Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-05-09
A FOOLS Punishment.

The real sentiment of society towards
tae fool Is expressed in its general con-
s+nsus that there is such a being as the
fool-killcr, and that he will come at
some indefinite time and from some in
definite place and protect society from
the dangers 10 which fools subject il
by killing them. Society has been
anxiously looking for his appearance
from time immemorial, but he has not
come vet. and there are no heraldic
signs of his coming. Meanwhile the
crop OF fools not only steadily increases,
but new varieties are added to the genus,
which devise new forms of idiocy and
menace the people with new forms of
danger. As the advent of the fool
killer seems to be one of those myths
representing sense of outraged JUS
tice on the part of the community, and
the blessed day will never come when
he will arrive and commence the looked
for massacre. it is evident that society
must protect itself through the medium
OF law where the folly IS amenable to
law by making it crime and furnishing
it as a crime.
There are already hopeful signs that
srch system is soon to be inaugurated
with one class Of fools, at least, for as a
rule there are three classes of fools:
first, those who injure no one but them
selves; second, those whose outrages
upon the community do not go farther
than the ordinary consequences of a
common nuisance; and, third, those
who are absolutely dangerous to
the security of human life, and
are the worst class. To this class
belongs the didn't know-it-was-loaded
fool, and there are aggravating samples
OF him in every community. One of
them has just received his deserts at the
hands OF the law, and, the precedent
thus having been established, others
may be apprehended in the midst of
their idiotic careers, and perhaps at
last their peculiar form of idiocy may
be stamped out-an idiocy which mas
hitherto spared neither sex nor age, rel
alive nor friend, from the manifesto
tiOns of its colossal vanity, selfishness,
bombast and cowardice.
One of these didn't -know-it-was- loaded
fools has just met with fitting punish
ment. He is Daniel Reilly, of Brook
Ign, y. Y, and while calling upon a
young lady of his acquaintance he drew
a pistol and pointed it at her in fool S
jest. The young lady begged him not
to do it, but he persisted in spite of her
protests, and then TO further show his
importance snapped il. with the result
that the weapon was discharged and
killed the girl instantly. Thereupon
the fool was distracted with grief, as
such fools always are, having been the
agent of death with a weapon that no
fool--or sensible person for that matter
should be allowed to carry in a peace
full community. The District-Attorney
at once had him arrested and indicted.
He was placed on trial, and pleaded in
extenuation that he didn't know the
pistol was loaded. The jury paid no
attention to the plea, and, as it it acct
dentally happened to be q sensible jury,
convicted him of manslaughter in the
second degree.
The verdict carries with it q penalty
OF from one to fifteen years imprison-
ment. The sentance has not yet been
pronounced, but as this is the first case
where one of these fools has been
brought to justice, and rs he will serve
for pattern to be followed hereafter,
it is to be hoped, il he does not get the
whole of the fifteen years, he will get a
sufficient number of them not only to
impress his own folly upon him, which
is usually a difficult matter, but to
spread feeling of encouragement and
gloom among the others of his kind
black enough to convince them that
human heads arc made for some other
use that 10 servo as chuck-a-luck tar
gets for fools with pistols. 1t is a mat
ter for general rejoicing that justice
did not miscarry in his case. as it might
have done had he committed willful
murder, and that he will be punished,
for these homicidal fools are little less
dangerous than actual murderers, and
their number is very large. AS the law
heretofore has taken no cognizance of
their actions, they have been embOld-
ened to pursue their favorite form of en-
joyment with reckless impunity. There
is only one way 90 deal with them, and
that is to declare their method of sport
crime and punish it as such, and thus
notify them that when they point pis-
tols at people they have reached just
that point where crime and folly meet
and are indistinguishable.- Chicago