The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-05-24
smoke WIS sure to ascend with a satisfied,

smoke WIS sure to ascend with satisfied,
confident carl far into the sky.
Gains, on the contrary, refused to burn.
We can see it ALL The smoke struggled
and Topped. 1t crept along the ground, and
clinging to his feet, wound about him like a
serpent 1t grew black and angry, shot
sideways into his eyes, binding and strang-
ling him ~
And there stood Abel beside his pile, ra.
diant, satisfied, wanting to be an angel.
1t was but the work of moment. The
pent-up, disorganizing influences of a life
time found vent in one wild moment of emo
tional insanity. Abel was no morel
Why dwell upon the tragedy? The world
is familiar with its sickening details. We
shall not repeat them here, nor shall we
question the justice Of the punishment that
came to Cain-the remorse, the desolation,
the sense Of being fugitive and a vagabond
on the face of the earth. He had killed his
brother, and the penalty must be paid.
Sane or insane, a terrible retribution must
have overtaken him. But how about his
guilt? Would it have been the same in
either case? Are hereditary organism,
temperamental excitability, emotional phren-
sy not to be considered? No, thousand
times NO! What competent juror would
acquesce in such proposition.
Friends, the time has come when this
case must be taken up. Its mighty issues
can no longer be set aside. If Cain was
not sane at the moment OF the killing, the
stain Of murder must be wiped from his brow
now and forever. This tardy justice may
at least be done him. Our children and
our childrens children must be taught to
speak Of Cain the man-slaughtsrer Cain
the mentally -excitable; Cain the peculiarly
circumstanced. But Cain the murderer?
Never
A mans own testimony shall not convict
or acquit him. But we are not to take
into account, as indicative of his state Of
mind, actions and declarations coincident
with the commission of the crime alleged
against him? II at or about the time of the
fatal deed, there was positive evidence of
incoherence-what then? Witness the last
recorded words of Cain:
EVERY ONE THAT FINDEru ME- SHALL STAY
NE.
Is this the utterance OF u sane mind
Erery one that fndeth me shall Stay me?
Gentlemen Cain, at this point, was not on
ly crazy-he was the craziest man that ever
existed No ordinary lunatlc, however
preposterous his terrors, expects to be killed
more than once. But to this poor creature
retribution suddenly assumed a hydra-head
ed form. His distracted brain, unconscious
that Adam was the only other man in the
wide world, instantly created an immense
population. He saw himself falling again
and again by the strokes of successive as
sassins, even as Abel had fallen under his
hand. His first dazed glimpse of death ex-
banded and intensified into horror never
since conceived by mind of man. His hap
piness overthrow; his reason wreck; a
prey to fears that stretched before him for
ever, with no possible hope of final destruc-
tion-the only consolation is that he could
not foreknow the merciless verdict of pos
terity. He did not recognize in himself
The First Murderer. Rather than dream
of such ignominy as this, was it not better
that he should cry in his rawlings: Every
one that fndeth me shall STAY mel
We leave the question to the intelligence
and the justice of this faithful and enlight-
ened century.-Scri5ner's Monthly.