The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-01-31

high and offered no rest for the foot within five
feet of the ground. A robbery of few small
articles had been committed in Mr. Wells
house about o'clock the previous evening; but
that il will be remembered, was three hours
before Dora went to her room, and in any case
there ere serious difficulties In the way of con-
Meeting the two crimes. There seems to be no
reas on for suspecting any of the inmates of
either house, Dora being on excellent terms
with them all The police, to all appearances,
are utterly at fault; and the Coroner's inquest
as is apt to be the way with inquests-has left
the case as mysterious as ever.
The excitement over the New Orleans murder
has not yet subsided when the telegraph brings
us intelligence of another case very similar to
that of Dora Hennerichs. On the 1lth instant
a gitl of Is, named Christine Kett, was muir
defed in broad day, in her own house at Day
ton, Ohio. and no clue has yet been found to
the assassin.
In the city of New York alone there were
during the year 1866, no fewer than n homi-
cides and murders, without including numerous
cases of death by drowning or other means
which we know not whether TO classify as mur-
ders, suicides, or casualties. Only 33 persons
were arrested for these crimes, and the records
of the courts show only Is convictions (seyeral
of which we're for oflenses committed in a pre-
vous year, with 10 prisoners still to be tried
That is to say, of the perpetrators of clear and
unmistak able homicides more than so per cent
ATE not arrested, and nearly so per cent are
not punished.
Now, the suggestive thing about this matter
is, that 1t can hardly be accounted for in any
other way than on the suppositon of very i'm
police are sharp enough in tracing out great
robbertes. bank is rarely broken open or a
safe rfed but the thieves are caught, sooner or
later, provided they have secured heavy booty.
Human patience, persistence and ingenuity are
seldom better Illustrated than when one of our
best detectives, with full purse in his pocket,
and-paTdon us, gentlemen of the force, for say
ing II, for you are only mortal men after ala
good bouncing reward in prospect, gets on the
trail of heavy burglary, or a great embezzle-
ment, or any such crime of which the object
was money instead of life. You may say that
burglars rarely operate alone, and the chances of
detection are multiplied, of course, in exact
proportion to the number OF the confederates.
There is something in this; but it will not
account entirely for tie comparative impunity
of murdeTers as cOntTasted with other classes
OF criminals. We are not finding fault with
our detectives individually; we only say that
there is something wrong in the system under
which they work. We believe that in the maio-
rty OF cases they are unable TO follow up
| murder TO the end because they are not fur
nlshe0 with the necessary money and certainly
in some cases they fail because they have not
the requisite Inducements to persevere The
l matter deserves careful consideration. Indl-
viduals may be left to take care of their own
money; the Government Is bound to take care
OF mems lives; and the incentives to the de-
lection and punishment of the graver offenses
ought certainly to be no less strong than those
to the pursuit Of less dangerous criminals.