Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-05-21
THE SUPREME FOLLY OF ALL
CRIME.

THE 6UE66m6 6OA41 We ALL
CRIME.
Is not crime always foolish in exact
proportion to its heinousnesss If all that
is wrong is so because it is contrary to
some established order Of things-that
order which Infinite Wisdom has estab-
lished-of course all that is wrong is fool
i,h in the largest and most complete view
Of il. But it is further true that just in
proportion as any act is atrocious we can
generally discover such marks Of imbecility
about it as not only assure US of the Inn
probability Of escape, but Of the univers-
ality Of the axiom practically that wrong
and folly are almost, precisely, convertible
TERMS, and only two different ways Of
looking at the same thing, one from the
moral and the other from the intellectual
standpoint. In the Probss case, recently
where q whole family was murdered
near Philadelphia man committed
perhaps the most cool and atrocious
murder on record, whether the number
and ages of the victims or the motives that
impelled him (revenge and a little plum
der) are concerned, and at first his seem.
ing success is almost incredible. That for
hours, through high noon, in the outskirts
Of a large city, a man should be able to
perpetrate murder after murder, without
one victim escaping or crying out, or sue
cessfully resisting enough to alarm the
neighboruood-that he should have ran
sacked the house, and the murder never
have been even suspected for FIVE days
would have seemed to have but little like
Ehood. So far, his desperate murder OF
the ,chols family favored his escape. Had
he simply taken the money from the young
woman, stepped into the cars and gone OF
be might never have been heard from or
traced. 1t was nothing but the stupidity
Of crime which made him not even seek to
escape. Crime seems to have ndrcotised
him. He conceals the weapon. but goes
into the house and leaves his own bloody
clothes in exchange for those Of his victim,
so as to make the Identification certain and
clear.
The connection Of crime with crime is
here strongly illustrated-of drunkenness,
RIGHTEOUSNESS and murder especially, and
Of the whole with cowardice. Men do not
suddenly commit great crimes. There is q
hardening and de,eriorating process Of
character that takes place first, aud what
ever outward form it assumes at last, the
root Of criminal character is generally
traceable before any desperate overt act.
Probst had been detested and Stunned BY
the brave and honorable men Of his regi-
ment as a skulk and vagabond while in
the army. He had even spent all the
money and squandered most of the prop
erty he had secured within a week. His
hours have been traced, and his company
and his d~ebauchery ; and who that reads
but must say, and was it for this that a
man murdered eight innocent souls, in
Guiding even an infant, and forfeited his
own existence here and his soul hereafter:
The folly and the wickedness are SO pre-.
cisely alike in all this as to show an estab-
lished law of connection in character. The
almost certain connection Of great crime,
sure detection and severe punishment are
here traceable. A man like this does not
know how to hide himself. Despair OF
escape renders him reckless sometimes.
"Conscience makes edwards Of us ALL"
and he who is most fierce and bloodthirsty
beforehand surrenders like an infant, and
seems to find and feel relief from o load Of
concealment and wretchedness, letting his
own mouth babble forth enough Of his
gull, to make all the rest clear. There is
no place where the workers of iniqui,y
may hide themselves"
DR.. Wayland, in his Elements Of Moral
Science, has q section upon the manner in
which the decision Of conscience is expires.
sed, Of which such a case as this forms o
fine illustration. Beforehand, it would
seem as if nothing were easier for a man,
if he had only nerve enough to carry such
a crime as this right through, to escape.
Aud yet, after it is all done, the guilty
man carries that within him which makes
escape almost impossible.
In the last number Of the North american
Rerieto there is an article by R. W. Emer-
son on the Unicersality Of the Moral Sen
timents, to which all Of this is most apro-
pos. Unperceived, ~unthoughs of by the
majority, they prove their existence and
po,ence everywhere, even in a wretch like
this. No contradiction can disprove them,
and no reasoning or assertion confirm u
belief in them.