The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-06
LOVE Of CRIME.

LIVE VI UhlM6s
What was the motive That is the question
for juries, judges. and the keepers of prison
to ask respecting crimes. There can be nj
crime without criminal intent, actual or con
structive. He who does an act contrary t.
law resulting in the killing Of citizen is helt
responsible the same as if he had intended tt
kill, and he who kills while in the pursuit O
an honest and legal purpose, and he who
takes life while in an effort to preserve and
prolong it is not criminal because of the
absence of a criminal intention. This legal
distinction ia old and familiar. Juries and
judges act upon it every day.
1t is important to distinguish between
| crimes that result from accident, and those
which grow out Of habit In the first class
may be ranged all those which are the results
of sudden impulse, of extraordinary tempta-
ton, or of hunger and other personal necessi-
ties, being crimes for which excuses may be
plausibly alleged in palliation; while in the
second class are crimes committed in the in
diligence of purely criminal habit, for which
There is another and still more atrocious
class of crimes than either, being those
which are committed by culprits who love
crime for its own sake There are criminals
so entirely depraved and perverted that in
place of conjunction or fear, they experience
pleasure in committing crimes like
that which an artist enjoys in the
production of his paintings and statues, or
merchant in his successful exchanges, or
scholar in his classics, or an orator in his
ornate discourses, or an artisan in his per-
fected products, or practiced writer in his
polished sentences and rounded periods. All
thought of right and wrong is laid aside, and
the expert in villainy becomes proud Of his
its own sake, and would not make an honest
living if he could. Danger adds zest to his
risks until boldness becomes Q habit. He
boasts Of his achievements among his COM
peers and coworkers in villainy He strives
in every new attempt to Guido his rivals and
his own former performances. Though urged
by no necessity and impelled by no avarice,
he lets no chance escape of indulging in
what has come to be his vocation, his pro-
fession and his art. Hosts of thieves pride
themselves upon their experiences Multitudes
Of burglars take as keen pleasure in we'll
planned and successful midnight housebreak-
ing as the most ardent sportsmen take in the
pastime Of the rod and gun. CHASTITY and
horrific as the blood of murder is to the
healthy and normal mind, there are legions
If red-handed scoundrels who have been
proud and glad at every new victim. and
Who count their assassinations with as
IS much satisfaction as the veteran soldier
his battles.
When we speak of the remorse of guilty |
,onsciences we must exclude this class, to
whom habit and long pursuit of crime have |
made villainy pride, comfort and joy.
The pirate, instead Of entertaining COM
ounctious visitings, plumes himself upon the |
hroats he has cut and the ships he has scut-
led, as much as the Modoc does upon the |
'calps that dangle at his girdle or smoke in |
his wigwam. Boldness and skill in crime be-
ZONE marks of distinction among criminals |
md the ablest among those who make war |
Upon society, law, property and lives, become
eaders through the awe which their audacity |
md prowess command.
The man who has acquired this love of
rhine, for its own sake, and who delights in
is pursuit regardless of gain, is entirely be-
ond the reach of curative or reformatory
reatment. He fills up the measure of total
epravity and is near approach to absolute
iabolism. He is the implacabie enemy Of
IL law and all order, and as such society may
n lawful self-defense imprison him for life or
estroy him.