The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-29

Mr. Mcfarland, that even that inadequate
excuse for homicide was furnished. That Mr..
Richardson has paid suit TO n wife separated
from her husband appears most true. True, I
he has avowed ON intention to marry her.
But there is nothing to show that the head
and front of his offending had any more than
this extent, Whatever Mr.. Mcfarland may
have suspected, he has adduced nothing to
justify any suspicion other than this And
killing, where there is any doubt in the case,
is mere murder, whatever be thought of itwhen
the case is clear. If not, all that any murderer
need do is to shoot any person who may for
any reason be obnoxious to him, and get
himself held harmless by avowing-not his
warranted conviction but his bare suspicion
that the person so shot has been mislead-
ing the spouse of the person SO shooting. To
erect every such man judge in his own
cause is simply to inaugurate anarchy, and to
insure impunity to any murderer since his
allegation would be, in most cases, impos-
sible of confutation. In one recent case
that of Dickey-the murderer brought the
charge, and it so happened that is could be
distinctly disproven But except for the
accidental presence of witnesses the story of
Dickey would have been accepted, and have
insured him impunity for his crime. We do
not say that McFarland's charge against Rich
ardson is equally baseless. But it is GER
tainly the business of a man who resorts
to these violent means of righting himself
to make sure and to be able to certify others
that he has been wronged. And even then it
cannot Justify, however it may be considered
to extenuate, the illegal taking of life. If
adultery is properly capital offense, let it
be made so by law. If not, let no injured
husband be suffered to become law unto
himself. 1t is also to be remembered with
out reference to this case in particular, that
the men who have chosen this mode of as
serting themselves have generally been de-
PRAYED and heartless men, whose feelings
nobody could regard as exceptionally sensi-
tive. And it is also to be remembered, with
especial reference to this case, that their
killings are usually conducted in a cowardly
manner.
But, apart from this cases it is notable that
the feeling from which all these homicides
spring is that of the intellectual inferiority of
women. 1t is the outgrowth of the feeling
which woman's rights associations exist to
put down, that the feminine is the weaker
vessel, and that she relies upon men for the
protection" which men are supposed to be
capable of exercising for themselves. No
| body ever hears of a womans turning out to
| assassinate another woman for betraying her
domestic peace; or if, as i'll the case of the in
! jured wife of Portland, of whom we lately
| read, a sporadic female does occasionally re-
| sort to this violent means of protecting her
| nOnOr, SQe Is looked upon us ~ SJTOup-ulluueu
exception to the female rule, unless she in
dicates her sex by some such exquisitely
feminine trait as the injured wife in that case
displayed, by tearing off from her perforated
| and PROSTATE rival the false hair in the
| Fictitious meshes of which her own lawful
| lord had been ensnared. AS it is a curious
| fact that the women who are the chief cham
pions of the "equal rights" of their sex are
also the women who confess the dependence
| of their sex by calling for peculiar penalties
against the seducers of its innocence and
weakness. Men have no legal protection
| against their wiles and Establishments. No
man has yet been found so fatuous as obring
suit against his seducer, and it is certain that
| if he did so no action would be held to lie.
Yet the women who insist upon equality be-
fore the laws in general, also insist upon inc
| quality before the law in this particular. The
verdict of the Cleveland convention would
| doubtless be, supposing the charge of McFar-
| land to be well founded, that 1t was a valid
excuse for his conduct; whereas it ought, in
| logical consistency, to be that he had usurped
the functions of his ex-wife, and committed
an officious and superserviceable crime. So
much more potent is instinct than logic in
even the strongminded female breast.
MIR. GARFIELD ON THE CURREN CY
AND SPECIE PAYMENTS.