The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-10-10

The Savage and James affair seems to have
reached termination. Florida as State, and
particularly Madison county, has received
stigma which only the punishment of the muir
dersers can remove. The papers of East and
South Florida Can call The world 10 witness that
as body they did everything in their power to
redeem our State The press of Middle Florida,
seeking TO excuse their section, have taken Of
fence, however, al the conscientious utterances
of their brethren. They have even gone SD far
as to try to palliate the disgrace cast upon that
part of the State by throwing it up to us that
crimes as bad are committed here. And The
leading newspaper of Middle Florida, the organ
of the State Administration, the Tallahassee
FLORIDIAN, specifies the Neff murder as a crime
as bad the Madison murder. 1t was un-
doubleday heinous crime, but the community
is moi TO be blamed. The people of VOlusia can,
on the contrary, point with pride 10 their aclion
in regard TO this matter. Every effort has been
made, every nerve has been strained 10 ferret out
the murderers. The suspected parties are in
jail at this place awaiting the action of the grand
jury. A large reward has been offered by the
county and citizens, numbers have devoted
themselves to this case disinieresiedly If il is
possible the guilty ones will suffer. What more
can we do? Does Bro. Dyke expect the perpe-
traitors OF such a mysterious murder to be ar
rested, indicted, tried, convicted and executed in
two months! Be impartial and just. II Madi-
son had begun TO do as well rs VOlusa she would
not be considered disgrace To the State Ho-
tusaG Enterprise Herald Sept. 80
Our Volusia contemporary is greatly in
error in saying that the press of Middle
Florida have taken offence at the utter
ances Of their brethren in other parts of
the State condemning the Madison MUIR
der. So far from it, the newspapers of
this section, without exception, have
themselves denounced the crime, and ap-
proved the steps taken, and to be taken,
to bring the murderers to Justice. But
" the press of Middle Florida " do object
to the press elsewhere pointing to the
Madison horror as an indication of a
spirit of lawlessness prevailing among the
people, and that strangers F" should
avoid the section in consequence lest vio-
lence should be visited upon them. Any
such intimation is false and slanderous.
References to crime in other portions of
the State are not made to "palliate y
CRIME among US, but to show the incon-
sistency of the scavengers who pretend
to see spirit of murder in one section
while all is lovely and serene in others,
albeit "crimes just as bad are things
not unknown among them. We would
there were no crimes anywhere in Florida,
but as there are lawless persons in all
sections, though, we are glad to know,
they are few in number, how unjust it is
to seize upon an exceptional case in a sim
gle locality and hold this up as illustrative
of the character of the people. We should
be sorry to believe that the Nef murder,
the assassination of Osteen within few
miles of Jacksonville, the lynching re-
ferred TO by the Siarke Telegraph in
Bradford, the murder of Dickson in Sum-
ter, the lYnching in Hillsborough, all of
comparatively recent occurrence and the
perpetrators still unpunished, make the
localities where they happened any the
less safe to strangers," or that they are
in any sense proof that the people of the
yicinage sympathize with crime. This Is