The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-05

and economize the expenditures of the govern
ment.
The Walworth Parricide-Ths MUIR
derer and His Victim.
Familiar as this community has been made
with the darkest atrocities of murder, it has
never been more profoundly shocked than
from this utterly revolving Walworth parricide.
Under the basest conditions of depravity and
degradation on both sides, and under the
deepest provocation, the deliberate killing Of
a father by his son would or should be
regarded, even in the lowest stratum Of
society, as crime for which, if the assassin
had hundred lives, hundred hangings
would be an insufficient atonement. But the
enormity of the Walworth murder is pecu-
larly shocking, considering the social position
and obligations, the intellectual status, the
educational advantages and the lifelong
moral and religious associations Of the MUIR
dered man and his assassin. Considering all
these ordinarily powerful checks and balances
against temptations and provocations to crime
in any form, we are s'perplexed in the
extreme to reach the shadow of an apology,
Or to account upon any theory Of cause and
effect for this horrible assassination.
We know that this young man, legally an
irresponsible minor, who could properly do
nothing involving any responsibility without
the consent of father or mother or guardian,
came down to this city from the house of his
mother. at Saratoga Springs, and without her
knowledge, on Monday last, and came to ''set-
tie some family matters with his father, sep
arated from the mother that not finding the
father at his residence, the son left note for
him, as Mr.. Jones would leave a note for Mr..
Smith, requesting the father to call at the
sons hotel for the settlement of these "family
matters - that the father, in complying with
this request, was invited up to the sons room,
as Mr.. Jones would invite Mr.. Smith, and that
minor, after extorting from the father, with
pistol at his head, the promises Of good be-
havior demanded, deliberately shot him, not
once, nor twice, but four times, every ball
taking efect-one through the head, two
through the breast and one through an arm,
shattering the bones in its passage; that the
young man then coolly retired, and, coolly in
forming the hotel clerk on his way out of the
CHASTITY work he had just committed, proceeded
as coolly to deliver himself up at the nearest
police station. There, in accounting for his
crime, he said that he had threatened his
father at Saratoga some time ago to shoot him
''if he did not keep away from US and stop in
sulting my mother any more;" and the only
regret he had to express for this revolving and
most unnatural murder was con account Of
the effect it will have on my family"
This from minor is somewhat startling,
and irresistibly carries US to the conviction
that such monstrous outgrowth of prema-
ture independence on the part of presuming
boy must have its roots in the underlying
evils of our present state of society. The
pervading affection, the dutiful obedience and
the becoming reverence which still may be
found in every country in Europe, governing
the lives and conduct in everything, of chill
dren toward their parents, are passing away
in the United States. These old-fashioned
ideas Of filial subordination are too slow
for our fast young people; but in this
view this young Walworth may, at least,
serve as warning of the fearful conse-
quences to which these pernicious prevailing
nokons of individual freedom in the family
are surely leading us. They are undermining
our social structure and making the response
bilities of family dreadful, rather than
desirable and delightful. The youthful
assassin says, II only regret this on account
Of the effect it will have on my family"
"My family" He assumed the position of
head of the house with the killing of his
father. His mother is merely dependent
upon his protection and his chivalry-the
protection of an assassin and the chivalry Of
parricide.
It is given out that the defence for this
murderer will be 'insanity." There is, how
ever, much method in this madness; too much,
we fear, to satisfy the public mind that insan-
ity will cover the crime. If the monstrous
offender had taken his own worthless life
after the commission Of his great crime in
sanity would have been the general verdict
in his favor. But as it is the general judy
ment must be that the release Of this prisoner
on the plea of insanity, if he be sane or in
sane, will be cruelty to him and dangerous to
the community.
Dun CoLoRKD FELLOW CITIZENS have been
holding . State Convention in New Jersey.