The Red Cloud chief., 1877-11-22
An Era Of Crime.

Nh EIu III TImC.
A mere glance at the Geographic CO
umns in Mondays paper reveals a tel
rble condition Of violence and Grim
throughout the country. The first di
patch describes the burning OF a pris
Oners' barracks in this state by a refrac
tory convict, the disclosure of a pic
which had been Matched by some Of tn
worst among the men confined. and tn
death Of ut least two of them in Tn
flames. Then comes, one after another
q long array Of crimes. There are tw,
murders and one case of matricide 70!
lowed toy suicide, two cases Of abortion
two great burglaries, one case of exten
sive embeZZ,ement, one of incendiar,
ISM, one murderOus attack in a saloon
The victim of which is not expected t,
live; in San Francisco three commun
lists are arrested for an attempt 10 in
cite a riot; the news from West Vir
glnia relates to u murder committed
although the man charged with il was
acquitted; and the latest Little Rock
Ark, Gazette contains an elaborate &C.
count of the execution Of ThOs. SDner
for the diabOlical murder of two wo.
men, and from Texas We hear Of a rep
utable physician being taken out into
the woods and receiving one hundred
lashes upon the bare back, simply he.
cause he entertained opinions upon re-
ligiOn not in harmony with the views
of many of his neighbors.
1t has almost always been observed
that after every great national cOnvul-
sion, such as foreign or civil war, crime
floods a country like an epidemic. 1t
was seen in England after the wars of
the Ross; after the series Of political
agitatians which terminated in the res.
tOratiOn Of Charles H.. and after the
long war which ended in the peace af-
ter b battle Of Waterloo, in 1916. Ev-
eryOne who has studied the history of
Spain since the 1ight Of Isabella, in
1865. and of France since the late war,
must have been struck by the recur-
enc of a similar outbreak; but fortu.
nately, i'm these two Latin communities
il has subsidized to a remarkable degree,
and social order nov prevails in both
countries. In Berlin, itself, it is we'll
known that crime has been more wide
spread since 1871, than it EVER was be
fore. In the United States, if W may
assume, as we may fairly do. that the
present era of wrong doing is the reflex
of the agitation created by the civil war
We must make the unhappy and humil-
iating confession that it has lasted some
time longer here than anywhere in the
Europe of to-day. For this there must
the vast extent of our country, which
seems to inspire criminals with the idea
that, with common luck. they will al
ways be able to find some refuge from
justice in some corner or other of the
land. Another, of course, and perhaps
a leading cause, is the newness, and the
III PHoLVVh INV WI ttoif tSSfollo III lItU
land. A very large proportion, perhaps
q majority, of misdeeds in these sec
tions, remote as many of them are from
railroad, telegraph or newspaper office.
are never reported. often forgotten. in
deed, almost as soon as committed; but
still it is somewhat singular that in the
long list to which we have alluded there
is only one reported from the new and
far West, that Of the case of the ply
stefan i'm Texas, which, from the singu-
larity Of its character, must be consid-
cred rather as Incidental to, than with
in the miasma of the epidemic-rather
as a strange accompaniment than a type
of the disease.
A large proportion of the crimes tel
egraphed are i'm Ohio, an older and a
well-settled State; but in Ohio, as the
returns from the last election abund-
antly proved,a very excitable element in
the population has made great progress
i'm numbers and weight. The theories
Of Communism, which, from the r nks
of its strange allies, the Nlhilists, of
Russia, has now filled the jailS of :.
Petersburg and Moscow with two thou
sand prisoners arrested for that cause
alone, have kindled among the masses
of many of the cities ard towns in
Ohio, especially wherever there is any
Bohemian population, an excitement
fully as fierce and eve more danger
GUS than that ever engendered by war.
1t is affiliated with that pertuI baton OF
mems minds, that rebellion against the
inevitable operation OF the laws of pO-
litical economy. which found an express
sion 50 terrible in the destruction Of
property and loss of life at the rail way
riots in Pittsburg. The result in society
thus shaken is a natural and direct ten
dency to inflame everywhere the pas.
sions of all who, whether from want
untenable principles, recklessness, or
audacity. have been brought IN any de
gree under its influence. These COM
munists and unframed would-be innO-
vators on all social law and order may
not be-and very recently. except in San
Francisco, have not been-the actual
perpetrators Of the outrages; but by
their fervid ~depunciations of all the ex
listing principles upon which society is
conducted, and by which the frame
work of government is built up, they
have so fevered the blood of thousands