Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1874-05-14
CARSON CITY

recently hung Mt Catskill. for the MUIR
der of a scissors-grindsr, the New York
Herald srys. I'm such a case, If q man
il sane. Re will b justly hanged for the
ordinary reasons. but if he is insane, he
will b hanged for other reasons-for
reasons based upon the right of society
to destroy any life or exterminate any
species the continuance Of which is a
permanent danger and which cannot be
brouch. to comprehend and respect the
laws" Here. then. is the only rational
ar.ument we have ever known to be adj
vancrd. outside of Judge Lynch's Court.
in support of capital punishment. This
manner Of putting the question does
away with the weak and faliacious twad-
die a,,out .'examples''-the hanging of
one man in order that the many may be
deferred from the killing of their fellow
men. Up to this time in the worlds
history. legislatures have never screwed
up their courage. or their depravity. or
vh..ever else it may be, to the point of
avo~ing the necessity for the extermina-
fion 81 the homicidal class, as the pio-
neer kills wolves and other ''varmints"
There are some things for the doing and
declaring Of which the ordinary mind Of
civilized man is not yet prepared-and
this doctrine of killing. for safesy's sake,
Is one of them. Somehow, the mind
shrinks from such an avowal of incent-
i've. Just as, with false estimate of the
sacredness of human life and the wick
edness Of taking it, in any event, We de-
cline to put to . merciful and speedy
death a fatally wounded, and dreadfully
agonized and pain-stricken person. As
to the inefficacy of hanging as a deter
rent or corrective measure, we have
many times expressed an opinion. We
believe it to be wholly Intellectual. There
il 4 man hung, generally half a dozen
Of them. in the United States, every
week. Never, indeed, 50 many as now.
To be sure. the more intelligently des-
perate kill themselves after Staying their
victims. But numbering is a crime
which increases, maugre all the hansings
that take place The example" is
wholly lost. Murder has increased with
the improvement in pocket-arms. Doubt
less the late war has much of this homi-
eidal spirit to answer for 1t used to be
that nobody carried weapons but the FIRE
eaters of the South, and here and there |
an old soldier or o sea-faring man or |
that class who are known as fighting |
Now everybody who travels |
or who can devise any sort of an excuse
for owning and carrying a pistol. goes
armed. Even in staid New England the |
pistol is part of a young mans travel
ing equipags. Tho carrying of weapons.
in itself, begets an itching to use them.
And SO murder stalks abroad at MONDAY |
and everywhere. To come back to our
subject, hanging may be excusable under
the lupine plea of determination and |
but as an example it is worse
than farce. We must either consent |
to be e1emplars of savagery or continue
10 be false and futile sentimentalists-
abandon capital punishment for solitary,
hopeless, objectionable incarceration.
THERE is trouble in the royal Nusce-
vits family. News come from St. Peters
burg that the Cars brother, the Grand
Duke Nicholas, has been arrested and
bis house searched. Nobody but the
authorities know what's the matter, and
here is great excitement at the Russian
Capital. This arrest is all the more re-
in view Of the absence from
rome of the Car himself VINO is in Ger
many or England. It is possible, how
'ver, that it is for the very reason that
Ii brother is abroad, that brother
Nicholas attempts to set up a small poll
ical shop Of his own. A retiracy to the
laciers of Siberia is what will befall
i'm, if he has been eonspiring against
is imperial brother-fo1 they don't per-
lit any surreptitious wire-pulling in
.ussia.
TIE Geneva Award Bill has passed q
be Senate. As finally amended. all
laims are to be adiudicated on a coin =