The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-02-16
MODERN CIVILIZATION AND
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

One of the favorite subjects which es-
pecially during the past nine months
gave rise to numerous public and private
debates is undoubtedly capital punish
ment. 1t led to different literary dis
courses and various arguments were CIV
en- for and against the question. In
favor of the question we have frequently
heard an assertion something like San
eye for an eye and tooth for tooth"
This assertion, although it Is biblical,
sounds somewhat vague and barbarian
like and yet if applied to some guilty
wretch its doctrine of vengeance seems
perfectly justified. The verdict of 'guil
ty'' rendered by the jury in the Guiteau
trial is received with great satisfaction
everywhere. And we suppose, if the as
sassin meets his doom at the gallows but
very few will have pity on the blunder-
ing mortal.
On the negative side we hear: A crime
can not atone for a crime, besides the
state has morally no right to sacrifice the
life of one person to atone for the life OF
another. 1t is the duty of the state to
make q criminal harmless and to give
him chance to repent and prove his in
nocence If innocent. All these ends can
be arrived at through Imprisonment for
life, etc.
This last argument as liberal and logic
al as it may be has, practically speaking,
a very large hole. Under Imprisonment
for life we certainly do not in the nine
teenth century understand a subterran-
can cave filled with poisonous vermin and
everlasting darkness, and as diet for
criminals, stagnant water and bread
made OF bran, and a Cerberian iailer
who exercises in diabolical gestures
No, we imagine something entirely diff
ferent. And without doing injustice to
humanity. The prison is provided with
insurmountable walls and its doors are
not very easily bounced. The prisoners
board as a general rule is not beef steak
and roasts, but it consists of some other
nutritious substances that are perhaps
not quite as tickling to the palate. The
iailer is not always master of the cere-
monies, but usually good natured man
of humane feelings who very conscien-
tiousIy waits on the fortunate or unfortu-
nate desperadoes, until natural death
makes it necessity to remove their
bodies to some remote corner of an old
graveyard. Such has been our imagina-
ton about prison and the treatment OF
its inmates; but alas, we are dlsappolnt-
ed. Casting q glance at some of the
events of the last seven or eight years,
we dare no longer cherish such fond
imagination, unless we are very thickly
surrounded by idylic-blessed ignorance.
Did not Tweed the boss swindler of the
Empire State have his own secretary,
| when 'under cloud" whose duty it
was to listen to the dictations of the great
boss and to uncork champagne bottles
for him Did we not hear of the cul-
prits that manufactured counterfeits in
abundance in the Ohio state prison for
quite length of time before stop was
put to it? And did not Joyce, the st.
Louis whiskey revenue cheat write a
drama in prison and receive some two
thousand dollars for it? Of course it
was a whiskey drama and it caused such
excitement and curiosity among the peo-
pie that hundreds focked to the prison
and paid twenty five cents admission to
see the whiskey genius. Had Joyce
been an honest man instead of being a
notorious genius and then preached his
'tspirituoTs production from q garnet
room, the world would have turned its
back on him. But as it is, thieves and
murderers otter receive much attention,
enjoy great deal of liberty. and even
sometimes rise to fame. Fortune is very
indiscriminate in dispensing her favors,
often helping rogUes as promptly as she
does honest men. Were not some of the
worst sort of thieves pardoned by gov
ernor Beveridge of Illinois? Did not a
certain Outagamie county officer embez-
eight thousand dollars, and were not
two thousand dollars accepted as repair
alton for the embezzlement And what
was done with tue notorious thief who
found some hiding place for perhaps
fifteen thousand dollars of the public
funds of our county, These mysterious
f acts speak for themselves and are of too
late occurrences not to be recalled very
generally. We certainly can not explain
why delinquents of such dangerous pro-
peusities are handled so carefully by
| those who have authority over them,
unless we ascribe it to the natural sympa-
thy which criminals have with each
other. A nice way this is of making
birds of an i'll omen harmless and of
bringing them to repentance. Modern
civilization employs but very poor means
to give satisfaction to justice and morality.
| We have good reason to believe that the
price of justice rendered by the jury in
the Guiteau trial will finally be consum-
| mated, and the assassin sentenced to ten
years confinement in prison. DAN.
| GLADSTONE has created sensation by
statement made in speech delivered
by him lately. He intimated that par
Lament might be given to Ireland if