The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-07-25

written it On every brave mans heart and
when that law is executed society always
breathes freer. A case is told OF two
brothers in West Virginia who decoyed
girl away from her home under prom
Use of marriage. The poor girl placed
implicit confidence in the honor of the one
who pretended to Woo her, and quite as trust
full in the honor of the other brother who
was a party TO the fraud. One of the broth
ers personated a minister aud married the
girl to the other, who took her away to a
wild part of the county where she had
neither friends nor acquaintance, and as
soon as the infamous miscreant got tired of
her he informed her that the marriage was
sham, and left her to her fate. She man
aged to reach home, and her father had
the two brothers indicted. One of them,
the husband, goes to the Peuitentiary for
three years; the other, the mock minister,
gets off with fine of $500. contemporary
remarks that sit is difficult to make the av-
ersge Legislator, and still more the average
Juror, comprehend the harm done by such a
deception as that practiced on this girl.
Doubtless, she ought to receive from society
"
fact that she was ruined by gross deception
ought to cast no reflection upon her
virtue. Theoretically and morally she was
in no way differently situated from the
thousands of her sisters who are married
every day; but, unfortunately, though the
world, if questioned individually, would adj
NIT that the girls purity and morality were
unaffected b. a mock marriage, prActic Oily
sec ETY. in the aggregate takes different view
of her, and she suffers her life long from the
disgrace which she may have been absolutely
incapable of avoiding. These are the positive
and tangible results of the crime perpetrated
at her expense; but, beside the disgrace
involved, there is an injury to the
feelings entirely ineomprehensible to
and Unreasonable by the legislator
who makes laws orthe average Juror who APP
plies them. A life may be far more effectu-
ally ruined by sach piece of rascality than
by depriving the injured person of her sight,
hearing or other physical powers. If such a
trick could be punished by imprisonment
for life for both the false minister and the
false groom the sentence would be little, if
any, too severe" 1t is simply because 1t was
clear to omniscience that none but those who
suffer in such cases can fix the right penalty
for the crime, that fathers and brothers are
clothed with the high prerogative Of deter
mining that matter themselves and hence,
when the villains are required to hand in
their checks forthwith, men who
have hearts as big as flea are entirely salts
| fed. If society will remain so perverse as to
declare woman ruined when she is sim
ply the victim of a damnable plot. then
| there is a thousand times more necessity for
some one to make the miscreant atone for
the ruin with his life, and il the laws upon
! the statute books and Jurors who try such
cases render verdicts which set such wreck
ers free, or barely RECOGNIZES the crimes with
mild penalties then in such cises, the laws
will be spurned for they only aggravate the
sufferings OF the outraged victim. 1t is such
instances of disregard of wrongs by the law
makers, the tricks of trials, and
the viciousness and ignorance of Jurors,
that are bringing the laws and
the Courts into disrepute. In the case under
consideration we have miscreant who as
sumes the character of robed priest for the
purpose Of subiecting an innocent conliding
girl to the lustful embrace of brother. We
have villain with false vows upon his lips
for the sake OF gratifying his brutely in
stincts. The mock priest is fined $500, and
the mock husband goes to prison for three
years. The poor victim of the villaiDy is de-
clared ruined. and society thinks it has done
its duty. If the poor girl is ruined, it were
better that she had been murdered In cold
blood by the brutes who betrayed her, and
justice could only be satisfied by killing the
villains. In such cases twaddle is out oil
order, and only simpering hatulent fool;
| will give it utierauce