The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-20
WILL MURDER OUT2
The Recent Tragedies i'm Our Large
Cities.

Ihe Recent TraEeNIes IN our large
cities.
The N. Y. Commercial AdUertissr of yesterday
speaks edtorially as toliows;- O.
The police have been, it seems to u.s. wrongly
blamed for not immediately discovering the
murderers of MIR. Rogers. The case is q singular
one. Suppose man standin IN the street;
suppose TWO men Wb0 do not know him. have
no sort OF relation TO or connection win him OF
any sort or kind, chance to pass MIN, and from
sudden impulse stab him, either because they
covet his watch and chain, or, what is rot I'M
possible, simply from hldeous impulse TO
XIII? Suppose the muIdeleIs escape tor the
moment, and disappear irou the Sight of those
who chance to see the deed done?
What is there III such a story 10 give a clue to
the police? The detective who works up such
a case has nowhere to begin. He fluids no
motive in the murderer, of hatred or cupdity;
no traces of plan; no connection between him
and his victim which he could use as a thread
to lead him from one 10 the other. His chief
opportunity lies in Il general scrutiny of the
haunts OF the criminal classes, 10 see where,
perchance, some one is suddenly missing, upon
whom suspicion might airly'rest How slight
is the chance of discovery under such clrCum-
stances any one may see.
Some years ago, in Philadelphia, on rainy
day, man walked INTO shop on Chestnut
street, inquired the price OF an umbrella, aud
while the shopkeeper was speaking, stabbed
him TO the heart; walked out of the shop,
before bewloered clerk could stop him, aud
disappeared. He was not intent on ROBBERY,
for he did not even take away the umbrella.
The shopkeeper was a man of blameess lite,
without enemies; ana all the attempts of the
police 10 trace the assassin were trultless. Nor
is it TO this day known certainly who did this
murder
Months afterwards two women were murdered
in another part of that city, and u wretch
named Spring was arrested on Suspicion OF
having committed the crime. At hrst only
slight circumstautial evidence pointed to
Spring; and it is doubtful it he could have been
convicted, had not his own son, q lad fourteen
or fifteen years, OF age, appeared as witness
n hlS
father in Vaerant and restless lie, related the
circumstances of the murder. Thereupon the
father, hldeous'looking creature, accused his
son OF being the murderer, and told clrcum
stantlal but incredible tale of juvenile
deprayity, declaring himself to have been
the unwilling witness OF his sous crimes.
1t SO chanced that the boy was a youth
bearing, while the father was person of re-
puisive features and gross auimaism, SO that
mis- iale bore falsehood upon its face. The trial
was long and intensely exciting. All through it
Sprng maintained that his son was the mur-
derer. Spring was found guilty and hanged;
but with singular malice, ne would not, even III
his last moments, give a sign of repentance of
his lie. The police, 1t is SAID, found reason to
believe during Springs trial that the Chesnut
street murder was also the act OF Spring, and he
seems 10 have been mere brute, given, when
perhaps under the nDhaence OF spirit, to an
Uncomfortable or certainly uncontrolled and
fendish impulse tor murder, or passion for
blood.
Will murder out? Who killed Mary Rogers,
the gar girl? Who murdered Doctor Burdell?
MIS-. BurdelI is still living in California aud,
we have heard, frightened an American travel
Ter almost out OF his wits, who met her in a
lonely sbanty in Lower California, where, on a
stormy evening, he sought nights lodging. 1t
was surely a startling apparltlon to a New
Yorker, familiar with the history and character
suddenly those fierce, pitIess eyes cleaning
upon him in a lonely California cabin.
May or Halls device 10 advertise the only
trace OF the murderer, the envelope, is certainly
bola and original. To offer the companion aud
accessory of the murderer safety and three
thousand dollars was also a sareWd stroke.
cealed in the same hiding place? Suppose them
both 10 become aware of this Offer? Would the
| brute who stabbed poor Rogers hesitate
to use his knite also upon the luckles5 wretch
who saw him do the deed, aud who is now
tempted to give him up?