Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-12-05
Desperadoes and Artists = Crime and
Conscience-A Professional Burglar
at Prairie du Chien-How to
Use Chloroform and How to
Manage" a Window.

burglary, larceny, counterfeitiAg,
etc., would take their places among
the fine arts. The modern facilities
of travel and locomotion have enabled
the desperate classes that follow
these pursuits to unite themselves in
one great commonwealth and form
a sort of imperium an iDlpSriO, gov
ernment inside of government.
They are as we'll organized as the
KuKlux of the South, provided with
passwords, grips and signs of recog-
milton. These desperadoes have no
written history or laws; but they
have traditions and codes of ethics
among themselves which it is dan
gerous, if not death, for any member
to violate The objects and purposes
OF every human organization must in
some way or other be reconciled
with the conscience of its members,
otherwise the society would decom-
pose like rope of sand. We mis-
take if we suppose there is no con-
science or sense of justice among pro-
tessional thieves and burglars. Many
q professional robber feels and thinks
he is entrusted with a sacred mission.
The money monopoIists, the dollar
ocracy, have headed off the rest of
the world and got possession of all
the gold and greenbacks, and secret
ed them in safes with com bination
locks, and justice and good will to
men requires that these iron doors be
opened, and the boarded treasures be
redistributed. The classes of soce~
ty we allude to, like the Frence Com
mune, regard the exclusive possess
sion Of property q robbery, and it
can only be equalized by counter
robbery, larceny or initiating the
channels Of trade with counterfeit
money.
Conscience in its simplest form is
an innate impulse to do good to our
fellow men. The we'll meaning en-
thusiast or theorist, often through
mistake, adopts measures and COM
duct that defeats bis purpose. But
the most desperate villain usually
respects the moral impulse to some
extent, and endeavors to persuade
himself that crime is stigma impos-
cd on bis class by the tyrants Of soci-
ETY. whose usurpation should be over.
thrown. 1t follows from what we
have said that it is next to impossi.
BILE to reform the ethical or conscien-
tous villain.
The man who has taken the hui
man life through some sudden im>
pulse of passion, so our Prison Com
missioner says, is generally deeply
penitent, and passion and anger are
subdued, and LIE becomes the most
harmless and inoffensivc Of men But
the professional thiet-the burglar,
the counterieiter-that class of Grim
inals whose sophistry has reconciled
their crimes with their conscience,
serve successive terms in the State
prison, and as soon as they recover
their freedom they pursue their form
err practises. Their attachments,
sympathies, friendships and their
perperted moral sense bind them to
that class of villains who pray upon
society, and this is bond that no
prison discipline can break.
There is 40 better illustration of
what we have said than the trial and
and conviction recently at Prairie
du Chen of noted burglar, who
had served two or three years in
the State Prison before, under the
name of John b. LdriR from this
county. In September last he APP
peared in that place by tho name of
SteceaS he lodged with an old aos
quaintance-a compound of Indian,
French and medicine man-who pre-
ceeded him there several weeks and
opened grocery. Between the two
several outrageous burglares were
perpetrated in one night. The peo-
pie became excited TO such an ex.
tent that the Indian doctor deter
mined to expose Stevens, whether to
screen himself or for what reason is
not known. The day after the bur-
glaries the doctor proposed to intro.
ducc Stevens to q confederate of his,
young man whom be represented
to be capable Of the most daring ad
ventures, such as he was planning
for the coming night. Young NAL
comson was dashing, shrewd and ins
telligeut, and undertook the difficult
role of deceiving and entrapping one
OF the most wary and experienced ex-
perts that ever practised in Prairie du
CHEN He succeeded even to his
astonishment. He was taught by
the Indian doctor in the passwords
and signs. After introduction to
Stevens the latter asked "what kind
OF a horse do you ride 2" "a fast
horse to be sure, replied Malcomson.
The usual ceremonies and motions
we'll executed ut once admitted
him into Stevens confidence, Bum
pers of lager beer were alternated
with charges of forty rod wblskey,
and Stevens became loquacious, and
dwelt on his various exploits and the
mysteries of his profession, instruct-
ing his young friend in every branch