Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-08-03
THE WAY OF THE TRANSMISSION IS
HARD

THE WAY OF THE TRAEsGREss0R is
HARD.
There is a text to be found somewhere
between the lids of the Bible, which
runs thus: The way of the transgressor
is hard. Nothing was ever truer. Those
who have not realized the fact themselves
have discovered it in the history of the
lives of others. There is a retributive
Justice in all things. Any violation of a
law of nature brings its own punish
ment Any violation of the laws OF So
ciety, if not followed by physical pun
ishment, brings a mental anxiety or
an intellectual agony that is more bitter
than Imprisonment and more torturing
than stripes There is Forester, the
murderer of the rich jew, Nathan, in
New York. When Kelsos proclamation
offering reward for him was published,
he was in Chicago. He fed to Texas
and from there to Scotland, where his
parents reside. Detective Pinkerton
was put on his track, followed him to
his home, and though he did not find
him, ascertained that he was in Eng
land, and put the English detectives
on the alert We know nothing
of the mental organization Of For
roster, but if he IS human he must
be one of the most miserable wretches
unsuspended between heaven and earth
by rope. He knows the instruments
Of outraged law are on his trail, and
that steam and electricity are their aux
iliaries. The lightning is flashing all
over and around him, and the locomo-
tive is screaming and putting and pursu-
ing him at the rate of forty miles an
hour. Every human face he looks upon
is regarded with suspicion. No one is
to be trusted. The instruments Of a
broken law may appear in any guise,
even in that Of female, or beggar,
or clown, or in any garb which inge-
nuity may suggest His sleep is no
sleep at all. He starts from a half
dreamed dream and gazes with despair
ing eyes into the darkness The very
whispers of the wind lingering among
the trees ST. all the innocent trees -
Brighten him. He hears in the disoI-
dered ear of his fancy the noise Of step |
that pursues him ever and infallibly. |
1t is tracking him to his doom. 1t
thumps upon an imaginary pavement
like a wooden-leg upon a real one. If
he fly to the forest, that step follows
breaking the rotten twigs and rafting
among the dry leaves. There is no city
of refuge for him. 1t is in vain that he
flies to foreign country. 1t so hap
pens that a man who commits crime in
this country may be arrested in any |
civilized country on the earth, and re-
turned here to answer to justice. The
codes of all nations define the crime Of
murder in the same or similar terms !
A man who commits certain offenses in |
any one of the states Of Europe and
flies to this country, will be arrested if
possible, and sent home to be tried by
the law that has been violated. For
roster made a mistake in going to Scot
land. His capture is certain. If he
had plunged into the wildernesses Of
Texas he might have escaped;
but escape now is impossible.
Why he killed old Nathan is a question
that remains unanswered. Whatever the
motiYe was, the act was the one fatal
mistake Of his life. No man ever com
mitted a capital crime with the conse-
quences of it staring palpably in his
face. There may be the deliberation
that constitutes murder, but the mind
wrought up to bloody frenzy can per
ceive but the act, and is oblivious of
consequences. After the deed is done
and the mind reacts, the infatuated
wretch would give worlds if it
were not done. Henceforth he is
changed man, and lives in a new world,
a sort of earthly hell Of his own ere
ating. Young men and old men should
learn to endure wrong rather than fly to
their revenge AID then take their second
fight, from kith and kindred, from So
ciety, from love, from sympathy, from
the bright green world to that into whose
starless, moonless night no eye ever
gazes, save that Of a murderer. Surely,
the way Of the transgressor is hard.