Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-30

citv has been terrorised, rails have been
torn ep, dynamite bombs have been placed
ard some fred, men have been assaulted
and killed, and masked mobs have COM
mitted outrages, in order that few men
may endeavor to dictate to a few others
how they shall conduct their own business.
The discovery in the cable channels of the
roads on Tuesday, of vigorit powder suf-
ficient to blow up block of buildings and
decimate an army, testiies to the desperate
resolves of the strikers. By mere accident
the discovery of the diabolical attempt
was made. The fuse was laid, the caps set,
and bat for the wearing away of the fuse
by the cable we should have had record
now of one of the most monstrous of
crimes.
A general tie-up of the roads in San
Francisco is threatened, and if it is at
tempted all the probabilities are that the
public will be the chief sufferers. The de
termination of the several directories, as
we CLEAN the facts from San Francisco con-
temporaries, is to stand out against the
strikers, and if they force men on lines
where they are contented to leave their
employment, the companies will simply
cease business-they can wait if the pub
lie can. If the general tie-up" is or
dered. it is to be hoped that the test will
be determined once for all whether there
is power and vigor enough in the local and
State Governments to guarantee to citi-
zens the exercise of natural rights To
that end there should be no yielding on
the part of the roads under threat. Let
the strike cease and any consideration Of
possible Encouragement of salaries be de-
pendent wholly upon its complete and
utter cessation.
THE defense in the Gardiner murder
case at San Francisco is insanity, superin-
duced by too much absinthe and whisky,
by dyspeptic and neuralgia complaints,
and by an accident to the head of the de-
PENDANT shortly before the killing of GUM
don. No man will ask for the conviction
of an insane person charged with homi-
eide The inability to conceive the crime,
because of dethroned reason, is sufficient
defense. But it is remarkable that so
many of these pleas should involve the
fact that the defendant is addicted to the
use of alcoholic stimulants. We have no
disposition to PREJUDICE GARDENERS case,
but it is matter for discussion at any
time as to whether the plea of drunken
ness shall continue to shield men from the
consequences of their acts. The argument
of counsel hinges the insanity of the de-
PENDANT upon his addiction to whisky and
absinthe, as strongly as upon the injury to
his head, his dyspepsia and his mental I'M
balance by reason of the strain of over
work. There must be an end some time
to the interposition of liquor as the savior
of men who commit crime. The new code
that is certain to be set up will warn men
in advance that if they promote and aug
ment physical ailment by the use of in
toxicating liquors, they must take the
consequences of their acts committed while
in semi-insane condition. The plea of
incapacity to intend wrong because the
reason is clouded by the fumes of whisky,
is set up nowadays in seven out of ten of
the cases in which liquor-infamed men
take the lives or property of their fellow
men, or commit outrages upon the public
peace. Society is sorely firing of this sort
of thing, and is justified in inaugurating a
legal revolution of its merciful provisions
under which whisky carries off so many of
its devotees scot free from deserved pun
ishment for crime