The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-11-23
Half Years Record of Crime and Dis
aster.

|. disasters during the last six months ha
r been often remarked, and it seems tn
i subject Is now about ripe for conclusion
OF figures. That the public have noticed
SO large an increase in this fatal specie
OF home production may be sensibly at
e trlbuted to the lapse of great war, ant
the revelation and recol of the passions
which 1t absorbed. If some have beer
skeptlcal as to the extent of iudiv Qua
outbreaks on society, it has been for wan
OF statistics, and partly because crime
which has dabbled so much in catastro
Phe of late, has been forgotten in other
mlsfortunes, Of which the last half centu.
ry has been full. Regular murders have
almost found oblivion in railway disasters
But every chord of suffering life seems to
have been stricken, and We have heard OF
host of nondeScript assaults upon the
"house of life" beside homicide, marri-
eide, parricide, matricide, sororcide, in
iantside, famiicide, patricide (attcm pied J
hardly pausing at cosmicide, which We
interpret to be a violent taking off in hon,
or Of the journal which has made the
greatest display of murders. Railway
slaughter renders necessary in addition to
the vocabulary, and we have it to hand,
namely: viatricide, or murder CT the trav-
eer. Altogether here is an interesting
field for the kennedys and DcBows.
STATISTICS AND CURIOSITIEs OF MURDER
The entire estimate OF the capital crimes
committed in the United States in the
last half year, it is doubtless impossible
to give. But from April to October 10,
80 murders are counted from metropoli-
tan files, exclusive of II manifest homi-
! cides and half d dozen transformations by
Indians and guerrillas. Twenty FIVE
murderous attempts are recorded nine Ca
ses Of wife murder, aud seven of attemp-
: ted wife murder, which seems to have
been terrible speciality with malc Grim
inals in New York and New Jersey 10
contrast with this there appear to have
been but two husband murders Eight
instances OF familicide, or murder Of
family, including three persons, make the
most shocking feature of the category :
-Four tratricldes, two parricides aud mat
riciies, two double and two quadruple
murders, eight infant murders, half OF
which were cases of abortion, were recor
del. In the West and Southwest three
Lynch law trials took place. SnguIarly,
amid all this life taking, We only find 333
suicides.
The assassination in April of President
Lincoln exceeded all crimes in atrocity
and daring. and thence crime seems to
have begun its startling episode The
great mass Of murders and crimes gener-
ally were perretraied between June and
September, viz: 10 in June, 2l in July. /
20 in August, and 26 in September
The last month was also by far the most
fatal with respect to railroad accidents,
although it was supposed that crime had
its climax in the previous Summer months /
We conjecture that about $50 persons
have lost their lives by criminal hands. .
not remarking those who have perished
by the railway Juggernaut.
EXTRAyAGAYCEo OF CRIME-pHILOsoPHY /
N POISON.
Eccentricity and monstrosity seem to
have been rrUdigal in the chapter Of the
criminal calendar just closed. Of extra .
ordinary cases in America, most all OF
which seem to have been brute outragcs
of j multiple kind, may be mentioned
the Soyce tragedy in Roxbury, Mass;
the double murder at Summeryille. Pa
the familicide in Tennessee, the whole /.
sale execution of Judge Wright and his
sons in Missouri, and the Starkw Gather
family murder. But the great crimes of
Europe have far exceeded ali these in
general wonder and mystery, and tits sell
dom that grouping OF such strange ele- +.
neuts are found together in the social his
tory. In systematic wickcdness and depth
of motive they show far Older experience
thau American crime. Intellect, science,
a sort Of philosophy, and even religion
were sunk in the plot and woven in the
deed, with the spirit of a young lady Mac
beth, Fosco, ThenardIer. How Con-
stance Kent, a child Of Is came to put
away her little brother, is still study
DR.. Pritchard, medical reviewer, daily
resumed the patient task of killing his
wife by slow poison. Mrs Winsor kept
hospital for infauticide. Southey mur-
dcred The children Of his mistress with
parade Of Mathusian pbilosopy, for fear
that they would starye, emitting, Of
course, to kill himself, and Swedish
priest poisoned dozen of his parishon-
ers with the sacrement, out of pity for
their wretchedness. Crime of this COM
plex character seems weird, appalling,
and extravagant beyond expression.
TIE YACARIEs OF CRIME.
OF the proportion of crimes in general,
it is scarcely possible to arrive at eonclu-
sions. But it should he remarked that
twenty eases Of nameless Outrage-a class
of crime which seldom invites record =
were printed in the last six months. Gu
rious and moustrous among other fagran-
cies were the placing Of turpedoes on
railroad, an attempt to throw train of
the track, the burning Of three houses by
n oirl fonrteen wears Old polygamy to the