The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1876-02-19
The VineL0nd, N. j., Tragedy.

Below we publish succnct account of tn e
causes which LED to the shooting of Urah Car
ruth the Vineland, N. j., editor, by Chas. X.
Lands, the founder of the town of Vineland,
which is furnished by our intelligent Wash
ingtcn correspondent, "Thornton :"
AS to the career of the Vneland Independent,
l happen to have been specially converse mt
with the doiags of the parties who have been
at the back Of its owners and conductors from
first to last. The history of the case is briefly
this:
Mr.. Lands, in founding his wondrously sue
cessful settlement of twelve miles square, put
into his deeds for lots two forfeiture clauses
particularly noticeable and commendable.-z.
One of these obligated the purchaser to build
within specified time. The other prohb bited
the use of any premises for the manufacture
or sale of intoxicating liquors. After trying
in vain to make these forteitures dead letters,
ring of spectators commenced laying out
lots adjacent to the Vneand plot, so as to get
the advantage of the improvements of the town
lots aud small village farms of twenty We
acres into which it had been divided. On these
such restrictions were put as belonged to
the Lands regime. OF course antag gonism was
the result and a state of constant rivalry and
selfish strife An "orga /" of course was need
ed in opposition to the Vjneland Weekly, which
stood by Mr.. Lands in his plans, particularly
with reference to the prohibition of the manu-
facture and sale of liquors. To make assurance
doubly sure, special law Of local option was
obtained-about the first ever enacted in the
cauntry-and annually the questions of "liquor
or no liquor" was submitted to the people and
prohibition sustained, with the aid of the
Weekly. The "organ" needed was established
under the significant name of "Independent,"
which had reference to desired ndepe ndence
of the lands regime, rather than politics.
From the first it played into the hands of the
outside ring of speculators-and finally came
to find its ckief means of existence in abuse of
Mr.. Lands. He made frequent endeavors to
concilliate the Independent with advertise
ments. But he did not "blced" freely enough
for the wants of the pecuniary needs into
hands the independent went from time whose
to time, amid its varying and always
precarious fortunes-that is his financial
enemies in the aggregate better than he could
afford to in anything like legitimate way.
Scurrilous abuse of the Weekly, which was de-
nounced as "the Lands organ" as we'll of Mr..
Lands personally, at length degen or ated-if
degeneration it could be called from such
point-into abuse of his friends, until at length
came those invasions of the sanctites of the do
mestic circle, that cost Carruth his life and
imperled that of his justly indignant, if not
excusable slayer
Iregret that such plea as emotional or par
oxysmal insanity was necessary to restore G. X |
Lands, the founder of wondreus Vineland- |
for such it became in its wondrous growth in |
population and thrift in spite of all the oppo-
sition it encountered from foes within as we'll |
as foes without, including many rival settle
nents-and l say this while also saying that
the editorial in the Baltimore Sun on the YER |
dict, or even that of the New York Tribune
which it echoes has not ridiculed out of exis-
tence the theory on which the jury acquitted |
the accused. In the estimation Of many sci |
entifc observers and thinkers "emotional in |
sanity" is no sham or fiction, but fact which |
no jury of average intelligence is likely to |
wholly disregard in the future-thanks to DR.. |
Ray and others of his school of investigate tors |
in the field of inquiry to which he has so no.
bly, and successfully devoted his life Before I,
the editor of Sun writes again on the subject J
advise him 70 learn the me4 ming of the terms,
"lunacy" and "insanity"-the former he ought
te have known before he commenced to write
so pretentiously about it, being but one of many
formers of the latter. There is no scientific
wisdom indicated by calling all classes of in q
sane people "iunatcs." 1t isa rather loose
style of writing for alumnary from which we
have right to expect undistorted rays, seeing |
how self-conGdently it rolls through space in
its imaginary world of light and glory, as if |
monarch of all it surveys, with rights no Amer
lean even has the right to dispute.