The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1873-01-30

to defend the oity in the sui. above
mentioned.
His Honor the Mayor appointed Alder
men Wilder, Cooper and Carpenter to
act as said committee -.
On motion of Alderman Thompson,
Council adjourned.
CHARLES BARNUM. City Clerk.
TIE PREVALENCE OF MURDEn.-A New
York letter to the Charleston Courier,
dated January %, 1873, says:
A few months since one of our oldest
and most revered Judges declared in
open court that in these luwless days
it behooved all good citizens to carry
arms; that he never ventured out with
out weapon upon his person. And the
mournfnl scenes OF the past week quite
justify this startling declaration. Muir
der is as common in New York now ns
street assaults were ten years, yen, fve
years ago. And peaceable citizens, bust
ness men, who must needs travel our
busy thoroughfares and come in contact
with the motley throngs that infest them,
feel, nay they kno,o that they take their
lives in their hands each time they leave
their home or Office. And they know,
too, that they must go armed; aud they
do. The spirit of rampant ruffianism is
by no means confined to the lower strata
of society. Stokes has ever moved
among people Of wealth and culture.
Foster ia the son Of man whose for.
tune is estimated by tho hundred thou
sand. King is lawyer and speoulator,
and his check is good for thousands at
his bank. Scanneil is ward politician
OF considerable note, and is wealthy,
though his money may not bo the fruit
OF good honest business. Sharkey is q
swell who has always been accustomed
to drive fast horses, and spend chou
sands In wine suppers and private then.
| tre boxes. Simmons owns property,
valued at 8500.000. All these men are
| talented to degree that removes them
! above the common rough, who. by re-
pute, is ever ready. 10 use his pistol or
knife. Mark how the sang froid of the
one has been initiated by the others, and
you see how this murderous and danger
GUS spirit has orept up from tho gutter,
quite above the centre Of the walk, and
you will see, too, why honest men must,
in the last decade of the nineteenth
| century, and in the Queen Oity
| OF America, carry arms to protect
| themselves and their families. Eos
ter killed Putnam in cold blood;
Stokes shot Fisk at sight; King pistoled
| his victim at ten pnces, making sure his
| work by second and third shot; Scan
nell stopped moment from his pool.
buying, and sent three bullets into the
head and heart Of Donohue; Sharkey
! toJed with his revolver nearly an hour,
finally telling his drunken friend that lie
must die; Simmons held Duryea to the
ground. pulled his knife from his pocket,
2 \
business rivals threat and stabbed him
repeatedly. until life was quite extinct.
And the murders Of yesterday aud the
Gruder had u few words with Lockwood
on Sunday afternoon. about the girl they
both courted. On Monday evening he
rose from tho supper table, went up to
his friends room, and shot him like
dog; came back to the table, and was
completing his second cup Of tea when
he was arrested. II wanted satisfaction"
He got it, and will, in nil probability.
have his appetite stated before he hos
chance to shoot another. Last evening,
two men meet in the throng Of vehicles,
horses and men in Chatham Square.
One refuses to turn out further than he
has; the other shoots him from his horse
nnd drives on. But tho knell has already
begun to ring TINT will. I opine, most
eifectunlly put stop to this triiling with
life. After two years quibbling with the
law, Foster learns that he must die. The
Court Of Appeals has refused to enter
tain his plea. Stokes is disheartened,
aud with the air ringing with the cries
OF new victims, there is hardly chance
that even stay of proceedings will be
granted him. And neither OF those other
men who initiated the example OF Foster
and Stokes, and in cool blood took the
lives OF their follows, arc in haste to be
tried. But they will be tried soon, nev-
ertheless, and within six months we shall
see twice as many scaffolds erected in the
Tombs yard. and with twelve murderers
in their graves. shall breathe easier, and
bid our wives farewell in tho morning,
without tho recurrence Of the thought