The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-22


American jury has apparently adopted some |
thing of the same impious doctrine, and
thinks itself called to right this wrong Of
creation in every possible way. The ladies
of The Revolution inform us that women
never get their rights at the hands of the
men, and we heartily agree with this state
ment so far as jurors are concerned
Almost every week there is some scandalous
case Of breach of promise, where a woman
brings q brazen forehead and package of
love.letters into court, and her lawyer cajoles
O jury into furnishing man by the conhs-
cation of half his substance, for having
found out that the woman he was engaged
to was not the sort of person he wanted
for wife. If the man be old and ugly,
and tie woman young and pretty, the un-
fortunate wretch is lucky if the Jury leaves
him cent to pay his funeral expenses In
that disgraceful case in Illinois, there is no
doubt that poor Sprague's bad spelling cost
him an additional fifty thousand dollars.
There we're no damages high enough to COM
pensate a charming young woman for the
cruel wrong of being Tilted by gray-headed
miscreant who spelt the name of his Re-
deemer with e. On several occasions in
recent years indiscreet young ladies have
shot their acquaintance whom they could
not persuade into matrimony, and have been
held blameless by fearful juries amid the
snuffiing of sympathetic bystanders.
1t is not the aesthetic sense that is appealed
to in most of these instances. We cannot
help making great allowances for those sensi-
tive and beauty loving Greeks who we're daz-
zled out of judicial calm by the unveiled per-
fection of Phyrne. But most of our criminal
women to-day have nothing but sex to plead
for them, and that is usually all-sufficient.
If any of our fair readers contemplate MUIR
der, let them take heart and courage from the
proceedings on Monday in the Court of
General Sessions. Miss Margaret Dunn,
called for her heroic stature Big Mag, was on
trial for the killing of William Davis one night
last summer. Davis was familiar aequaint-
ance of hers, and she had, on the evening in
question, invited him to visit her. He went
to her room in state of intoxication, and,
not finding her there, fell asleep on her bed.
This amiable dove, returning to her nest,
was SO incensed at the liberty her friend had
taken, that she mashed his skull "with a
broken whiflietree, and then threw him out
in the lobby to die. Being tried for this
crime, the gallant jurymen found her guilty
only of manslaughter in the second degree.
Recorder Hackett sentenced her to short
tenn of imprisonment, as the extreme pen
atty possible under such a verdict; and we
may expect to see a lachrymose petition for
pardon circulating before long, that this gen.
tie being may be restored again to the bosom
of society. If she could be married to the
jury, it would be every way desirable, and
the deodand whiffetree should be given as a
dowry.
1t is, of course, unnecessary for us to re-
peat Our conviction that the hanging of men
and women is not good or wholesome thing
for rsociety. 1t is altogether likely that with
the abolition of the death penalty we would
see the end of these ghastly farces where
women are concerned No one wishes to
hang woman, and therefore it is that men
bring in these illogical verdicts. But while
bad laws exist they should be executed, and
thus the sooner amended. jury has no
right to consider the sex of a criminal in de-
termining the degree of crime. But for these
alterations the public sentiment is more
blameworthy than the irresponsible men who
| sit on juriea. 1t requires q great deal of
moral courage to pronounce a woman guilty
| of the crime of murder. The very people
| who believe in the justice of your verdict
| will denounce you for 1t some day when occa-
sion offers. General Butler is good enough
| lawyer to know that Mrs. Surratt was proven
| guilty of treason and murder, and yet he
| could not resist the temptation of saying in
| his smart way that Mr.. Bingham had her in
nocent blood on his soul.
1t is fact not without significance that
| this sentimentality in courts of Justice in
| regard to female criminals has rather in
| creased than diminished in recent days. Amid
all the changes of law and custom that have
resulted in giving larger freedom to women,
both of person and property, there is no
symptom that they are to be held to a stricter
accountability as moral beings. Our ancestors
used to hang thief or burn a witch indiffe-
rent to the accident of short hose or farthin.
gale. Perhaps, after all, this may indicate
that in the broader and more humane civil
zation of the future woman is to find her
condition improved by the general advance
of the race, which will give to her all needful
| rights and safeguards, without the accom-.
panying responsibilities inseparable from 9
severe and unprotected equality.