New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-07
THE NEW SAINTS CALENDAR.

The law has done its work, and BalbC has
expiated his crime. There can hardly be
better time than this to ask whether the system
which has come into srch vogue Of late OF pet
fling our muIderers before we hang them, much
in the same manner though not with the same
motive as savages fatten prisoners for the sac
rifice, has not overstepped the limits OF pro-
p1iety. even of deccncy. No enc questions the
light or the wisdom of all possible efforts
either to test the soundness of the Judgment
under which man has been condemned to dle,
or to bring him to Il sense OF his wickedneSs
The laws delay Is, in such cases, TO certain
extent Just delay, though it does often seem
that the machinery of the law Is too wei organ
lied for the purpose of postponing and acquit-
ting and too poorly organized for the purpose
of convcting aud Furnishing. So, TOO, no per
son of night feeling would hinder or rldlcule
any propc1 efiOst to turn the mind OF con-
demned man upon that future, vast and u-
known INTO which he is soon to be hurled
against his will. The hypocrite OF the scalold
is As much to be despsed as any other death
bed liar for that men do lie on their death
he5s is as true as it is strange and mournful.
But there have been genuine changes OF the
he lrl within the shadow OF the ga!l0WS ana 1t
is right that they should be recognized. When,
however it is claimed that murderer must be
pardoned because he repents OF BIS crime, when
sympathy degenerates into the slcklest sentl-
mentality, when women tGte q murderer as they
might a hero, when frantic appeals are made
to the pardonlng power to spare this rare
human BLOSSOM when the fact that the man
shrd human blood is utterly forgotten III view
of the fact that he has deigncd to be sorry
for the deed-then the potency OF the influences
with which society brands crime is half de-
stroyed, and the prisoner too often lies for
crying his enemies instead OF praying his God
to forgive him.
The most curious recent example OF this in
fatuation was seen in the case OF ChasIine Cox.
Here was a criminal without one redeeming
feature, q crime without one extenuatiDg cir
cumstance. A muattO steward attempts TO rob
| his benefactress. In doing so he succeeds III
numbering her. Whether he intended to do it
or not is of no moment. The law wisely pro-
| vides that when life il taken i'll the commission
| Of felony, the act is murder. Otherwise every
| murderer would be for proving that the killing
| WAS unipteptional and that he was merely en-
| gagged at the time in an amiable burglary or
playful larceny. But the professional sentiment
| talists absolutely refused to accept this rule
| They nut forth in behalf of Cox and BalbO a
Joint petition which, for Stiffness and bubbei,
has never been equalled i'll all the annals of
slop. Many worthy persons signed II, and it
| is said that one of the agtators had the brutal
| ;mnudence TO ask the husband of the murdered
lady for his signature. They seemed blind
even TO the fact that COx's act was without
nrovocation or pretext. Men have often been
| the objects of sympathy who we've stung to
murderous frenzy by some deadly injury to
honor or affection. The betrayal of wife or
| . sister, the vIlfcation OF friend. bitter in
sult TO person or reputation-these things have
again and again caused murder, and again and
| AGAIN have those who rightly condemned the act
felt a sympathy with the man who committed 1t
| which the sternest moIalist could not wholly
renress. But Cox did his work in cold blood
and in the dead Of night; did it deliberately
and. "a he himself confessed, in spite of the
eptreaties of his victim, who had only shor,
time before befriended him. There never
was a mole vulgar, soIdid, and, morally
speaking, more brutal murder than this. II
deserved quick punishment That, under
the peculiar complications of cur crimina
system, 1t could not have. But Ii deserved
also the lasting as well as instant Ieprobatioi
of the community. That 1t did not have
in the full measure In which IL should hav'
been bestowed. The punishment of Grim
ina, should consist AZ much in the contemp,