Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-05
,ot,ngp-or Malice ?

The Dog star will be in on time this
summer. There can be no doubt as to
that. The Tribune has developed the
prcmonitory symptoms. The state Of
the 7rbune's temper about the LIST OF
June is the best sign we know that
SIRIUS has not been loaflng. When,
with the approach Of warm weather,
the Tribune bursts forth in an
especially maniacal TRADE against
the South, it may be regarded as a fixed
fact that the star Of hydrophobicsl in
fiucnce has been sticking to his course
with the steadiness Of professional
pedestrian. and hasn't wasted any time
coquetting with VENUS, rolling ten
pins with MARS, or playing bluf with
JUPITER. On the contrary, it is safe
to wager any amount that he
will be over the Tr,bune's tall tower
at the moment he is due there. The
TriJune's latest diatribe is upon what
II terms the southern vendetta, or
blood feud, and it gets of about q
column of the widest stuff ever print
ed in q newspaper. The article forci-
bly, suggests that it was dictated by a
committee Of lunatics and revised by
set of idiots. Here is specimen
but the persistence OF the blood feud.
based, as it plainly is, upon theories wnicn
none but savages could evolve. and lac king.
as IL plainly does, any warrant derivable
from civilized thinking, IL full OF interest
for the sociologist. IL proves, among other
things, the liability to error inseparable
from all attempts TO deduce the precise
stage OF civilization existing at any epoch
by observation OF the prevailing customs.
For 10 IL clear that a future historian, know
Ing nothing OF these southern men beyond
the fact that they cherished the blood feud.
would on such evidence set them down as
harbarians OF q low type, and would INFER
that they were nomadic. perhaps that they
captured their wives, and that they had no
religion"
What nonsense But the Tribune
continues
at is to be hoped that before the last
southern feud Is extinguished In the blood
OF the parties TO IL, some man OF science
will investigate and describe the custom
fully 40 that sociology at least may be the
gamer from survival OF the useless 70.
rocity which is so strange and puzzling.
The world certainly ought TO ascertain why
a practice which died out In all but the
most back ward parts OF Europe from one
and half TO two centuries ago still per-
sists so stubbornly in our southern states In
spite OF all the modern Increase OF rever.
ence for human life.'
What an unmitigated libel. IL soci-
ology is to be the gamer by the study
of any survival Of barbarism in this en-
lightened age, would it not be well
for the investigation to be commenced
right under the Tribune's nose? We
do not claim that the South is free from
brawls that occasionally endin the she'd
ing of blood--no section of the country
is-and that there should be such
brswls is a matter of deep regret. But
when it comes to the worst class Of
crimes, the city Of New York has fur
nished in the last six months more than
have all the southern States put to-
gether. AS a southern contemporary
remarks, during that period numerous
" common murders, PARTICLES, fratri-
cides, suicides, infan<icides, and the
whole catalogue of lustful crimes have
disgraced the civilization of New York. .
If the Tribune must have something
to rave over, it can find plenty Of ma
terial within a stones throw Of its Office.
However, the Tribune may intend its
article for a joke. In that case we
should say it is very stupid joke,
which thinly wells a vast deal Of malice.
Further, we would suggest to the Tri-
bune that man whose father was hung
for murder cannot well afford to take
the agency for rope-walk.