The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-05-02
THE PRESS.
Monday Morning, May 3, 1870.
Stoned TO Death by Mistake.

The calamity at Richmond is appalling
enough, certainly, but it is not so sad, all
things considered, as the tragedy that occur
red the other day at Middle Village, Long
Island. Thomas Malheau happened to be old
and poor, and his fellow citizens on account
of the not uncommon mistake of assuming
the indications of poverty to be those of vice.
stoned him to death forthwith as a burglar
We dare say they were very sorry indeed when
they learned that be was harmless old gen.
tieman with 20 taste for burglary whatever.
But contemporary history is silent on the SUBJ
]ect OF the emotions of the Middle Villagers
on the occasion. They passed their victim
over to the physicians after they had fractur-
ed his skull and inflicted other serious inju-
ries, external and internal, that proved fatal.
We say that the death of this old tatterde-
malion is a more serious matter than the
Richmond calamity, because it is palmer
and more painful indie ltion of the continued
insecurity of INDECENT humanity under our i'm
perfect civilization. We do not expect of iron,
stone and wood any humanitarian progress.
They are expected to obey the law of gravita-
ton, and to obey it without reference to cir
cumstances. But it is not little discourage
ing to find that after all the amelioration of
laws and customs-after all the quickening Of
human sympathies and all the progress of
philanthropic enterprise in this last half of
the nineteenth century, it is possible for a
man to suffer ignominious death in the heart
Of the most civilized country on the globe
merely because he bears upon his person the
evidences of poverty!
1t is of no avail for any one who supposes
that we exaggerate the significance of this
accidental homicide to say that the human
race may be regarded as on the whole opposed
to stoning poor people to death, and that the
rL. $3.50 uue; Dut the incident shows
precisely what we claim for it,-that we have
not yet reached stage of civilization where
poverty is not possible occasion for the in
Fiction OF the death penalty while it is COM
monty the occasion Of insult and wrong 1t
does not surprise us much to find that in CO.
lonial days persons suffered for witchcraft who
were subject to three serious disabilities-they
were women, they were old, they were poor.
Under such curcumstances-beingd deprived of
all the projections to life and liberty which
exist among an uncivilized people-it is not
strange that they were brought to the gibbet
or the stake. But it is surprising to find that
poverty and age are still sources of mortal peril
to innocent men or women.
Such incidents as the death of Malheau are
revelations. They disclose the secret of the
madness for the acquisition OF wealth which is
the bane of human society. They show that
wealth is the only guaranty for security
which exists in the present condition of af-
fairs. Men struggle for money and get it at all
regards and at all sacrifices because they are
haunted by an awful sense of insecurity with
out it, They see what terrible CULTS yawn at
their feet physical as well as moral
woes await them, if they do not possess the
shield Of wealth. Of course this can never
end SO long as society is based upon the mu-
tual antagonism Of its members, of which an
tagonism money is the symbol and material
representative. The New Testament speaks
OF brotherhood based upon the mutual sup
port OF its members, and upon their efforts
for the common good. But the pulpit main
ly ignores all that, and of course the newspa-
er must.