The Russellville Democrat., 1881-08-04
What shah We do to Protect
 Ourselves?

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 Ourselves?
 Editors Rnssellyille Democrat:
 The question which I have used for caption to this article is forced upon us. l defy you to pick up a single one Of your exchanges. any day or week, without beholding the startling headlines which announce the blood curdling news of some cold blooded murder. some daring rob bery, or some other fiendish crime against the peace of the land, the rights of mankind and the dignity of the laws. A perfect mania for crime and mostly crime of the foulest and darkest dye-seems to possess tue land; and throughout all stages of society,--from the very slums of the gutter even up to the White house itself-goes up the gasp and dying groan of some victim of the bullet or the dagger; goes forth the vail of the orphan and the sob of the widow, bereft of father, husband, brother, son, by the murderous blow of some law defying, hemp. deserving ruffian.
 The reporter for the press is him self appalled, and dazed by the fear ful record which he is daily called upon to chronicle, even accustomed as HE is to the rehearsal of such hor- TOTS. The newspapers all over the land cry out for SOME remedy of stuff cient efficacy to stay the swelling tide ofcrime.
 The fact stares us boldly in the face that Justice sleeps while crime stalks defiantly abroad.
 The Law .has lost it's terror to crime loving monsters, and tn epeace- officer is powerless to root out the TO- wing pests who infest every commun- ity.
 It is common thing to hear some one remark that if he were possessed of few thousand dollars he would not fear to kill whom he pleased, sc FAR AS PUNISHMENT BY THE LAW OR BY THE COURTS IS CONCERNED.
 It is notorious that the rare vlsi. tation of the death penalty BY DUE COURSE OF LAW, upon ONE murderer, OCCASIONALLY out of the HOST whose crimes fill columns of the press day after day IS either upon some friend less negro or some penniless white Wherever and whenever the murder ei is possessed of a little wealth or a few friends, he is almost absolutely certain to cvade punishment, either by the delays of the law, the ineffi- ciency of the prosecution, or the in- tervention of executive clemeney.
 The inevitable tendency of all this is an increase of crime, and loss of respect for the laws and the courts which fail to give us that protection which we have right to expect of them; and, in dismay at the increas- ing volume eff crime we ask ourselves "what shall we do to protect our selvesp
 That we are depending upon a broken reed when we trust to the execution of the law by our courts IS painfully too apparent. We do not have to go abroad to find that out. Where, for instance, was there ev. CT blacker page upon the long rec ord of crime. than that made by the murdenof Burgess James, in Yell county?
 Where was there ever a more cold blooded, a more deliberately plan. ned, more devilishly executed mur- der and robbery than this? What link in the we'll known facts was lacking to point with unerring ac- curacy to precisely the parties who committed the awful deed? From almost the very hour of the murder it was known with positive and un- erring certainty exactly who the guilty parties were, and yet the dignity of the law" must be preser- ved by allowing our imbecile courts to dilly daily with the case until a mountain of debt had been piled up against Yell county, and at last the red handed murdsrers go free, and Justice weeps at the farce that has been enacted in her name.
 AS you remarked Messrs. Editors, in your last issue:
 When such things occur, it's we'll to pause and reflect upon the uncer- tainty of legal punishment when money and bribe. taking officers are