Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1874-02-26
that its distinguished author will not
be forced to take any back-track in
regard to the truthful production.
Crime in New England.

Crime IN New England.
The execution of the aged murder
er, Evans, is accompanied by con-
fession which, while failing to confirm
the curious suspicious attaching to this
strange man, tells hideous story of
crime. Even conceding the truth of
the main facts of this recital, the vaga-
bond sheep stealer, counterfeiter and
pickpocket committed two murders of
children with no conceivable adequate
motive. One he strangled wishing
to procure body for surgical purpos-
es'; the other he put to death in the
same manner for fear Of exposure in
certain crimes. Whatever guilt the
old man may have carried hidden to
his grave, this is sufficient to mark
his life as monstrous. simultaneously
with the expiaton of the crime of
Nortbwood, New Hampshire, the
equity retired and quiet village of
Halifax, in this State, furnishes q
tragedy which for brutal and cau'e-
less violence has but few parallels.
Two brothers, respectable and quiet
men, good citizens and good neigh
bors, have their brains beaten out in
their own homestead, one killed in the
porch as he was setting out to feed
his cattle Sunday evening, the other
murdered in the bed which he occu-
pied as an invalid, and the aged house
Keeper, woman of kindly charitable
character, battered to death on the
path outside. The motive for this act
was the paltry one Of robbery, the
aSsassins failing, as is 50 generally the
case, to realize the anticipated profit
OF their bloody work.
Coming yet nearer home, it is with
in week that an intruder at a christ
ening feast was cut and kickedto death
on the guarded and patroled streets
of our own city; and the repetition Of
offences against human life forms an
aggregate of present crime both as
tonishing and alarming. With four
undiscovered murderers perhaps walk
ing our streets to-day, with Lane and
Ellis and Kate Lchan and the latter
victim ofthe club in our pleasantest
suburb unavenged by the arrest and
punishment Of their assassins, there is
opportunity for reflection in the con-
slant additions to the bloody list
which New England and Boston, not
the least among the cities, is creating
One distinguishing feature Of these
crimes is their astounding brutality.
Each and every one reveals something
more monstroys than the other The
assassination of Lane in his own door.
way, the stamping out of poor Kate
Lehan's life, the packing of Ellis's
dissecled body, and this later brutality
in Plymouth county, show the char
acteristics Of premediated and I'M
tlinching murder, rather than of reck-
less anger. If this is to be the result
Of New England teaching and tradi
tons, the repute of the section for
morality and decency end observance
Of the laws may be exchanged for
that OF an awful example Of decadence.
1t may better be regarded as Il phen-
Omenal coincidence rather than the
ghastly abnormal development of So
cial influences; although there is food
tor thought in the fact, shown by
statistics, that murder is increasing in
this community while other crimes
fall below their proportion to the
growtl. of population.-Boston Post.