The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-06-04
CRIMINALS CONSCIENCE.
Gallons to an Sentiments of Remoyso-The
Murderer OF the Novel n Creature I'm
known to the Criminal Courts.

New York Times.
l asked my friend the District At
torney whether in his opinion crlmi-
nails suffered remorse, and he tilted
himself back in his chair, looked upat
the ceiling, folded his hands, contract
ed his brow, and said
"Remorse!," That means mental
agony because OF the crime. Some
criminals do. others do not. Now,
when speak OF remorse | mean SUI
lering through penitence and sorrow
for the crime. That is what thenovel-
lists mean when they speak
OF remorse. 1t is a punish
ment only suffered by the com,
paratively innocent. Not by the
guilty. The weak man forced into
crime by circumstances suffers the ag-
onies ofthe damned, and the willfully
bad man delights in crime, and suffers
no computations whatever. Ofcourse,
he has fear OF detection; tear OF pun
lshment may be present in the criml-
nals mind, but that isnot
"Ihe man who suffers remorseis the
young married clerk who is distressed
at home. He steals money from his
employer and conceals the theft. He
intends to return that money and
sometimes does. Even then he suffers
remorse. He keenlv feels that he
has betrayed a trust, that he has been
a thief. lie sorrows because OF lost
selt-respect. Another east is that OF
the young man who, in a fit OF drunk
en- madness, kills a felIow-man. When
he becomes conscious OF what he has
done his mental agony is terrible. I'M
less 1t Is so great rs to benumb all his
senses. His nerves become totally
shattered, andhis Imagination plunges
HIM into a perfect hell of horrors.
"But not SO with the willfully bad
man. Not SO with the professional
criminal, His life is a happy one.
Ills nature is so constituted that it
finds it's happiness in excitement. The
commission OF a crime is fun for him.
There is fun In the planning OF a rob,
berry, fun IN its execution, fun in the
escape, fun in playing hide and seek
with the officers OF the law, fun in
boastlng OF the exploit to the other
members OF the gang OF thieves, fun
ever IN the capture, fun in hearing
his counsel plead his case for him, fun
III watching the actions OF the Jury.
All through the trial the criminal is
the focal point OF attraction and he
gains huge enjoyment from this fact.
'Novelists have all gone wrong in
regard to criminals. Ipresume some
OF them knew better, but they felt they
could hardly afford to antagonize
public sentiment and the critics. One
OF these days Il novelist will arise
and paint criminals in their true
colors, and then society vii! be
outraged and the critics will de-
nonnce the writer. But when sober sec
ond thought comes and the novel is
subjected to careful analysis, and when
it has been widely discussed, men OF
intelligence and experience will agree
that the writer who has made his
criminals glory in their crimes is cor
rect, and that all others who have en-
dowed hardened rufians with remorse
We're wrong.
The average novel reader viii not be-
lieve this. Even the worst of their
villains must suffer remorse, and so
with the average theatergoers. Public
sentiment demands remorse in all
villains, and therefore they are made
remorseful even by men who know how
falsely they aredrawinsth the characters
under their hands. 1t is strange how
Mind men are to this fact. | have
heard more than q score say that u
villain 50 depraved as Bill Sykes,
Dickens burglar in oliver Twist
never was seen. Pshawl | canpick up
the daily papers almost any day and
show a much worse man than Bill
Sykes. What was Bill Sykes in COM
parison with Charles Rugg, the Queens
county murderer, who strangled Miss
Maybee in the barn and then Law in
wait for the mother to come out
to find what delayed her daughter?
Then he strangled the mother and
went into the house to rob it. When
the poor, old, blind iather asked who
he was Rugy beat him brutality and
then coolly searched the house and
took all the money and valuables he
could find. Did lie suffer remorse?
Not much. He was around next day,
one OF the most composed men among
the searchers for the murderer. How
he must have laughed in his heart at
the confession OF poor Taben, the
half-witted man who WAS frightened
by detectives into saying that he had
done the deed. Rugg enjoyed the next
few months thoroughly and was never
suspected. He would have got off
scott free if he had not gone into
wholesale butchery as q trade. Re
morse could never have fastened itself
on him, else how could he 90 on muir
dering innocent people who had done
him no injury at all?
THE only thing wrong with Bill
Sykes rs that Dickens has rot made
him hardened enough. His murder of
his mistress because of her betrayal of
the gang with which he was connected
vas a very ordinary affair. Any New
York burglar or thief would do the
same thing and rejoice in it. His COM
panions would consider him q weak
nervedfoolifhedid not. Dickens makes
the gang OF thieves view Sykes with
detestation because of his crime, while
n OF that gang, the boy, Charley
Bates, is SO excited and indignant that
he assaults Sykes ON sight, and shouts
an alarm out OF the window. That is
wrong. Sykes conscience would en-
tirely Justify him in what he has done.
He might fear the legal consequences;
but that would be all. AS for the gang
they would consider him a hero who
had righteously executed a traitor. \
presume Dickens knew this wei! be-
cause he made a study Of criminals; |
but lie knew also that if he wrote the
absolute truth he would outrage the
sentiments OF ninetenths OF his read
ars.
:" said just now that Skyes' con-
science would entirely justify him Yes,
a criminal of the very worst kind has
a conscience, but it is an opium eater,
who drowsily halt rouses itself, after