The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-05-01
Science and Assassination.

IT is next to impossible, if asovereign,
or a President, or an imperial Chan
cellor goes abroad at all, to stop work
man like Hodel or Otero from station
ing himself somewhere en- route, and
taking shot at his adversary the in
slant he appears. No watchfulness, no
guardianship, nothing, indeed, but Sc
clusion, will prevent that; but the use
of machinery may be prevented. The
men who make the machines may give
warning, and so may those who see
them being used, while their possession
may in most cases be rendered illegal
under heavy penalties. We should GER
tainly make the manufacture of a
"Thomas " apparatus crime through
out Europe. In most countries, the lay
ing of trains such as blew up the Cars
train and the Winter Palace would be
noticed and reported on; while so many
must know the secret that, as happened
in both these instances, warnings may be
forwarded to the intended victim. Be-
sides, great deal of brain is required of
the assassin, at moment when his self
command is affected. He must be of
the class which can manage scientific
instruments-that is, must more or less
realize what he is doing-yet must ad-
just every thing, while momently risk
ing disgraceful death, with the cool
ness of soldier and the calculating skill
of mathematician. He has not to fire
shot with his pistol, or to make a
spring with his knife, but to spend hours
or days or weeks in preparation, to cal
culate inches of distance and seconds of
time; and all the while to organize an
escape which, if he uses such means, he
is sure not to forego. He can escape,
from the very method of his crime, and
he will try to do it. A man in the posi-
ton of Hodel or Otero gives himself
up all through. He knows per-
fectly well that within so many
seconds of his shot being fired he
will be in the hands of crowd mad
for his life-a frightful position in itself
and no more thinks of escape than a
soldier in forlorn hope or sailor when
the shells come thick. Either may sur
vive, but lodging won't help either.
The man, on the other hand, who ex-
plodes box of dynamite or barrel of
gunpowder through a long train of pow
der or by an electric wire, is necessarily
alone or with comrades, and neces-
sarily able to escape, or at least to make
bolt for it. Accordingly, having the
chance, he is careful of the chance, and
that consideration, together with the
fact that he is shaken, as he must be
shaken, by the approaching death of in
nocent persons innocent, that is, even in
his own perverted view-and with the
other fact that his enemy is invisible, all
combine to destroy the GOODNESS neces-
sary to success. The torpedo explodes
at the wrong moment, and though it
produces more effect on Europe than a
knife or bullet would, it has not pro-
duced it on the body of the intended
victim. The misery of the Kings is
frightfully enhanced by the use of scien-
tifc appliances, because they render
precaution of so little avail, and, as it
were, make the danger perpetually
present; but, we suspect, the actual
danger is not. The result to the world
may be even worse, because power ex-
ercised under such conditions of fear or
rage is sure to be badly exercised; but
we are not discussing that, but the actual
risk of life in an actuary's sense. We
should say that though it had increased,
perhaps .dreadfully increased, from the
increase in the number of potential
assassins, it had decreased from the re-
sort to scientific methods of assissina-
ton. Neither bomb nor dynamite-b
is as certain as the pistol.-The London
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