St. Landry democrat., 1882-04-08
faE ST. LANDRY DEMOCRAT
OPELOUSAS, SATURDAY, APRIL s, 1882.

We publish an article on Hereditary
Crime" Everything is hereditary in a
certain sense, but improvement can be
made by proper selection. When all
the people, or majority, of a country
inherit bad traits, to the exclusion of
good ones, using the Ten Command
ments as standard to judge by, that
country is on the road to perdition. In
the civilized countries Of Europe and
America, at the present time, though
vice and wrong may triumph in many
instances, yet on the whole virtue has
the upper hand. We have seen it
stated somewhere, by some writer on
the subject of checking and destroying
crime in civilized communities, that the
only certain remedy was the destruc-
ton of the criminals which would put
q stop to hereditary crime. The rene
dy may be considered a very harsh one !;
but when the children OF Israel were
ordered to destroy the Canaanites, men,
women and children, because they were
entirely as a people given up to immor-
morality, this rule was applied to it's
extent. Even now, by the operation Of
the immutable laws of nature, or, more
properly speaking of God, the savage
or immoral nations Of the earth, who
do not recognize the Ten Command
ments as their moral law, are gradually
beng exterminated by the advancing
tide of civilization. The Indians OF
North America, though not destroyed
in one brief campaign, as the Canaan
ties we're ordered to be, are as certainly
doomed to extinction and all others
WHO practice the rules of vice instead
of those of virtue, and transmit their
vicious instincts to their offspring, car
~ the seeds of destruction within them
In civilized communities the same war
fare is going on, in different form, be-
tween the good and the bad members
thereof. Here we do not resort to the
direct destruction Of all who are faint
ad with crime, as the writer alluded to
justice, jails, and penitentiaries, and
sometimes the gallows, for the incorri-
gible. And though, through corrupt
officials and the power that organized
vice has through the ballot box, in a
representative government like ours,
the worst elements in society may often
triumph, yet as rule virtue has advan-
tage. The prevention Of crime, by des-
troying all who inherit criminal faint,
will hardly ever be tried in any civilized
community; but the history OF the
world shows that when whole people
are irretrieyably given over to confirm
ed hereditary vice, they are sooner OF
later exterIhinated and in civilized
communities, individuals and families
who are likewise tainted, are held in
check, and sometimes destroyed, by the
1aWsgf the land. Vice means death in
physical as we'll as in a moral sense.
The vicious part OF animated nature
vicious people as well as vicious beasts
will sooner or later succomb to the
virtuous. The best will endure the
longest.
The N. O. Picayune has long kept
at the head Of its leading column, the
statement that ''The Picayune has the
Largest Circulation in the Southwest
The Times-Democrat has taken issue
with the Picayune, and has offered ten
bets Of thousand dollars each, that its
daily and its weekly calculations exceed
those Of the Picayune, and also its adj
vertising patronage for the last three
months, and that it has larger circu-
lation in louisiana, Mississippi, Texas,
Arkansas, Alabama and Florida; and if
it wins the bets, will donate the amount
to the overlooked people of the State.
Itfurther proposes, if the Picayune is
opposed to betting, to have the books |
of the two esta blishments examined,
and if such examination does not show
that it's circulation and patronage ex-
coed those of the Picayune, it will do
nate to the sufferers from the overflow
the sum of $4,000. We have not heard
that the bets, or other proposition were
accepted.
No Taxes in Overlooked Dis
tricts.