The weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1872-1882, 1872-11-16

ICVAuAU shuN CVACAAU0s AAtss juSVAS
which the law sometimes denie!
the universal contempt and abho1
renee of mankind often replaces
and young Crittenden only wrong
; his own desire for vengeance by a
act which gives the murderess
plausible excuse for assuming til
role Of the martyr. -
! But having thus expressed ou
entire disapprovl Of MIR. Critten
denis course, we may be permitted
to repeat that it was but the natura
outcome of the events which pre-
ceded it. The maddening sense o
Outrage, the frenzy Of despair ant
humiliation, which must possess ,
man who sees his father brutal,
shot down in cold blood, and thu
murderess TRANQUILITY exonerated b,
a jury Of her countrymen, hardl!
any effort of imagination will helt
one to realize without actual expe'
rience. Such verdicts as this which
has just disgraced San Francisco
and which has many no less dis.
graceful precedents, must necessar-
ily cause men to forget that distinc.
ton of sex which such women as
Mrs. Fair remember only when they
need it as the shield OF, most un-
womanly crimes. If women resort
to the weapons Of men, they must
expect to be met with mems weap-
ons; if they deliberately unsex
themselves, it is hard to see on
what score they can any longer
claim consideration by reason OF
their sex. And if juries persist in
holding forth to women this virtual
immunity of murder; there can be
but one issue from the violence of
human passions. If young Critten-
den should kill Mrs Fair for killing
his father, the jury that acquitted
her might very possibly hang him.
Public sentiment might even assent
to the punishment, but it would be
with a conscious shock. Aud the
next man who, under similar cir
cumstances, shot the next woman
would probably not be hanged at
all; in other words, We should re-
vert to a primative condition of So
cial anarchy.
To escape this inevitable and logi-
cal result two things are necessary;
first, such general reform of our
jury system as shall make intelli-
gence and not ignorance the essen
tial qualification Of q juror; second,
a resolute and final declaration of
public opinion against any recogni-
ton Of sex in crime. A woman
murderer, convicted after a fair trial
must be regarded and treated pre-
cisely as o man in the same con-
the fact that she is woman
must in no case blind her judges to
the fact that she is q murderess, or
avail so much as q feathers weight
to preserve her from the full SEN
tence of the law. And if to hang
women be repugnant to the spirit Of
modern civilization, as seems clearly
to be the case, let that fact also be
recognized on the statute books,
but let q suitable penalty be substi-
tuted and impartially enforced. No
law is better than q law habitually
no class is so danger
ous to the public welfare as a class
which feels itself privileged to do
syil. Neither that indulgent gal |
antry which is a part Of social edu-
,ation, nor that deeper feeling Of
reverence for womanhood inherent
n the blood Of Northern races,
must blind us to the truth that wo-
men can and do commit the most
Itrooious crimes, and that bad wo-
nen are even more dangerous, as
hey are more revolving, than bad
men. Until we give earnest and
enforcement Of this truth
n our murder trials, our laws
'eaiDst homicide might as well, 90
a as real justice is concerned, be-
epealed at once.-Ne.o York Times.