Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1875-10-14
A GROWING EVIL.


iow to pick up paper, and reading OF
he ravishment and probable death Of an
girl look down the column
o see If the perpetrator was lynched.
Nine times out of ten the reader finds
hat bis surmise was correct and at once
gives in mental verdict Of "served him
right" Undoubtedly, and yet let us
analyze the feelings that prompt such |
swift yet lavless action. If a desire to
protect female virtue, and desire to
carry a wholesome terror into The hearts
of humanshaped beasts, underlaid the
motive 'twould 30 well. but it is
our deliberate opinion that Ills more
o desire for lawless adventure, tenn
porary excitement and qualification OF
murderous impulse that impels such
outrage OF law than desire to make re-
prisals on the hound who is guilty OF the
act. One or two unthinking or unearins
men can influence an entire community
to do decd that will haunt their dying
hours. There are many outrages man
can be guilty Of, and the man that out
RACES the law is in lesser degree as
great a ruffian as the devil be chokes TO
death. That our opinion Is not wnoiy
untenable the following circumstance
will nrove: A short time ago young
lady, by name Annie Mclaughlin, was
foupd brntslIy outraged and murdered
near Bellefontaine, Ohio. Our readers
have already seen An account of it in
the Geographic columns. The wife Of
man named Schell charged her husband
with the double crime, he WAS arrested by
due course of law and confined in the
County Jail That night a party of men
ostensibly acting under self-imposed
sense of duty broke open the Jail, dragged
Schell to the forest, and despite the un-
fortunate mans frantic appeal for trial
by process of law, they tied a rope
around his neck and hung him like a
dog to tho branches of on oak tree. A
prayer God save the MARK was said
and the midnight band dispersed. The
combined testimony of his daughter and
an examination of Miss Mclaughlin
remains, especially some hair found
clutched firmly in her hand as torn from
the head of her assalant, proves beyond
the shadow of doubt that the mob
hung an innocent man, and that Schell's
wife through mad jealousy charged him
with the crime. Now comes the sequel.
That same mob, with their hands reek-
ing with the blood OF their victim, are
only restrained from hanging the wife by
that woman's fleeing to neighborinl
city and concealing herself. Thirst o
blood, not love for virtue, is what i'm
PEELED that crowd to such action, and i
the reader happened, by chain OF cir
cumstantial evidence, to como within
their clutches, he would meet the same
= fate. IT'S an every day occurrence IL
this matter, and is growing evil. Tru
there are cases where man caught red
handed in the act of violence o
murder and with but poor shoN
of retributive justice being deal
by the tribunal deserves death
where proof is positive, death merite
and but form OF law to be gone throug
i with, but such cases are extremely rare
: Murder will out and villains will hant
: as from time immemorial, but all that i
. noble in nature, dignifed in law, just
equity or fair in human thought will a.
i cord to any criminal trial by jury an
legal sentence. In the old Englis
: system OF jurisprudence man is pr,
= sumably innocent till he is proved to b
guilty, and then dealt with in accordant
y with the gravity Of his crime and tn
% weight of his sentence. Our legal sy
% TEN is based on this, and our allegoric
II representation of justice seals its eye
- as an emblem OF impartiality. not as a
"a emblem Of blind fury and indiscrimina
;" justice BY such action as we have r
&c lated the moral sensibilities are shocke
- the majesty of the law de6ed, the con
y mandments of God and man all
y broken and most foul crime commit,
y without even the poor satisfaction OF
V crime expiated. That mob are individ'
ally murderers deserving of individu
sentence, and LIKELIHOOD of their victi
cries to heaven for vengeance. Tv
- wrongs never yet made a right, al
> though It's the worst use in the world
put man to to hang him, yet while it
justifable and even necessary to swe'
. snakes and mad dogs from our path, st
- such action as the above deserves tt
severest censure from the opponents al
- mouthpieces OF nations opinion, vi
the Press.
- Il