The Wilmingtonian., 1885-07-04
THE ROAD HE SHOULD GO.

THE ROAD HE SHOULD GO.
morning contemporary in comment upon |
the dastardy murder of officer Peterson by |
| the man who is now in custody for that
crime in New Castle Jail, remarks ''the hand
of justice points unwaveringly to the road
he should 60"
| After listening to the sworn testimony of
numerous eye witnesses of the tragedy there
would appear no other alternative in law or
justice.
But after all the recognition of the das-
tardliness of the crime and the unavoidable
retribution linked and manacled to it, rep
resent but a small part of the profound
sentiment evolved when rejecting upon the
conditions existing in our community that
would generate this EXTREMIST outrage of
law.
That an officer of the law should lose his
life in the process of performing his duty,
| 10 q A"So nhiShs 'hOubh ~ Sdllc lhilh llC
most extreme regret and sympathy from
everybody, is not matter near SO alarming
as the reflection that possibly the causes of
such crime, may exist widespread and i'm
bedded in the community.
This tragedy is an exempli6cation of that
hideous menace to American civilization
"ho0dlumism. Drunkenness that worst of
all sources of vice is not, necessarily, an at
tribute of it as it canLot in this recent case
be adduced as the cause.
species of agnosticism or nlhilism exists
born of social disbelief in integrity,
honesty and honest living, as these luckless
ignorant heodlums logically enough appre-
hend when they perceive the moral law out
ragged day after day by those who arrogate
to themselves social superiority to the
lower and ignorant classes
The scum of our community see the tiick-
/ cry, the immortality Of their 6etters, they
daily learn of their vicious example, and by
this strongest of arguments hold them
selves, in their deeds, as morally inculpable
as their wiser betters whose knowledge Of the
5 exact delimitation of law enables them sue
cessfully to cloak their sins, or equally sue
b cessfully to evade Judgment by the means
: of well lined pocket book. The pitiful OBJ.
e ject now incarcerated in New Castle
S Jail lies there an evolution of hoodlum-
; ism.
We all know, by this time Of his early
: surroundings. They are not immeasurably
. worse than those of thousands of others
e around us, who as humanity goes are not
+ below the ordinary grade of intelligence,
: only x.ia.sd ss.s!alizsa zsa..---.-.,--..------
r And right here is the point here the judg-
e ment comes upon our serious, thinking com.
muni!y. The demand of intelligence is,
= what are the causes the terrible hidden
II causes that inure to this indiffertentsm,
n this nihilism as regards the good-that
y tdrives those who should develop as orderly
q kindly humanity, into the harshest form OF
= hdeous vice--vice that their fellow men ad.
u judge mete only for the hangman's
: rope?
! Is there no hope? Can nothing be done
for those who remain, his very counterparts
n in all but the accomplishment of tho capital
is crime? There are hundreds among us just
e like this pitiful victim of unfortunate sur.
If roundings. Is there no hope for his class
l. but the drastic. argument of the hangman's
rope?-There is very little, il public morali
L ty outraged by the better classes as it has
is been done by the wholesale within the last
% month.
G There are those who may sneer when We
e assert that the recent wholesale cheating a
s. the public polls is one of the indirect bu
3 most powerful motors by which the misera
:. bic unfortunates of the Davis class ale gen
N Grated. Here, the highest most exalted
! IlBHI Vi CltlZeusulp is OuUraHeu ana p0llu
$ ted. A popular ieer and lie is given to the
sacredness of what should be the holies
Vt public duty of the citizen. The hoodlum i.
d told by hls betters that the rights that oul
i fathers laid down their lives for, that tn,
Constitution of the United States, the no
best archive of freemen on the earth, is
nothing.
Yet many of these hoodlums may have
been inclined to think otherwise, until, tteil
y corrupt "betters" came across their path
/ willy taking advantage of them at the
l. weak moment Of poverty, and bought theil
! votes, and easily did it again and again in
duplicate and triplicate These intelligent
rascals are the pest holes OF the community
These are the brutes who commit moral as
sassination wholesale moral assassination
to which the incidental death of the faithful
u officer is but a drop in the ocean of iniquity
}, The single death is merely the disappear
o ance Of one good man, whereas the other is