Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-09-26
Lancaster fntellioenrer.
VEpNEspAY EvEN'o, SEPT, 90, 1898.
Connecticut,s Degeneracy.

C0nnecticuts Degeneracy.
Some time ago Connecticut was known
as the land Of steady habits but II 1t
ever deserved the name it has sadly
degenerated from its ancient estate
for it is chiefly distinguished now as the
state which has the largest percentage
of divorces per capita and where women
are murdered by undiscovered assassins.
Incidentally Connecticut officials are
celebrated for a detective skill that never
detects. The state seems to be under
the frown of providence for the
mnutest and most elaborate investiga-
tion Of scientific experts fails to uncover
the authors of the crimes against its
defenceless females. The scientific
illumination of the Hayden trial, Of
few years ago, excited the admlra
tion of the world, but did not
disclose the guilt it was invoked to es
tablish. An astonishing amount of in
formation was furnished US rs to the
value and action Of poi5ons, and the
experts on the different sides differed
delightfully."- and diametrically rs to their
conclusions. You paid your money
and you had your choice. Then
lately the Malleys were elaborate
ly tried in New Haven for the
murder of its street belle, and acquit.
ted after an exhausting effort to prove
them guilty which failed to show them
to be assassins, though they might
proiitably have been hung as ravisheTs.
This does not, however, seem to he
thought crime of much consequence
in Connecticut, as no effort was made
to punish these men for it after their ac
quittal of murder. Now we find one
Mr.. Lewis in the tolls Of The
Connecticut law on suspicion of
the murder Of the girl he was going to
marry, and strange to say this fact, that
he was engaged to marry the woman,
furnishes the sole supposed motive for
his alleged crime. The officers OF the
law in Connecticut seem to be persuaded
that man who repents himself of ask
ing girl to marry him, may naturally
find the shortest way out C' the trouble
to lie in killing her. There is no evi
denCe in this case that Lewis had thus
repented outside of the fact that his
sweetheart was killed. But tie COnnec
ticut officials, arguing backwards, as
sumo that the lover killed the girl, and
then conclude that he did not want her
to get his motive for doing away with her
1t may be that in Connecticut, where
a man seems to marry only to get di
yorced, it is just to suspect girls
who are found dead by the roadside t
have been slain by their promised hus
bands. Love in Connecticut appears t,
bea short lived thing and if its husband
soon tire Of their wives, its lovers may bt
accused of tiring of the%girls they prom
ise to marry. Still, since divorces are Sc
so easily got, why kill girl to get rid OF
her? Wherefore not marry first ? 1t
must be confessed that in this view OF
the subject, the Connecticut officials who
accuse Lewis Of Staying Rose Amber
give US 10 understand that a womlu's
life in Connecticut is held as Of very
little account.
Considering that Connecticut is one o
the most ancient settlements, with its
people sprung direct from the Pilgrims
loius and with churches and schoolhOus4
dotting thickly its sandy valleys anc
barren hills, a pertinent question arises
in contemplating its prominence as
woman despoiler, as to the exact value O
its civilization.