Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1870-05-05

ting IRE 10 the mouse, anu tuou sue cfieu
piteously, aud without seeming to think
there was anything suggestive about the
blood upon her hands, her clothing and
the baby, volunteered the remark that
she was afraid those men had murdered
her mistress! Afterward, by her own
confession, and other testimony, it was
proved that the mistress had always been
kind to the girl, consequently there was
no revenge In the murder; and it was
also shown that the girl took nothing
away from the burning house, not even
her own shoes, and consequently robbery
was not the motive. Now the reader
says. Here comes that same old plea of
insanity again" But the reader has de-
ceived himself this time. No such plea
was offered in her defense. The Judge
sentenced her, nobody prosecuted the
Governor with petitions for her pardon,
and she was promptly hanged.
There was that youth in Pennsylva.
MIA, whose curious confession was pub
lished year ago. 1t was simply con
olomeration of incoherent drivel from be-
ginning to end-and so was his lengthy
speech on the scaffold afterward. For a
whole year he was haunted with desire
to disfigure certain young woman, so
that no one would marry her. He did
not love her himself, and did not want
to marry her, but he did not want any
body else to do it. He would not 60
anywhere with her, and yet was opposed
to anybody else's escorting her. Upon
one occasion he declined to go to we'd
ding with her, and when she got other
company, lay in wait for the couple by
the road, intending to make them 60
back or kill the escort. After spending
sleepless nights over his ruling desire for
full year, he at last attempted its exc
cution-that is, attempted to disfigure
the Young woman. II was success -
1t was permanent. In trying to shoot
her cheek las she sat at the supper table
with her parents and brothers and SIS
ters) in such manner as to mar its
comeliness, one of his bullets wandered
little out of the course and she drop
ped dead. To the very last moment OF
his life he bewailed the i'll luck that made
her move her face just at the critical mo-
ment. And so he died apparently about
half persuaded that somehow it was
chiefly her own fault that she got killed.
This idiot was hanged. The plea of in
sanity was not offUhd.
The recent case of Lady Mordaunt. in
England, has proved beyond cavil that
the thino we call common prostitution in
America is only insanity IN iTreat Britain.
Her husband wanted divorce, but as
her pecuiarities were the offspring of lu-
macy, and consequently she could not be
held responsible for them, he had to take
her to his bosom again. 1t is sad to
think of dozen or two of great Eng.
lish lords taking advantage of poor
crazy woman. In this country, if histo-
ry be worth anything to judge by, the
husband would Fave rented graveyard
and stocked it, and then brought the di-
vorce suit afterward. In which case the
jury would have brought him in insane,
not bis wife.
Insanity certainly is on the increase in
the world, and crime is dying out
There are no longer any murders none
worth mentioning, at any rate. Former
ly. if you killed man, it was possible
that you were insane-but now if you
kill man it is evidence that you are a
lunatic. Iu these days, too, if a person
of good family and high social standing
steals anything, they call it heptonsania,
and send him to the lunatic asylum. II
a person of high standing squanders his
fortune in dissipation, and closes bis ca
reer with strychnine or bullet, Tenn
porary Alteration" is what was the
trouble with him. And finally, as be-
fore noted, the list is capped with new
and curious madness in the shape OF
wholesale adultery.
Is not this insanity plea becoming
rather common? Is it not so common
that the reader confidently expects to see
it offered in every criminal case coming
before the courts? And is it not so
cheap, and SO common, and often SO triv
ial, that the reader smiles in derison
when the newspapers mention it? And
is it not curious to note how very often it
wins acquittal for the prisoner? Lately
it does not seem possibly for man to SO
conduct himself, before killing another
man, as not to be manifestly insane. II
he talks about the stars he is insane. Ii
no appears nervous and uneasy an hour
before the killing he is insane. If he
weeps over a great grief his friends
shake their heads and fear that he is
"not right" If. an hour after the MUIR
der, he seems i'll at ease, preoccupied
and excited, he is upquestionably insane.
Really, what we want now is not
laws against crime, but a law against
insanity. There is where the true evil
lies.