Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-05-22
HE RUTLAND HERALD.
MONDAY, MAY 10, 1873.
,,,,EF IT.Eot SATURDAY NIGHT.

.,uC rITtE OF SATURDAY NIGHT
There Is no question but that in one
rosnect. at least, the fire OF Saturday
nigbt was a blessing to the village OF
p9,land Ever since the partial burning
81 the then Village Hall, in September,
te7o its charred and clumsily patched
-on,oire have been disgrace to the vii
lace and an eye-sore to the community.
mo nlace that once knew it shall know
:. ~ more forever; the disgrace and
a.,o core have been removed, and, with
a. tbe question of ownership and re-
oval are settled forever While rejoic-
;n, over the removal of one disgrace, let
49,, NOT he unmindful of the fact, that
,,nless we and the officers of justice be-
o,ir ourselves, still greater and more
lasting disgrace will be inflicted upon
,be community. The unsightly condi-
,ion of the building, or its want of oc-
cnnancy. do not afford any reason why
the torch of the incendiary should have
haen applied thereto. In its removal,
,ho crime thereof must not be forgotten.
The people of Rutland have suffered
too much, in years gone by, from the
work eff incendiaries, to permit them,
for moment, to countenance similar
oc,s no matter how harmless the results
may have proved. 1t is but step from
the commission of minor crimes to those
Of a greater degree, and while VIC labor
N incnlcate this fact, in order to stay
the spread of lawlessness, and to prevent
our children and young men from the
contamination thereof, let us not endan-
oer onr own safety and render our teach
ings nugatory, by winking at one of the
higher degrees of crime. The offence
AGAINST the law of God and man does
NOT differ, whether the incendiary
on ~roaches and applies the consuming
flame to a building like the old Village
non or To au unocCupied block of stores,
The pecuniary loss is, of course, less in
,bn one case than the other. So was the
murder of Abraham Lincoln a greater
loss to the country than that OF Lusig-
nanis wife. The same grade of crime
was. in the cases last mentioned, commit
ted and the same penalty awarded. So
I'm case s. amy person shall wilfully and
maliciously burn the dwelling house of
another, or any Outbulding adjoining
thereto, or any other building or
other building erected for public use, or
any office, shop" etc, he commits the
crime of arson, and is subject to the
same penalties, whether the value Of
the building be one hundred OF one hun
dred thousand dollars. Let this be borne
in mind, and it will be seen what fear
full risk the author of Saturday nights
fire has run. We cannot afford, because,
perchance a few dollars have been saved
or an unsightly object has been removed,
to rejoice in the act or shelter the crimi-
nal. There is too much lawlessness in
the country already. 1t has passed from
the lower to the higher grades of crime,
and, for time, threatened to engulph
the country. Courts of justice, the press
and the people have been wrestling to
overcome the danger, and we have rea-
son to believe that rome progress has
been made in forcing back the tide OF
crime. 1t will never, however, be sue
cessful so long as we are ready to take
the criminal by the hand, applaud his
acts and publicly rejoice over its results.
We were surprised, Saturday night, to
hear respectable, law-abiding citizD rs,
men who had children of their own in
the transition period from childhood to
earlier manhood, publicly congratulating
one another upon the good work accom-
plished by an incendiarY. whoever
st4thai building afire did good job, "
s lid one, and the.:.reply was. Yes, it
ought to have been burned long ago. "
What lesson to teach children. that
the commissiot, of q high crime, that the
applying of. an tncendiary's torch to a
building, i1 the heart of the village of
Rutland was "a good job" and one that
ought To have been accomplished long
ago," It was not once only, but many
times that such sentiments were uttered
They were, probably, thoughtlessly said,
hit think You that a child would stop to
wnich the amount of thought which
caused such remarks by those superior to
him in years, education and experience?
1t NAV be. and probably is, a matter OF
rejoicing that this old, dilapidated and
unsightly building no longer disgraces
our streets, or affords subject OF rldl-
Guile and mirth to the stranger, but the
manner of its removal is anything but
Joyous or satisfactory The lawlessness
of the act, the evident view taken OF 1t
by portion of the public, and the fact
that we have, in our midst, a person or
persons capable of committing such an
act ara subjects of grave alarm. we
have no fear but that public sentiment
will at last, If it has not already,
right itself, but can the influence which
has gone forth from the remarks we
have quoted, and others of like import,
be recalled? Here is the great danger,
and one which shows the necessity OF
caution on the part of the community.
A crime has been committed, and we
tEsst, for our own credit as well as for
warning to others the perpetrator
thereof may be arrested.