The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-24
81 just Pulled Out MY Pistol and
Shot Him."


Shot Him."
Four orphaned children and poor widowed
woman in Williamsburg have felt the fell
force of the brutal words at the head Of this
article. They have rung through the public
ear, awakening thrill of horror; but the sor-
row and the tears they have caused are centred
in the little group of desolated beings that
wondered through the night why the husband
and father came not home, and who found on
the morrow that foul, red-handed murder had
darkened the eyes of their bread-winner for
ever. Justice is a mild term to use in refer
ence to what this case of the quiet teamster
Pfeifer, murdered by the ruffian Nixon, de-
mands 1t is case where vengeance, swift
and sure, might be invoked, let those with
murder in their hearts interpret how they may.
Magruder who on Sunday last gave his victim
warning that he was going to shoot him on
Monday, invokes for his own benefit
some satisfaction in the thought that
he has kept his word. Possibly he
WILL when brought to trial, plead
this warming in refutation of any criminality
young Lockwood die let Magruders neck be
broken at an early day upon due warming by
the Judge to have himself prepared Let the
law show that it can keep its word as we'll as
murderer. At present it is only those who
load pistols and sharpen knives who can make
q CORY contract with Death and keep it, Law
in New York when it agrees to deliver muir
derer's strangled corpse to Justice is as unre-
liable as the meanest shystering straw balls
man around the Courts of Sessions. There is
small class of people to whom this plain talk
will seem repulsive. 1t is class in New York
not numbering one-tenth what it did q week
ago, and which has steadily decreased within
the past twelve months. Every UNPUBLISHED
homicide in Murderer's Row has added to the
numbers of those who claIlor for reign of
mentalists that object to an emphatic call
for the execution of murderers we say
that we have the less respect for them,
because they include in their ranks the
murderers themselves. Foster, Stokes, Scan
nell, Blakely, King, Simmons, Magruder and
any cry they may raise for mercy instead of
vengeance.
There have existed times in regions of
America in which all these men named would
have been slain instantly beside their victims
or else have gone scot-free. But society, such
as it was, finding that the well-disposed many
were powerless before the murderous few,
found rude corrective in Judge Lynch 1t
is state of society to which we do not wish
to confess we are reduced, although many
man in Gotham is thinking now that
ridiculous jury laws, slow moving District At
torneys, writ-issuing Supreme Court Judges
and pardoning Governors are poor substitutes
for the long rope and short shrift of the Judge
of the backwoods. The murderers, with their
off-hand explanations, suggest off-handed re-
torts. When Nixon says 81 just pulled out
my pistol and shot him, should not society
be able to say, few weeks hence, II Just
pulled out rope and hanged him." Yet
who is it would predict that it will be so? In
our excessive care to weave safeguards around
the criminal we have strangled Justice Her
hands are fettered as tightly as her eyes are
supposed to be bandaged. We may boast of
our progress but Justice in the pillory with
Murder, among the scoffers at her feet, is q
picture that we cannot but be ashamed Of
Civilization has its types, and if the school
house be one the gallows is another The
shipwrecked cynic who was cast ashore, and
knew that he had found civilized land be-
cause he saw gibbet in the distance, was for
all his sneering, as sound in his Judgment as
if he had seen the cross-crowned cupoa of
great Christian temple. While we have igno-
rance we want schools while faith is a ne
cessity we want churches while we have
murderers we want gallows. We have four
teen or more life-takers in New York and we
want a gallows wide enough and strong enough
for them all.
HE ADJUSTMENT OF CANAL ToLLs-At a
recent meeting of the Canal Board il was re-
solved to ask the concurrence of the I,eosla-