The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-04-08

|
such deed of cruelty could have been
committed IN community of Christian
people and governed by Christian laws and
principles. Deeds as cruel and barbareus
and crimes more horrible and revolving
have been and are constantly being COM
mitted in other sections of the country;
but they are prompted by lust, revenge
avarlCe or some other one Of the passions
which incite bad men to commit crimes. In
this case, there were none of the motives or
passions which are the foundation of all, or
nearly all, criminal acts. Three young men
in drunken frolic, for the purposes Of
amusing themselves, made an old man
target for their pistol practice, and, because
he demonstrated with them when they had
wounded HIM, they deliberately shot him
to death. 1t does not aggregate or lessen
the ottense that he was negro The crime
was just as heinous and the barbarity Just
as great whether the victim was white or
black, What was the motive of these men
for doing this wicked deed.
1t does not appear that they had any i'll
| feeling toward MIN, or that he had done
any act which had brought him In bad re
pute in his neighborhood, The statement
is, that he was an inoffensve man and
there is nothing to show that he ever, by
word or deed, harmed or offended any one.
The conclusion is therefore irresistible,
that he was the victim of that spirit of ruff
| fanism and lawlessnesS which prevades
every country and every community where
prevails rs perricious public sentiment
which tolerates deeds Of blood and violence
and makes heroes of men who have the re
putation of having killed one OR more of
their felowmen.
These three young men were not natural
ly criminals, but, undoubtedly, from their
boyhOod up they had carried either openly
or concealed pistol or other deadly weap
on, and had been hmiliar with stories of
shooting affays and bloody RECRUITERS
They had come to regard such things a.
commendable rather than disgraceful, and
looked forward for an opportunity when
they might acquire notoriety by participat
ing in similar affays. Their moral sense
was blunted and brutalized to that extent
that they were MT able to distinguish be-
tween an act Of tue courage and manhood
and a cowardly md unprovoked murder
In fact they had iegenerated into that class
of men known asbulies-a class that -four
ishes only where deadly weapons are con
sidered as necessary as pocket knives, and
where hopicides are frequent and seldom
punished.
If it we're considered dishonorable
practice . carry concealed weapon in Pu-
laski equity, Arkansas, the State would
not have oeen disgraced by this deed, or if
such deeds were properly punished there,
these young men would not have commit.
ted the lorrible crime. They knew, how
ever, almost to certainty, that they would
not be punished, and perhaps, not disturb
ed. Die not the history of the criminal
justice o. the State gives them right to
+ think sol They were not very far wrong
q One OF them, who had neither character,
;. money,nor friends, was sent to the peniten
J tiary when he ought tn have boon hung,
{ But the other two what became of themt
e They had social standing money and
@ friends, and they are now honorable and
- respected citizens, They will never be pun
" ished. The community in which they live
does not demand it, and the law will never
be enforced when there is such public
sentiment. 1t issaid that there is man
G killed in Texas almost every day in the year
and in this State the number killed each
u year is large. Wlo is brought to justice
J and punished for hese crimesl Now and
= then the law grasls some poor and friend
: less fellow but is he who has money and
y friends brought to justice? The question
u of how these hemi,des are TO be checked
is being agitated adj over the South. Men
n who never thoughtof it before are giving
" it serious consideration now, 1t is to be hop
6 ed that this agitation will not cease until
= the practice of carrying concealed weapons
II Is considered disgraceful, and until it S
S. thought that there's inore honor and glory
n in peaceful pursuit than in bloody ARRAYS
and deeds of violence.