The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-15

everybody in this State is now talking--the
murder Of Mr.. Hisoock, a member of the Con-
stitutional Convention at Albany. He is shot
suddenly by one of his friends, a General Cole,
and in defense of his crime the murderer tells
three different stories-frst, that Hiscock had
violated his wife secondly, that he had
seduced her and thirdly, that he had simply
insulted her-all of them resting on the state
ment of the wife herself who, it appeared, did
not discontinue her intercourse with Hiscock
in consequence of anything that had happened.
The only bit of corroboratiye evidence drawn
from the husbands observation consisted, it
seems, of the highly suspicious circum-
stance that the murdered man asked
him one day, "when was he going
away" So that if Cole should be
acquitted we shall have fresh support for the
theory that any woman who has a jealous or
crack-brained husband, and little regard for
her own reputation, may have any man shot
or knitted by reporting him as having behaved
unhandsomely to her. In fact, bad woman
who had tried to seduce man and failed,
might in this way crafty her rage and desire
of revenge by having him incontinently
''taken off," and if juries allowed this doctrine
to take root and flourish, the best and most
proper man in the community would hold his
life at the mercy of any worthless couple who
happened to have an acquaintance with him
and might for any reason desire his destruction.
The law, we believe, forgiyes the Staying by
husband of a man taken in adultery; but it
does so not because 1t approves of the practice
of avenging ones own injuries, but because it
supposes some injuries to be too great for
ordinary mortals to submit to them in cold
blood In other words, it is presumed that
man who witnessed his own dishonor would
be sure to lose all self-control. But there is
in this no sanction whatever for the modern
doctrine that if A. hears or suspects that B.
has been running his domestic peace, he may
go in search of him with deadly weapons, and
whenever he meets him, be it days or months
afterwards, kill him on the spot.
In fact, good many of these moral murders
are now committed not only in cold blood, but
by gentlemen and ladies who are not much
troubled at all by the loss of their "honor, !"
and sleep just as soundly as if they stin had
it in their keeping. They kill "seducers"
simply because it is ''the thing to do, and
the public expects it of them; or because they
hink it will procure them little pleasing
nOtoriety. Nothing could better prove the
debauched condition of public opinion, as ex-
pressed by juries, than the fact that some of
the murderers whose wrongs have excited
most sympathy have been themselves rakes
and adulterers of the worst kind, and, after
polluting other peoples homes for years, have
been supposed--poor fellows Ito be incapable
of enduring the pollution of their own.
We all know the way in which these beau
tiful iustifcations of the uncomfortable indig-
nation of the injured husband or the be-
trayed woman are got up. The murder is
generally committed in some public place, so
that there may be plenty of witnesses AS
soon as it is done, the murderer, though pale,
becomes perfectly calm, and surrenders with
out difficulty, and after giving some slight
signs of intended but easy-tO-be-foiled suicide,
is conducted to prison, where he is the object
of marked attention on the part of the jailor
or his wife, and is waited on soon after by
some of the liveliest and most graphic mem
bers of the "reportorial corps"
Then come the most delicious moments of
the whole drama. The murderer gives his
own version of his wrongs, with the delightful
consciousness that he cannot be contradicted,
the only person who could contradict him
being dead. He tells of his agonies, of ''the
fire in his brain, - his sleepless nights, his
horrible misgivings, his early happiness, his
passionate love, his wonderful sacrifices for
1.-THE frail beingh for whose sake he has assas-
sinated and down it all goes on paper, and
soon appears in print. And while the tale Is
fresh the newspapers are never weary OF
making additions to it, and the hero enjoys
more notoriety than ever he hoped in his
widest dreams.
When the day of trial comes on it is grand
! DAY. The court is crowded; the audience and
the Jury lay in extra pocket handkerchiefs;
| the prisoner is dressed simply, but with care,
| and wears an interesting and melancholy air.
/ The leading masters Of the balderdash at the
bar are engaged for the defense, and the de.
tense consists mainly of the fplsome praise Of
the assassin and abuse Of his victim. All
that f1stian can do is done to make woman
appear kind of pretty animal without sense,
or discretion, or conscience, whom any naughty
man can seduce, and whom naughty men
must, therefore, let alone on pain of death.
Then comes the description of the husband s
agonies, if the husband be the murderer. He
is presented to the jury as mad bull, whom
the mere sight of ''the destroyer Of his peace
rouses into uncomfortable fury, and who has
to go about trying to kill him by law of his
being, just as tigers have to prowl and spring
and tear in order to satisfy their hunger.
Now we think the better portion of the
public has reached the conclusion that we
have had enough of this sort of thing that il
is high time that the old doctrine that premedi-
tated killing, no matter what the prOyOcatior