The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1869-06-03

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streets, covered with the blood of his
wife aad children, and faint with a self.
inflicted wound. The attempt at NJ urder
and suicide has possibly failed; but will
ut be the better for the wretched family
to die or to recover? On the next day
there was murder in Sheriff street, the
elimination ofa long-standing feud The
explosion of an oil factory at Bulls Ferry
injured twenty persons, and resulted in a
great conflagration. A bank in Brook
lyn. supposed to be safe from ordinary
accidents, was found to have suffered
heavy losses through the rnlsmanagement
OF President whom death has removed
from the reach of early courts And in
yesterdays paper we chronicled such a
long array of crimes and disasters that
the brain whirls at the mere recital of
them: A rich business man is found in
his Office with his throat cut. The super
lntendent OF the gas works in one of the
suburbs is discovered shot in four places
by his own hand. Two men are stabbed
in street broil. A sailor makes mur-
derous assault upon woman. There is
/ stab5lng afray between boys. Three
children are arrested on suspicion of
drowning one of their playmates. Anoth
er OIL factory takes fire and a million dol.
lars worth OF property is consumed. A
steam-tug IS blown up and its crew badly
I'M ored Two vessels are sunk By coli
sions in the harbor.
This story is full of lessons, in the &C.
cldents as well as in the crimes. The
feverlsh blood which courses through the
veins OF society throws out its unwhole.
some eruptlons In more than one form.
Corruption in the public morals. extraya.
gance and unnatural excitementin private
hfe, bear fruit in that recklessness of
temper which to-day may lead to a steam
boat explosion and tomorrow may nrpe
rufflan on to murder In every one of
the accidents we have place upon our
catalogue we dare say there was some.
body to blame is there much probahil;tv .
that we shall ever know who It is? or +
we learn, that he will ever be punished !?
Boilers never explode without reason
steamboats, need not run into ore another
II pilots are reasonably careful; and il
there IS anything in the nature of oil.
tanks which makes it impossible to pre-
vent such awful destruction every now
and then as happened on Monday and
Tuesday, and has happened soss many
times before, then for the sake of human
ity ana common-sense let US put them in
some wilderness where they may burn
and blow up, and do no harm to neigh:
Dor, 1t is the crimes, however, that
awaken our most serious anxiety, and for
which the remedy is hardest to find
When few bold robbers were sentenced
some months az to long terms of i'm,
prlsonment, and Judges spoke bravely Of
then. resolution to visit criminals with the
heaviest penalties Of the law, what a
chorus OF JOY went up from the suffering
public, who hoped that increasing ruffan-
ism was checked at last, and the rcproach
OF the courts was-being wiped away
Meantime Prison Associations were re-
porting that our systems of penal discin-
line. increased tie very evils they were
Instituted to prevent, and prisoners GEN
orally came out of jail worse than thew
| went 1T. Meantime also they very prisons
| themselves became theatres of murder:
| the most desperate and dangerous felons
were escaping almost as fast as they were
convicted the spasmodic energy Of the
law died away; and here we are worse
of than ever
The crimes of the last few days are
important mainly as symptoms. They
iduiS~'le al aidIu!liiS increase CT the Ian-
gerous classes, and bring home to us the
question which has agitated older coun-
tries for many years, but which we have
scarcely, thought about. What shall we
DO with our crimes? The menagerie
system will not answer any longer. We
lock up our hearts in cages to keen them
out OF mischief; but the cages will not
hold them forever, and how will it be
when they get out again? There are
nurseries enough of crime in the dram
shops and tenements Of all great cities :.
there are incentives enough to wrong
doing 10 the fierce excitemert wherein we
have lived for the last eight years years
1t we add to these powers of evil bad
influences in our prisons, our courts. and
our whole machinery of Justice, the crira-
Inals will soon become too strong for us;
we shall be reduced to anarchy. Our
first duty IS to reform the courts; our
next to reform the prisons. And the
prisons cannot be reformed by merely
turning that man out and putting this
man In. The change must go to the
root of the system, and the wisest minds
OF the country may find noble exercise
IN debating what that change shall be.