The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-07-02
GELTEAInS CAREER.

CoHN lhCluS III NoHViiiiiS WIS iVSSVh' iNs |
there is another warning TO be drawn, that
is to say, by those who have to deal with |
other precocious examplsrs Of SIN and vile
propensity. The humane or "humauita- |
"rian ~ Tendencies Of the day are toward |
making us mawkish or namby-pamby rather
than reasonable in the treatment OF youth
who are virtually incorrigible. First there
is Loving phalanx Of friends and relatives
around them to save them from the onset of
the law or aroused public opinion in the lit
tie circles where they move, and TO teach
them in every possible way the notion of
immunity from the consequences of crime
and sympathy for their transgressions; and
even outside of this they have not much TO
fear. Lawmakers, Judges, and ministers of
the law are apt to be lenient rather than
harsh in their treatment of what are called
peccadilloes. A Judge in Chicago, the city
which largely contributed toward giving us a
Guiteau, said the other day, when criticised
for suspending sentence so frequently in
proven cases Of wrong doing that two full
regiments of young men y owed their place
in respectable society TO the policy of sus-
pending sentences. Two thousand young
iail.birds set at large in one city within tho
recollection of one man-but no record oithe
cirenses repeated by them without detection
or the fall of others encouraged 10y this ap-
parent impunity
There were at least dozen places in
Guiteau's career of triumphant tascality,
could it be fully written ont, where he might
have been brought to full stop. It is
doubtful if he could have been redeemed, or
whether such an abortion was ever worth It,
but at least his noxiousness to others could
have been checked and certainly The tragedy
of the I'd of July made impossible. II is this
| nervousness TO others of which we chiefly
| complain. Society ought to protect itself ;
| it will find before long that it must do So
Every vicious young man pampered, petted,
and given fresh chances " without even y
show of effective repentance, as If bribing
him to be good, constitutes just that much
injustice done and discouragement afforded
to the virtuous and selfdenying. The elder
brother of the prodigal might very well have
complained II the fatted calf had been killed
under the circumstances we see In so many
American families.
To review Guiteau's career for a moment
repulsive as the undertaking must be- Al
most the earliest testimony we have is in
regard TO his unprovoked and unfilial assault
upon his father by striking him in the back
as he sat at the table The old Biblical and
folk lore predictions as to the hand that
strikes parent seem to have been fully born,
out in this case. The next thing we find is
the father taking an unconscious yet ter.
rible revenge by plunging his son into thai
sink of scandal which the laws of New Yorl
professed themselves unable to suppress in tn,
full flourish of its rankness, the Oneid;
Community. Such plague spots, whereve
tolerated, naturally attract and foster tn
growth of cibrio like julius Guiteau. Her
we find society large, by its weak tolerance
encouraging the work which the state OF tn
t Guiteau household had started Othe
touches in the picture are the yielding of q
place in the public office intrusted to him
by the elder Guiteau to the younger, unde
that spirit of nepotism too lightly regarde,
i'll American political life; and the reception
back into the Oneida Community of thi
steadily deteriorating character, which ha,
been once spued forth as too bad even 70
that home of " social REFORM
Guiteau is seized with design of studyin
> law, of which he makes a humbug as egreg
ous and pestlent as any of his others. Ye
here he finds every door equally open befor
} him. After pretense ofstudy ne is 'admitte
" to the bar after sham examination con
sisting of three questions, in which the DistriC
3 Attorney, who recently defended him OH tria
for his life, bore part His practice afte
admission is worthy of the preliminary fare
| in which he saw the high custodans of tn
I temple of Justice participate. In two grea
cities, Chicago and New York, he is allowe
to swindle right and left, under the ancer
and honorable title of barrister-at-law II,
: only without being disbarred or otherwi:
=, punished, but even without adequate e,
J.. posure to protect the public against him. 7
h this the only exception was Il leading Ne
t York daily, which the young lawyer prompt
| sued for lbeling him. Finally, the state
/ our politics attracts him as naturally as ca
4 rion draws flies. He plunges in with Il
# full hope of profiting by the Spoils System,
!. men of not much better previous record ha'
= done. This is SO near the dreadful climax
1 all that we need not expatiate upon detail
5 The last touch is that round of dead beatis
If and crank ism in Washington which shou
n have landed him in Jail long before he HI
e screwed his courage up to the dreadful poi
d of murder. The recital is necessarily brie
e but it fully illustrates, We think, the poll
II made. Had Guiteau been punished in yout
s Cor else confined as a lunatic,) had Il
e Oneida Community been broken up before
harbored him, had he been required to she
g moral and mental qualifications for the ba
=. or else excluded from it, had he been pul
e ished for his misconduct in New York Cit
& swindling, collusive divorce, and all the re
:, of it, had the Spoils System not existed TO i
g sure him liberation before the Department
D here, or more vigorous law against yagran
e put him in jail-in any of these cases
j.. might have turned aside from the path tn
d led to his dastardly blow at the nation
It head. But no everything conduced, eve
Ii way opened Of itself before him. lndirectl
5, but none the less surely, the public opini
D. which should have made Guiteau impC
h sible became partaker in his crime. Are
s, producing any others like him to-day 2
II the reports of his sermon last sund
" are to be credited, the Rev. DIR. Hicks mu
IA have been infected by too close propinqui
4 4, HE sriritual naiinnt II ;g ecorcaIv N,