The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-07-12
THE PROGRESS OF CRIME.

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penalty for parricide, answered: "dVe
haven penalty for an impossible crime"
Modern sentimentalism has changed the
creed by simply leaving out the word
impossible" Parricide is no longer
murder, but manslaughter. "Justifiable
homicide" the jury in the Walworth
case would have liked to have given in;
only the progress of opinion is not suffi-
GENTLY advanced to do away with all
punishment, even if it is only a trouble
some parent put out Of the way.
The trial and sentence of Frank H.
Walworth is a disgrace to the country at
large and the special tribunal before
which he appeared. It is significant too
of the vicious bias of modern society,
that this man, whose hands are stained
with his fathers blood has, during his
imprisonment, been the recipient of a
thousand little tokens of sympathy from
gentlemen high in character and posi-
ton, and ladies in the first circles Of
Northern society. Let us examine into
his claims to thatsympathy. Theyoung
man sends for his fatheE to his hotel.
There is no doubt this father was a bad
MAJ enough, and in the habit of making
foolish m~elodramatic threats against his
wife, from whom he was separated, and
their children who remained with her.
But NJ. T. Walworth was a novelist by
profession, and a very sensational one
at that, and who can say how much the
ideal situations and denouements into
which he threw himself, in his daily
work, had to do with his actual letters
to his wife. Besides, she was many
hundred miles away-safe enough, and
threats on paper from a professional SEN
~sationalist amounts to very little.
The son, however, reasoned differently.
He comes to New York and, as we said
before, requests his fathert to meet him at
a certain time. When he arrives Frank
Walworth locks the door, draws his pis-
toll and then requires his father to prom
Use that he will cease his threats against
his mother and himself. The father
promises doubtless surprised that his
rawlings have been taken al ser5eWG and
a little dispute arose, which the young
man settled by shooting his father four
times, even while he had fallen to the
ground and cried piteously for mercy.
But worse than all that's the utter un-
consciousness of the criminal of the,
enormity Of his guilt. He gives himself
up cooiIy to the authorities, recapitula-
ting the tragedy as if it was a trife. He
meets his trial with the same stolid in
difference, listening to the testimony,
and even repeatingh his fathers pleadings
for life, as if he was a witness against
some one else. In fact he evidently
thought he had done a praiseworthy act
killed avenomOus serpent coiled in his
path, anddeserved praise instead of pun
ishment for seeking to shield his mother
against danger.
We have heard of Vendettas, when in
the heated blood, when enormous crimes
have been committed, but like this par
ricide, never one.
We distrust Mrs. Walworth. We do
not think we do her injustice when we
say the crime of her son must have been
the bloody fruit of her own teachings.
From his earliest recollection he had
probably heard his father denounced as
destitute of all human feeling, and out
side of all human sympathies, and that
his death would be a benefit. Itrequires
a long course of training toenable a man
to coolly put aside all the restrictive in
fuence of flial ties, and hunt down a
parent as he would a wild beast. And
after the murder is done, it is a singular
philosophy which, instead of making
him hide his head like Cain, that men
might not see the brand on it, on the
contrary uprears it in defiance of the old
superstition of the saeredness of the pa
rental tie.
We think crime eliminates when it
reaches such d point. When murderers
and their victims reverse the order Of
nature, there is no doubt the frenzy viii
be short-lived. "a few more such cases,
and the sentimentalities which have
saved this parricide viii give place to a
natural dread that the tragedy might re-
peat itself in any family-we think then
such a crime will meet with it's fit penal
ty, and be no more tolerated in the land.
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.-Last Thurs
day, iJuly 3d) WhilesWm. M. Nicholson,
Q well known citizen Of this parish, iv-
ing on the West Fork of the Calcasieu
river, about nine miles from here, was
riding by the side Of his log cart, about
bali amile north of Ritehie's Ferry, a
young man named Benjamin Sellers
stepped from behind u tree by the side |
OF the road, with q double barreled gun,
and deliberately shot Mr.. Nicholson
from his horse, aud then walked around
- &Iln hnlv ~ thn dssnn rsoAin, 81 |