Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-09-04
,RvTNG,s CONFESSION.

Vanity seems to be an indispensable
.,,,,ont in all men. There has, undoubt-
IIr been many crimes committed for
lhicb no other reason can ever be as
,,',ned than that the perpetrators desired
80 coo their names in print and be talked
short Men will go all lengths for a
Ii,tIe notoriety and even pay large adj
.ortisinr bills for the purpose of seeing
,boir names in print when they have
notbipr on which to base an advertise
r,ort and no business capacity, if they
Lad one TO carry on. The last example
NO have in mind of this mania for motor
,.,v is the confession of the San Fran
.isco sneak thief that he was an accom-
,lce in the Nathan murder, that created
60 much excitement few years ago in
New York. ... ........
This self-accused murderer says his
mamie is John r. Irving, that he was born
,t Snnnyside and is relative of Wash
inrton Irving, and has wife and a
Iarahter, fifteen years old, in New York
nify. He claims that the ships dog,
fonnd Mt Mr.. Nathan's house, was stolen
from q ship carpenters chest, and that
fine foul deed was brought about by the
measurement of the housekeeper's son at
,he suggestion Of Washington Nathan.
Thf, Irving is clearly an impostor, and
fine authorities of New York have no
faith In his story, not only on account of
f1a revival of tie long ago exploded
SANDER against Washington Nathan, but
also because a part of the details are
known to be untrue, and the whole story
hears the impress of great improbability.
The man is thought by some to be in
sane. q commission of lunacy was I'M
able to determine his sanity, and he is
held iu jail in the chief city of the Pa
rife coast. He went there last week rs a
sailor on the British ship Coulnakyle, and
mqIr his first confession to the second
mate. Now we submit it is about time
that these Nathan mnrderers stop con-
tossing to ret change of an lrksOme
Imprisonment, or 10 make name. We
have had several of the kind before and
ihry uavr all proved to be impOsters.
and this is the most bare-faCed and inn
probable of all, and the people are tired
of these details and of the remembrance
ut q horrid tragedy in the public mind,
without any hope that the murderers
will ever be discovered and punished,
and we ask, in the name of the people,
that the next time one of these insignifi-
cant villains makes a confession, that it
he laid secretly before the authorities,
and be not dignifed into a sensation by
being printed in the newspapers.
We are grateful that Mr.. John T. Irv-
ing, or Smith, or Brown, or Jones, as
his name may be, is in the most distant
jail in the States, and that the police au-
thoriies show no inclination to have him
across the country at the
public expense. The police of New
York say they know this man as the
meancst of all their thieves, and that
they have enough of his ilk without
sending for him on such a foolish lie as
his confession is. They are right, and
when San Francisco gets through with
him they will confer favor by sending
him to Van Diemen's Land, there to
make his confessions to the ignorant
,annibals, who won't understand word
Of it, and if they can wash him clean
enough will eat him as. readily as they
would q white man who had never had
bis name telegraphed over the country in
the roll of a big humbug seeking repu-
MtiOn.