Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-23
Mnrderin New York.

The wanton murder of ONeil in New York
on Monday, was the occasion for a somewhat
significant outbreak of public indignation. The
murderer and his victim had just come from the
presence of an officer of the court where the lat
ter had testified in a suit pending against the
former. Before leaving the building, King drew
pistol and shot O'Neil in the back, killing him
almost instantly. The murderer showed no
sign of excitement, and made no effort to es-
cape. He had evidently weighed the motives TO
the crime against the probable consequences,
and decided that he could afford to crafty his
enmty at the cost Of short Imprisonment,
followed by trial and acquittaI. If the nomi-
nal peualty of the law for deliberate murder
occurred TO him at all, it was doubtless dis
missed from his thoughts as too remote and con.
tingent TO influence the decision of a practical
man. He was perfectly calm and indi ferent
when arrested, and as he was led
down stairs toward the street; but when
he saw beyond the open door an ex-
cited throng of men crying, Lynch him
Lynch himP his courage failed and he was
overwhelmed with abject terror. That was not
pleasant crowd to face; it was not made up of
idle, thoughtless persons, of passionate, excita-
bic men, whose rage, quickly provoked subsidies
as quickly, but of serious, responsible citizens
moved to irrepressible indignation by the crime
so defantly committed almost in their presence,
and the reflection that the law, through cor
rupt and weak administration, had ceased TO be
terror to assassns OIL a protection to orderly
citizens
II is not strange that they were impelled to
take the law into their own hands and inflict its
penalties without regard to its forms, which ex-
perience had taught them are so constantly
perverted to the defeat of justice. But this
criminal escaped. The officers defended him
from the angry crowd and took him safely to
the prison, from which, after a time, he will no
doubt be discharged in safety to commit other
murders, if anybody happens to give what he
thinks sufficient proyocatioD. But others be-
sides the murderer had better take warning from
this outbreak. The patience of New York has
been sorely tried. The villains in private station
are defiant because they trust to the protection
of their insolent accomplices in office.
There is promise of reform, but it
must go further than Improvement in
the management of the city's pecuniary affairs
if the danger of violent interference with the
administration Of law is to be averted. The people
of the city are reminding each other that a
score Of murderers, some Of them the authors
of crimes committed in open day and in public
places without pretence of concealment, are
now in the city prison, and that nobody believes
a single one of them will pay the penalty of his
crime, unless it may be some poor, friendless
wretch like Jack Reynolds, who was sacrificed
deseryedly, no doubt, but not so much because
he had committed murder as because he had
the assurance to claim the IMMUNITY which
money and Influence" give, and was foolish
enough to boast that even for such as he Chang
ing was played out"
The cause of this evil is to be found not solely
in the bad character or the weakness of those
whose duty it is TO administer the laws, but, we
believe, in part, at least, to the oyerrefnement
and excessive complication of the processes
which the laws provide for ascertaining the
guilt and determining the punishment of crmi.
nails The steps 10 be taken are so many, all
beset with opportunities for mistakes and obiec.
tions; the degrees Of homicide are SO numerous,
and separated by so nice distinctions, and there
IS such a succession Of courts to which the case
of person who happens, in spite of all obsta-
Giles, to be convicted, may be carried, that
the force of the natural tendency toward
justice is broken and wasted in conten-
tions with these barriers, and the Grim.
inal is allowed at last to escape through sheer
WEAKNESS and disgust with the hopelessness of
the effort to secure for him what according 10
the spirit Of the law is plainly his desert. The
evil exists, as all admit, whether its cause is
recognized or not, and no one ventures TO say
that cure has been found or would be applied
if it were offered. 1t is hard to say whether il
is more hopeful or ominous symptom that
such staid and respectable journals as the Even
ing Post and the Journal of Commerce speak
with tolerance and almost with announcement
Of threats of lynch law and vigilance commit.
tees, and one of them goes so far as to suggest
that "a few doses Of lamppost administered by
indignant citizens" might have had a good
effect during the last decade.
The statement of the present occupations of
the graduates Of the Worcester Free In.
stitute, published in connection with
the catalogue, gives srong testimony
70 the practical value OF the training re.
ceyed there. Of the sixteen graduates of last
year four are teachers Of chemistry or drawing,
or BOTH one Of them in the high school in Law.
renee, one in the high school of Middletown,
connecticut, one in the public schools of Ceye.
land, Ohio, aud one in an academy at Bridge.
ton, New Jersey. Other graduates of this and
the former year are civil engineers, architects.
draughtsmeu, &C, in various private and public
Offices. But still better proof Of the scboops
usefulness is found in the fact that nioo
Of the young men who have been mem.
bers OF the two classes are WORKING
a. journeymen 10 manufacturing establish.
ments in this city aud elsewhere They
are, tits 70 DC presumed, not inferior to their
fellow workmen in manual dexterity, while
they doubtless excel most Of them in the higher
departments Of their handicrBit, such as the
ability TO design machinery, to make accurate
working drawings, and in the principles Of
science applicable to their pursuits, as well as
In general culture and knowledge. In thus
endiag out well educated aud accomplished