The Hickman courier., 1872-05-11
A SOCIAL MYSTERY.
In the Devil In the women
TProm the Boston Post. ]

Prom the Boston Post.
The unwanted number Of women who
are now on trial for hideous crimes in
this country. and the frequency of such
cases, both in England and in the United
States during the last year or so, show
mysterious freak in the epidemic OF sin.
The great criminals of the age seem to
be no longer hardened aud hirsute Tut-
6sns, iUhamed by passion, greed, or ma
lignant eumity, but women and not only
women. but women often of hitherto un-
suspected reputation, comely and some
times beautiful in person, refined iu man
uers. endowed with education, aud NOV
ing IN respectable and even aristocratic
circles of society. No Que who read the
details of the late trial OF Mrs. Far In
San Francisco. forthe shooting OF Judge
Crittenden, could doubt the brilliancy OF
her mind, or the wide range Of her at
tainments correspondents grew ecstauc
over her beauty. and her eloouence more
than once thrilled the court in whose
dock she eioo with the stigma Of scarce
ly- doubted crime upon her. Mrs. Fair
is no common woman--neither is Mrs,
Wharton, who was charged before Bal
timore court with having poisoned hus-
bands and friends indiscriminately the
| latter was accustomed 10 excellent socie-
ty. in which she il said TO have moved
with grace and influence. while her de.
voted daughter won the admiration of all
who saw her in Court. Quickly succeed
ing these cases, we are confronted with
the arraignment of Mrs. Sherman. ia
Connecticut, for poisoning her husband
with arsenic. with the appearance Of the
dead mans young son upon the stand as
a witness for the prosecution; with the
trial of Fanny Hyde in Brooklyn, for
killing her former employer Watson
and with the discovery of a wholesale
poisoning case in Leesburg. Va, where
a Mrs. Lloyd is charged with having
made way with her entire family-Mrs.
Lloyd being described by the ubiquitous
reporter as "A lady of prepossessing sp-
pearance." calmly denying the not very
soft impeachment against her.
simultaneously with this food Of fem
mime ferociiy here, the cases of Lady
Mordaunt. Lady Twiss, Mrs. Darlington,
and Mrs Goodrich reach US from Eug-
land. and serve to confound all our phil
osophy with the proof of a mysterious
screw IoOee somewhere 10 tue sOCidi iAD-
ric. Why has crime changed its iustru-
ment. aud taking the pistol, the dagger,
and the poison bottle from the knot;y
bands of the bearded villain, placed them
between the delicate blue-veined hugers,
diamond studded and velvet skiuued7
What impaiience at the restraints OF do
nestle fies, bitter rebellion against mar
riage laws. dark temptations of unsstia-
ted passion, Gres of revenge aud jealousy,
extravaganza of life. looseness OF habits,
worse than foolish over fonduess for
dress. have brought about this holocaust
Of feminine subjects for the hangman
and the prison Is il the new and start
ling doctrines that are abroad that have
been stunned. then pitied, and are now
embraced? Certain it Is that the cpl
demic Of crime ruos in sexeconpS we'll as
fimes@ and pisces but rho Rzzr-et h-r-
vest. proceeding possibly from the seed
Of a few examples can hardly he account.
ed for by the ordinary theories Of social
science