The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1874-12-30
A Dead Malefactor.

Of bad man, and an unsympathetic |
crowd stood by, coldly watching the
sbbing away Of his life. A woman
and it seemed so cruel thing for a wo-
man to say-looking down upon the
poor wretch who lay there gasping and
helpless on the ground, said, SIT serves
you right. It's just good for YOU"
And the dying man turning to her with
au appealing look, answered. ION,
I've been very wicked fellow,
know" And then a little later he
said, "1've got brother and sister liv-
ing, but haven't seen them in ten
years. Give me decent burial. That's
all ask.' All, how much these few
sentences revealed. How full of mean
ing; how far they reached backward
over the years; how much of the histo-
ny of the dying man they condensed,
and what an eternity of remorse they
covered. TO the crowd around him
he was only a malefactor, hunted down,
brought to bay, shot; little better than
dog or wolf or any dangerous animal
that society wonld be better for the
killing of. No one stanched his wounds
or offered his departing soul word of
comfort or a syllable of consolation.
Neither priest nor doctor attended him.
And so when this woman in her bitter
ness against him said with shut teeth,
"It serves you right" he owned it all
up. Gathering up in one moment Of
intensest memory. the snarl and tangle
of all his wicked life, with no amends
possible to be made for it here, and on
ly gasp or two left him, he put vol
umes of remorse in his conf, ssion that
it was only justice that he lay there in
mortal straits and mortal agony, shot
down in his tracks. And then he re-
membered his brother and sister, and
spoke of them only to say, as if in vim
dication Of them, that he had not seen
them for over ten years-and then-the
end of all-"Give me decent burial.
That's all l ask.'
Hard ending of hard and bitter life
Years ago this man had stood as boy at
the sharp angle where the ways parted
which separated him in the end so widely
from brother and sister and from all who
respected themselves and obeyed the laws.
He had gone through all these years with
his clinched fist lifted up against society
and against law, felon and an ontcast,
hunted and pursued, sometimes overtaken
and imprisoned and sometimes bursting
away from his captors, violent, revenge
ful, brutal, looking upon society as his on
envy and the law as an instrument of per-
secution and torture; and here at the end
of them, his arm just fallen from the wea-
pom with which he meditated murder, his
lips hardly dry from cursing, lying help
less, hopeless wreck, his clinched fist soft
ems to an open palm, the tenderness of con-
triton moistcns his eyes; he gives mp the
fight with "Tve been very wicked fell
low" and "Give mo decent "burial.--
That's all ask" We leave to others the
task Of ,ieducing the moral from this mans
wasted life, and conveying the lessons Of
his violent end. Let whoever may, draw
from it the instruction of W hich it may be
full, in the respect of his claim upon socie-
ty for fairer start and better Ontft in the
world, and of the obligations society was
under in the first instance to make him its
friend instead Of its enemy. 1t accords
rather with our purpose to call attention
to the great underlying tenderness and
broad humanity which the scene illus
trates. The crowd standing by were not
touched by any feeling of sympathy, it is
true. The wickedncss Of the dying man
was too fresh in mind with them; his
crimes and his violence and the murderous
purpose which his death frustrated were
too recently before them. 1t was not
strange that they looked on Implying, for
they had but just seen how brutal and
pitiless he was himself, and the sense of
Justice mingled with natural feeling Of
vengeance kept down all other emotions.
~, ,l,o L., c&o
of swift justice aud caught the pathos of
the poor wretcl's dying words, who could
understand the hideons retrospect that
death was glazing Oh his sight, and the
unutterable sorrow of his lament, there
was not one who did not feel somehow q
sense Of pity for the poor wretched soul
wandering ont from Limitations that were
not understood, and beset1uents that could
not he resisted, into the thick darkness
beyond.
Only one rcmorseful moment! One
breath of confession that a wicked life was
failure and that all his wrongs and viz
lence and crimes against his fellow men
were mistake and blunder, and his fell
lows thought more tenderly and compass.
sionately of him than little while before
they deemed possible. Only slain male
factor; shot down in the commission Of
crime! That was all. Self-protection de.
manded it, and even he recognized its jus
tice. But when the hand he had raised
SO many years against his fellow men re
Taxed in token of surrender, and to the
"Seryed him right" of the bystanders he
only gave sad assent and added that his
life had been a wicked one-there was
something in his helplessness and hopeless
ness that turned the edge of hatred ano
dead burglar! But he was sorry for it all
And may we not be touched with pity fo1
him--we who have for our daily prayer
"Forgive US our tresspasses as we forgive
chose who trespass against usT-(Nev
York Tribune.