The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1870-01-13
Curiositns Of Crime.

Granting the corrupt nature of man to be
tie primary source of all crime, We cannot
fail to see that its Development is favored and
fostered by the predominance Of appetite and
instinct over volition-ef imagination and
impulse over reason ald judgment. And
what is this but the permanencc of an infan-
tile condition of mind. Children have an
petites and instincts strong-reason undeop-
ed-pae.iou unros~l~tad t,roper system
of education (strictly so-callcd) has a ten
dency to substitute reason for instinct, to de-
velop the former,to hold il. check the latter
If this be neglected, or if It is misdrected,
man will grow up child in all but its inno-
ccnce and its inability to do evil-his appe-
tites, impulses, and passions are strengthened
by indulgence and lack of any restraining in
fuence, his reason and judgment are null
from disuse. In this state (and of how vast
majority of our fellow creatures is this the
condition y he is an easy prey to any class Of
ideas or emotions which may be presented to
him-he receives them, adopts them. and i'm
itates them, because he cannot analyze them
because they, perhaps, tend to the indul-
gence of the desire of the eye, or the flesh
because they fatter his pride-but most
chiefly because uncultivated and uneducated
man is essentially mimetic. Of the influence
of morbid imitation in producing crime many
instances have already been given. DR..
Winslow, in his anatomy of Suicide relates
he following
ga criminal was executed not many years
ago in Paris for murder. A few weeks after
another murder was perpetratcd and when
the Young man was asked to assign reason
for taking away the life of fellow. creature,
he replied that he was not instigated by any
feeling of malice, but, after having witnessed
the execution, he felt a desire, over which he
had no control to commit similar crime, and
had no rest until he had gratifcd his feelings"
A similar instance occurred recently in one
Of our northern counties, where the only
reason which the murderer could give for
cutting off the head of child was that
W mentioning the name Of another no
torious eriminaD mad done so before him
The following remarkable instance is also
from DR.. Wlnslow' s anatomy Of Suicide:
:Some years ago man hung himself on
the threshold Of one of the doors Of the cor
ridor at the Hotel des Invalides. No suicide
| had occurred in the establishment for two
years previously but in the succeeding fort
night five invalds hung themselves ON the
same crossbar, and the Governor was Obliged
to shut up the passage"
It is needless further to multiply exam
pies; the initiative instinct is perhaps the
most powerful in our nature; and
:sItis in homicidal mania that we look for
the most striking illustrations Of this mystic
rious form of cerebral disease The instan
ces on record of the dreadful exercise of this
perverted instinct, under circumstances the
most peculiar and affecting, are numerous
and well authenticated, and the law is now
we'll established under cerebral Psychologists,
that to persons thus diseased, the latent i'm
pulse-the lurking demons often forced
into resistless action by the influence of
striking or notorious example. One startling
and celebrated murder is the sure herald OF
| several. The notoriety attracts to congo
NAL crime the diseased minds of thousands ;
morbid sympathy is created there IS fas-
cination in the gulf; the diseased propensity
| is stimulated, excited, and made to overwhelm
both volition and reason. The last agency
wanted is supplied to make the madness cu-
inmate"
| Love of notoriety is strong incentive to
crime. The man who was killed by attach
ing himself to rocket, and he who threw
himself into the crater Of Nit. Vesuvius,
were no doubt stimulated by desire for pos
thumus fame. Shortly after the suicide at
the Monument, boy made an unsuccessful
attempt to poison himself; and on being
questioned as to his motives, he said he wish
ed to be talked about, like the woman who
killed herself at the Monument