Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1879-09-18
THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE.

shall his blood be she'd Is sentence or holy
Writ, too often forgotten in the reckless
waste of life in latter years. The ease with
which murderers escape conviction, or being
convicted obtain pardon, or the thousand
technacalities of law by which Justice Is
thwarted, form a curious comment upon
modern civilization. The almost universal
practice of carrying concealed weapons, leads
to much of the reckless attempts on life. 1t
is a temptation which every man, and espec-
tally men of hasty temper should shun. In the
heat of argument, or smarting under taunts
and fancied insults, men, otherwise reasoners,
lose control of themselves and commit IN
moment of excitement, crimes which haunt
them to the end; entailing years of sorrow on
not themselves alone, but too often upon
their innocent relatives. We can recall n
thousand cases of this kind where men, other
wise blameless, have in moment OF passion,
wrecked every earthly hope, and brought
sorrow to many hearths. Death penalties,
and life incarceration, and prolonged penal
suffering have all failed to meet and correct
the evil, for as we have already said, courts
are lenient, juries are plant and executive
mercy is always a star Of hope; and the
twisting and turning of law, in the hands
of willy advocates, all hold out
hope of escape, even to the
premeditated murderer, who takes his chances
of the gallows. The poor fellow who is the
victim of his own passion, does not, perhaps,
calculate this, or stop to reason, but finding
on his own person the means of venting his
anger, in moment of frenzy, stabs or shoots
his victim, and devotes himself to life Of re-
morse and shame, or degrading punishment.
What would that convict who is pining within
prison walls for crime committed in a
moment of anger, not give to live over again
his past life How plainly his folly stares
him in the face now, and with what despair
does he look to the future-the same routine
from day to-day, the same eye always upon
him, the constant grating of those locks which
bar him from green fields and warm sunshine,
and the smiles of happy faces, and the walks
of life which his fellow men are treading |
And why is he here He never contemplated
murder /; his soul would have recoiled at the |
thought, and his hand become ealsied if some |
good angel had shown them to him, dyed in |
blood. He never carried revolver |
for such purpose, to that end he never con-
ceaed on his person a murderous knife it |
was simply as matter of self protection that
he bore on his person for months and years,
those instruments of death but the occasion
offered to use them, and having brandished |
he committed in a moment of frenzy an act,
which a moment later he would have given
his life to undo; and now, through a long
life he pines in a solitary cell or bears the
badge of Cain in chain gang The cause is
plain to all. Men are to-day just what they
have always been, but the conditions of So
ciety are different. The time has gone by
when Judgment surely and certainly followed
crime, and We at this age of the world wink
at otfenses, which in no very remote age would
have been followed with swift and sure retri-
b ltion. The habit of carrying deadly weapons
so common among us, is one of the worst in
,entives to crime and should be suppressed
BY strict laws. 1t is a temptation which few
men can withstand and to which no man
should be subjected. Philip Melancthon in
one Of his melancholy and distracted moods,
happened to see his pen knife laying on his
able, and the thought of how easily with the {
little instrument he could test the realities of g
hat eternity which held him entranced, be- s
anne so facinating, that i'll order to escape the G
emptation, he deliberately threw it out of the
window. The sense of a revolver in a hip /
pocket is too often an inducement, from /
he fancied security it gives, to steps beyond a
he bounds of prudence, and hurries to the t
which ends in misery Let our v
'oung men, if there is no legal restraint, pom
Ter on this. Avoid as they value life and
ope and happiness, this criminal habit, and
here will be fewer tears shed, fewer lives sac
ifced, and the State will have fewer d
onvicts to watch and feed and clothe.
Ne have been led to these remarks{from the II
circumstance of the incarceration of two men II
n our State prison yesterday, both guilty of
he same crime, attempt to kill, and both of g
HON we knew in other camps where no ID
rime could be charged to them, and both
peaceable men. The ever present m
nife and pistol, have done their work, and Il