The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-16
TIE NEW YORK PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF LEADING
JOURNALS UPON CURRENT TOPICS. 4.
COMPILED nvrRY DAY FOR EVENING TELEoRA,
The Consecration Of Crime.


We learn with some astonishment from the
Philadelphia journals that the bones of Probst,
the young German who was hung in that city
the other day for The coldblooded murder of
whole family are to be neatly set up on wires,
and preserved, in oterndnt rel memoridm, in
the collection OF the Jefferson Medical College.
There must surely be some mistake here. 1t is
hardly possible that for the mortal remains of
a being of whom Just before hi, execution his
attendant clergyman solemnly declared that he
was perfectly fit to approach the throne of his
Maker" no better sanctuary can be found than
the glass cases OF Students lectureroom
When we remember that great wars have
been, IN times past, waged between Christian
communities Tor the possession of the relics of
persons reputed superior to their fellows in the
power and purity OF their faith; when we con-
sdeT that no more than q year ago the head of
the Church at Rome could hit upon no better
way of testitying his regard and affection for
the exiled King and Queen of Naples than to
present them with the newly discovered body
OF an early Chi tian marlyr; and when we re-
heot upon the extreme lmprobability of finding,
more tlan once or twice, even In Philadelphia,
a child OF grace perfectly it to approach the
throne OF his Maker we cannot refrain
from protesting, in behalf of the spiritual inte-
rests OF mankind, against the sacrifice to science
and to curiosity OF these mortal remains of the
glor6ed Probst ...
Such mausoleum as the piety of Philip of
Spain erected in the vaults of the Duomo of
Milan, TO enclose in its shrine of virgin gold and
glitteTing Jewels the body OF st. Charles Borro
meo, would hardly have been too splendid to
preserve this pure and wholesome memory.
Edward !, "the Hammer OF Scotland" enjoined
ltupon his son and successor to carry his bones
boiled down and sewn up i'll sack of leather at
the head of the armies of England, that the
awful clatter of their coming might strike the
rebellous Scotch INTO submission; and similar
disposition made Of the bones of Probst at Sun
day School pcnics might have turned them to
good uses in the instruction OF the young. For
merely anatomical purposes, the skeleton OF
Probst can be of no greater value than that of
any commonplace Christian who, after years of
simple aud honest lite, unilluminated by the
revelations OF inianticlde, passes away in mo-
dest and trembling reliance upon the mercy of
the Allwise.
Arbogastus, an Irish saint, once Bishop of
Spires, in Germany, desired, we are told, at his
death. that he might be buried near the gallows
] Ii such sepulture became the humility OF q
bishop, why should it not have De6tted the
merits OF murderer, upon whom the prospect
OF the gallows, earned by one oil the most cruel
! and revolving crimes which stain the dark
annals OF mankind, had wrought such sur
passing marvel of spiritual development as was
borne witness to by the clerical attendants of
Anton Probst ...
Justice done to Probst in this matter, too,
would be justice done to whole class Of "lat-
ter-day saints' whereof Probst Is only the most
recent and the most shining exemplar. Mr..
Green, the loyal postmaster of Maiden, in Mas
ing in his friendship in order that he might steal
other peoples money to pay his debts withal,
and over whose untimely grave Mr.. Wendell
Phillips has stIewn such flowers of philanthropic
sympathy; Mrs. Grinder, OF Pittsburg, in Penn
sylvania, who rivalled the Voisn and the Brin.
viliers IN a humble way, and passed many
years in the unobtrusive determination by
poison of considerable circle OF her friends
and relatives; Miss Harris, of Washington,
who shot a Treasury clerk in his office to
soothe her disappointed affections, and who,
hnr araIh hxya s.,v
braced with tears and kisses by her counsel and
by the Court-these are but few of the most
prominent instances which at once occur to us
in Illustration OF that recently discovered law of
human emotions by which we find that the in
dulgence of the most intensely selfish passions
of our nature conduces directly to the untold
ing and blossoming of the souls sweetest es
sence, fits us to comm and the finest sympathies
OF our fellow beings, and opens 10 us the pearl
gales OF the better land "on golden hinges turn
irg." OF this law Victor Hugo is, undoubtedly,
the most eloquent living teacher and prophet.
| The reverence in which it is held throughout
| France is shown in the perpetual recurrence OF
| jury verdicts, in which individuals who beat
| their mothers to death with red cotton umbrel
las, and roast their fathers alive in hay ricks,
| are found equity with extenuatIng circum-
| stancesn H ... r.N H.
In our own country the progress of similar
| notions of crime in its spiritual aspects must,
| so tar, be carried mainly to the credit of the
clerical profession. To effect the conversion of
| brutal and besotted assassin into an incipient
angel is such piece OF spiritual practice as
may well tempt both the professional and the
| personal vanity OF an average clergyman. The
1 case of Probst made perfectly it TO enter the
| presence OF his Maker" for example, offers a
fascinating parallel to the "perlect cures" which
| make the fortune of an ambitious physician.
Whether the carnal or the spiritual hygiene of
the people at large is advanced by the advertise
ment OF such maryels is, however. quite an
| other matter. .l ... H.I... 10
The greedy Joy with which the multitude hang
upon the tale, in either instance, would seem to
show popular belief that this is really the
case But if such be the popular belief it is
sad that men should be so incOnsequential and
Illogical as to wreak an antiquated disIespect
upon the early tabernacles of beings whose
moral qualities eXtOrt from them homages
which they of old time hesitated to bestow upon
tn purest and the loitiest OF men.