The Portland daily press., 1865-08-26
THE CARNIVAL oE CRIME.

---------------------
TILE CARNIVAL OF CRIME.
For the few past months it has seemed as
though the bonds that bind society together
in peace and good order, had become lament
ably loosened, and the flood gates Of crime llao
been lifted to am unusual height. And yet
the fact that knowledge of gross outrages
fails upon the public mind with appalling eff
iact, shows that that mind is not demoralized
chat the public conscience is alive and active
and that the surfeit of crime just now preva-
lent is not the result of any general decadence
il the moral standard of the people, but is
rather the effect of some agitation or disturb
snce whereby latent evils have broken out
and hitherto secret criminals have come to the
surface; come there, it is to be hoped, that
shey may be detected and punished. 2 GA
Murder, assassination, infanticide, forgery
defalcations, burglaries, incendiarism, rape
and other forms of vice and brutality, stalk
forth as they have not been accustomed to dc
heretofore And as if the cup of horrors were
NOT sufficiently full there seems of late to have
been general laxity with engineers and other
officers -Ofrailroad and steamboat lines, the re-
suit of which has been an amount of whole
sale butchery and manslaughter truly fright
fal to contemplate. aeo# 1Eftl aa
This condition of rccklessness and criminal
ity cannot be set down to the account of our
recent civil war, because the evils referred to
are not confined to this side of che Allan
tic, nor on this side to United States ter
ritory. If possible the. papers of England, OF
late, have teemed more fearfllly with details
Of crime and blood, than those of this coun-
try, while Canada and the lower British Prov
inces have net been behind the HGreat Repub-
licY in contributions of horror to. swell and
render hideous this carnival of crime.
1t is but few weeks since Swedish priest
suffered the extreme penalty of the law for the
unmatched criIneiof destroying the poor MEM
5ers of his parish by mixing poison with the
l;aeramental wine. About the same time a
professional man ia high life-Dr. Pritchard
Of Glassow-was hung for the murder Of his
vile and mother-in-law, that he might hide
tae evidence Of criminal intrigue in his own
house. Later still we have had the case Of a
woman in London who, for few shillings or
few pounds, would sell herself to the profess
sion of child-murder; for such palty and
nercenary motive consenting to put aside the
tangible proofs of social vice. Then there is
the startling case of Constance Kent,-just
come to light,-th girl of sixteen, who killed
her own little brother to spite her step-moth-
er. Before us, as we write, is the sickening
account of the murder Of three children al
the Star Coffee House in London. In the lat
ter case there are suspicious of insanity which
do much TO abate the horror which otherwise
would attach to this unnatural deed of blood
As fitting close to this article-the like Of
Which we hope never to find it necessary to
write-we add the following account, condens-
ed from the st. Louis Republican, of horrible
murder committed in Phelps county, Mo-, on
the 18th inst. 1t appears that squad of Mil
Ter county militia, under Col Babcock, went
to the residence of Judge Lewis F. Wright, in
Phelps county, about ten miles from Rolla, OF
the 10Th and remained there till the 18th. On
the last named day they arrested Judge Wright
and five of his sons. Some sort of an inves
tigation was made into accusations brought
against the parties, either fancied or real
when it was determined to take them to Rol
la as was given, out, fol. further trial. Mrs
Wright besought Col Babcock not to take hel
family away, and finally he released the young
est son for her protection. The Judge wa.
then mounted on horse by himself, and his
four sons upon two other horses, under guard
of the squad of militia, ostensibly to be taken
70 RolIa. Before reaching that point they
were all inhumanly butchered and their bodies
left lying in the bush by the roadside. No
less than twenty-six shots were fired into the
persons of the fivel Before the bodies were
reached by the frantic wife and mother and
her remaining son, four OF the five were dead
and the 1fth insensible and dying. The news
reached Rolla about five o'clock in the after
noon, but nothing was done till the next morn
Ing, when wagon was sent out and the bod
les conveyed to Rolla. What prompted tho
extraordinary tragedy does not appear.
PERsoNAL.-A Saratoga correspondent of
Boston paper says gentleman there has re
ceived letter from Rev. John o. Fiske o
Bath, now travelling in Europe. Mr.. Fisk,
was at the famous watering place, Ems
Messax, in company with A. V. Stout ant
family of, New York. He viii visit Paris anC