The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-05-28
CRIMINALS CONSCIENCE

CRIMINALS CONSCIENCE.
callous to all Sentiments Of fRsmorss-The
Murderer Oft the Novel . Creature Un.
kaown 70 the Criminal Courts.
New York Times.
I asked my friend the District At
torney whether in his opinion crimi-
mails suffered remorse, and lie tilted
himself back in his chair, looked up at
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 I mean euf-
tering through penitence and sorrow
for the crime. That is what the novel;
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 az
onies ofthe damned, and the willfuliy
bad man delights in crime, and suffers
no compunctions whatever. Ofcourse,
he has fear of detection; tear of pun
ishment may be present in the crimi-
nails mind, but that isnot remorse.
'"The man who suffers remorse is the
young married clerk who is distressed
ut 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 keenly feels that he
has betrayed trust, that he has been
a thief. He sorrows because OF lost
self-respect. Another case is that of
the young man who, III fit of drunk
EN- madness, kills a fellow-man. When
he becomes conscious of what he has
done hi. mental agony is terrible. I'M
less it is SO great as to benumb all his
senses. His nerves become totally
shattered, and his simaginatio 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.
His nature is SO constituted that it
finds its happiness in excitement. The
commission of a crime is fun for him.
There is fun in the planning of a rob.
berry, fun in it's execution, fun in the
escape, fun in playing hide and seek
with the officers OF the law, fun in
boasting of the exploit to the other
members of the gang of thieves, fun
even in the capture, fun in hearing
his counsel plead his case for him, fun
in 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. presume 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 will be
outraged and the critics will de.
nounce the writer. But when sober Sec
ond thought comes ana the novel is
subjected to careful analysis, and when
it has been widely discussed, men oi
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 Ell
dowed hardened ruffians with remorse
were wrong.
The average novel reader vii not be-
lieve this. Even the worst of Their
villains must suffer remorse, and SO
with the average theater-goers. Public
sentiment demands remorse in all
villains, and therefore they are made
emorseful even by men who know how
falsely they are drawing the characters
under their hands. 1t is strange how
Mind men are to this fact. / have
heard more than q score say that a
villain SO depraved as Bill Sykes,
Dickens burglar i'll oliver Twist,
never was seen. Pshaw! l CAM pick up
the duly papers almost any day and
show 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 father asked who
he was Rugg beat him brutally and
then coolly searched the house and
took all the money and valuables he
could find. Did he 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 of
scott free il he had not gone into
wholesale butchery as u trade. Re.
morse could never have fastened itself
on him, else how could he go on mur.
dering innocent people who had done
him no injury at ali?
"The only thing wrong with Bill
Sykes is that Dickens has not made
him hardened enough. His murder Of
his mistress because OF her betrayal oi
the gang with which he was connected
was 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 a weak.
nerved foolifhed did not. Dickens makes
the gang Of thieves view Sykes with
detestation because of his crime, while
one 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 hero who
had righteously executed a traitor.
presume Dickens knew this we'll be
cause he made study of criminals
but lie knew also that If he wrote the
absolute truth he would outrage the
sentiments OF nine -tenths Of his read.
srs.
"I said just now that Skyes' con
science would entirely justify him Yes
q criminal OF the very worst kind has
conscience, but it is an opium eater
who drowsily half rouses itself, after
particularly tlagrant crime and asks
Was this ri.ht?' Immediately there
arises in the criminals mind q host o
sophistical arguments which assert