Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-01-04

them try five. and none We're killed. They do.
however. manage to mangle the poor animal
horribly about the neck. This is all there is i'm
a bull fight. and the whole matter was explained
by Texas cattle man. who sat next me and re-
marked: why don't the - towards turn q
COW in and try herr bull when making an
attack always shut his eyes. and does not open
them until the object he assaults ceases to be
resistance. while the mad COW never does, and
follows the object up. Hence. fighting a mad
bull is much like fighting blind animal. and
upon the whole a gigantic fraud. and any ma
tiOnality that sanctions any such cruel treat
ment OF dumb brutes ought to be blotted out.
Guiteau's Pagan Theory.
From the n. Y. Times
Guiteau's plea of a ''Divine pressure" impell-
ing him to commit the crime for which he is on
trial is less worthy Of examination as seri-
GUS defence in law than as curiosity of crimi-
nal Jurisprudence. The ordinary plea of insanity
has become a commonplace of the courts. Gui-
teams theory of his crime is very different in its
nature. No prudent counselor would 90 before
jury with such plea. Guiteau declares that
the irresistible pressure to remove the PreSi-
dent was on him for thirty days. He is very
glad to get any scrap of evidence tending to
show that he was actually insane during that
period But he insists that ne is now as sane as
any man, and has been so since the I'd of .Juiy
The pressure left him when what he calls the
Divine will was accomplished. His moral vision is
no longer distorted. HereCOgniZeS the dreadful
Character of the deed. He is not surprised that
the killing of the President should have pro-
duced the most intense and general grief But
he finds clear excUpatiOn personally i'm the
Divine pressure theory. There is a very curious
and complete parallelism between this view of
the crime and the most striking feature of the
theology of the Greeks. Their theory OF the
nature of the gods and of their relations with
men was precisely that which Guiteau pretends
to mold of the Divine nature and it's manifesto
tons in our day. With all the repugnance
which one naturally feels for a labor which
would seem to dignity the miscreant now on
trial before Judge Cox with comparisons drawn
from classic ages it may not be unnteresting to
lovers OF literary and sociological curiOsities to
trace the resemblance we have mentioned in
the writings of one or two of the principal Greek
authors.
To one even moderately familiar with Homer
score of passages Will occur to show now the
Pagan gods reapDear i'll Guiteaus theological
system. ALI the deeds of violence or wrong
which the men and heroes of the '.Iliad' and
the Odyssey commit are laid to the gods
Apollo. Ate. Juno, or Zeus himself. Prof.
Blackie says that lone might he apt to think
that the doctrine of divine influence in Homer
was such as to COnfOund light with darkness
and Obliterate the universal instincts of the
human breast with regard to right and wrong"
Helen pleads that her want0n conduct was not
human weakness, but the result of wicked
impulses implanted in her heart by ADrOdite
and old Pram Obligingy accepts this view Of the
case, welcoming her to ms side with the cOnsol-
ing assertion, as Pope has rendered HOmers
verse. that
MO , crime Of thine our present sntering draws
On the reconciliation of Achilles and Agamem-
non. the latter declares, in the nineteenth book
OF the iliad,' that 'angry Jove and all-com-
polling fate. with fell Ernnys urged his wrath
in the direful quarrel. and he dIsclaims all re-
sponsbity for its disastrous consequences. Zeus,
juno and Apollo. or the heaven-sent Fures, are
constantly putting it in the mind of the Chief
actors in the epic story to do things for which
they refuse to be held accountable Madness is
held to proceed directly from the gods, as when
the increduIOus Penelope chides the nurse. Fury
clea, for attempting to deceive her with the good
news of the return of Ulysses. and declares that
the superior powers have clOuded her mind.
Ulysses once. in the crafty discourse by which
he seeks to persuade the swineherd to give him
extra bed-clOthes. even accuses a god OF making
him forget his cloak one cold night when he had
no better bed than the snow covered ground.
This doctrine of destiny, or the sway in human
affairs of superior powers. heavenly nights.
to which men were blndy Obedient. plays very
important part in the Greek tragedies; it is, in
fact. the handspring of their action. All the
woes OF the house of Atreus. dating from the
primal horror Of that Thyestean banquet in
which father made to eat the flesh OF his
own children are wrought through Divine in
stigation of human acts. At Auls AganenlnOn
! CAUSES his daughter Iphigenia to be sacrificed,
las charm to Thracian blasts. not of his own
will. but on account Of Divine prompting
through the seer, Calchas. and when Agamem-
non himself is struck down by his wife, Clytem-
nestra, ESchylus as translated by Miss Swan
wick makes the murderess hold this discourse
to the chorus:
s.Dost boast mine this deed?
Then wrongly dOst thou read.
To count me Agamcmnon'S wi1e;-fOr know,
Appearing in the men
Oh this dead mOnarch'S Queen,
The Old Atridan fury dealt the blow"
Orestes in his turn. about to aVengc the muir
der of Aeamemnon his father by Staying Clytem-
nestra his mother, pleads that Apollo 'hOunded
me on, denOuncing freezing curses should lnot
requite the authors Of my fathers death" On
the very brink of the awful crime he pauses and
asks: Through 1ilial reverence shall fOrbear
to shed my mothers blood:" To which Pylades
! replies by recalling the command Of Apollo to
his mind. In the ''Eumenides," when the re-
| lentless Furies are pursuing him. he insists that
no blood guiltinesS Clings to him, or, If so, that
''Loxias is sharer in my guilt" And, finally: at
| the end OF this magnificent trOgy, when
/ Athena has Summoned the court of the Areopa-
gus Orestes inyokes Apollo as his witness and
| justifer:
| ..Th. deed was wrought we do not dsavow;
| But whether justly shed or not, this blood,
| Judge thou that answer make.to these"
Here isthe exact counterpart to Guiteau plea.
| The same belief in the interference OF the gods
| In earthly affairs runs through the "Edipus
| URANUS Of Sophocles. Edipus even at
| tributes to Apollo the impulse which prompted
| him TO put out his own eyes. Wherever We
| turn i'm Greek literature. i'm HerOdOtus as in
| Homer. in AnacreOn as well as in Eschylus. we
/ find this blind faith in Divine and irresistible
| pressure" although Thucydides takes more
rational view of the motives of human conduct.
| And to all this We find an exact parallel in the
plea of Garfield murderer: without the Deity s
pressure should never have sought to remove
| the President This pressure destroyed my free
| agency" 1t is a very strange recreation Of the
/ meddling pagan gods Of the Greek mythology
| that Guiteau has attempted.
The Value Of Dead Dogs.
| Detroit Exchange.