The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-04

Murder.
The hideous catalogue which murder has
been SO industriously filing up for few years
past in this city received its blacklist stain
Yesterday in parricide which, for cold
blooded deliberation and fiendish malice, has
no precedent on our criminal calendar. The
dangerous character Of the too prevalent
feeling that wrongs, fancied or otherwise,
must be expiated in blood, and the frequent
resort to knife or pistol as arguments in a
quarrel received startling significance in
this latest crime that cannot fail to awaken
the entire community to sense of danger.
The parties in this tragedy belong to
one of the Oldest most distinguished
and most honored families in the
State, and were, by their position
and surroundings, supposed to be far removed
from that foul atmosphere in which criminals
are bred and brought to maturity. Mr.. Mans
field Tracy Walworth, the son of the eminent
Chancellor, whose decisions in cases of equity
are quoted to-day in every court in the United
States and are regarded in such cases as
binding, is the victim in this tragedy, and his
eldest son, hardly twenty years of age is the
murderer The details Of the unnatural crime
are so frightful that they would be regarded
with incredulity had the tragedy taken place
in some remote part of the world instead Of ct
our own doors. The GOODNESS and deliberation
displayed by the youthful parricide, over whose
head scarcely score Of Summers have passed,
reveal o depth of depravity that we
shudder to contemplate. We are accustomed
to read Of murders, to which drunkenness
sudden passion or jealousy furnish q cause;
but when we are brought face to face with a
parricide deliberately planned and as de-
iberately carried out nameless horror
takes possession of the mind. Birth, name,
responsibility and education of the most un-
stinted kind are found arguments power
full enough to exclude the possibility OF crime.
Domestic difficulties, which, unhappily, are
not confined to any one circle of society,
would, according to fair reasoning, in this
case have been concealed from the prying eyes
of the world. The arguments mentioned
above might be considered as sufficient to
create in the bosoms of such
family shrinking delicacy and acute
sensibility, which, like the fortitude
inspiring the Spartan youth who suffered the
fox beneath his robe to tear out his life rather
than betray his theft, would compel them to
suffer in silence. Many an ill-used wife or
wronged husband may be found in this city,
and children are compelled to take sides with
either parent but at the worst the presence of
the skeleton in the closet is revealed in the
Court of justice. Red-handed murder is no
stranger in New York, but, on the contrary, o
too constant visitor, and the columns Of q
newspaper are filled with the records of crime.
But parricide or matricide, on which the
ancients looked with unutterable horror and
for which Orestes was given up prey to the
weird sisters, the Eumenides, is the climax of
crime, the browning Of the edifce whose
foundations have been laid by the foul fend
himself
In presence of this awful tragedy it would be
well to consider the condition OF affairs in our
social system that renders such thing possi-
ble and the loose administration of the law in
cases of homicide. Human life, we regret to
say, is held at a cheap price in this commu-
nifty, owing to the extraordinary, and in some
instances farcical character, of the administra-
ton Of the law in murder trials. Bond rob-
bers, highwaymen and burglars excite only
Indignation, and are hustled off at once to
prison, where, for period of ten or twenty
years, they have ample time to reflect on the
evil of their ways. But the murderer, espe-
cially if he be wealthy or well connected, is
quite different sort of being from those de-
graded wretches who forge your name,
steal your watch or break into your
house. After the first shock of
tragedy is passed the poor victim is forgotten
and the assassin becomes the lion of the day.
1t is suddenly discovered that he was once
shining light at Sunday school, and even min
listers of the Gospel may be found ready to
furnish testimonials of his immaculate charac-
ter at that time. Then somebody sets up
one, you know, who are suffering unmerited
disgrace on account of the unfortunate occur
renee, and the woes of this family are dwelt
upon so long and pathetically that in the end
it would appear as if they had suffered enough
without any further punishment being
melted out to their naughty kins-
man. Another person discovers that
the deceased, man or woman, was not
exactly what virtuous community would
demand, and forthwith there is cry of indig-
nation against the poor victim whose lips are
sealed in death. The memory Of the tragic
deed has well nigh faded out of the public
mind before the trial comes on, and when the
twelve 'good men and true are to be selected
the most nauseous part of the farce is enacted
An uninitiated bystander would imagine
that the unfortunate citizen on the
stand-worried on all sides by snarling
lawyers -was the criminal, and that the
meek-looking individual in the dock was