h;a oonntry, we might attribute it, in some
docroo 10 the demoralizing influence of war;
Init il is not. The foreign papers, both Eng
,;sb and Continental, come to us literally
crammed with instances of this kind. The
columns of single issue of one of the Liver
pool dailies contain accounts of no less than
five murders, three fatal stabbing ARRAYS, one
burglary, two cases of outrage upon women
in one of which the terrified victim leaped
from railway carriage when it was in mo-
ton, and was killed-one case of fraud and
forgery, and Of minor atrocities and brutali-
ties, such as come under the Jurisdiction Of
the police courts, a list too long to be counted
One fairly sickens as he reads.
1t is singular fact that the great seething
sea of crime which is ever heaving itself
against the barriers Of civilization, has its ebb
and flow, always more or less regular. Though
the causes Of these movements evade philo-
sophie inquiry, the fact is patent, and the fluc-
tuations may be calculated and predicted
just now we seem to be in the midst OF one
of these "tenth waves" of depravity.
Another curious circumstance connected
with this subject is that every new, appalling
crime, whether successful or not, Is stimu-
liant to others of like character. There
seems horrible fascination in deeds OF blood
and violence, which excites the initiative pro-
pensity in mems minds, and in certain morbid
natures is sufficient to lead to the most sur
prising acts. Every great criminal is sure
host Of initators. The crime of Muller
was but the chief one of series which have
made English railway carriages the terror Of
the traveller.
For reasons of this kind we object strongly
to the practice of certain journals in laying
before their readers minute particulars of ev-
cry criminal trial with which the courts are
occupied Such accounts stimulate the NOR
bid appetite which loves to feed on horrors,
familiarize the Imagination with crime, and, by
throwing a fictitious interest around the Grim
inal, make a temporary hero OF him, and ex-
cites Inaudlin sympathy for his hard fate in
getting found out, which is ready to overlook
his most atrocious deeds. s2u u.e4 sola
4 Another fruitful source of mischief in
this direction is the food of novels and
tales of the intense and sensation" school,
whose yellow covers rustic all around us thick
as autumn leaves, though unfortunately with
out either the beauty or the fertilizing proper
ties which the dead leaves possess. Books
in which men stained with crime, and women
of less than cues tionable morality are painted
as only little less lovely than the angels,
cannot have other than pernicious influence.
they are unhealthy in their nature and I'M
wholesome in their effect; and parents should
be extremely cautious how they trust such
books in the hands Of the young and impress
ible. But this subject of books is one on
which we have more to say than we can al
| present find room for. We leave the matter
for future discussion. EPSILON.