Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-09-10
simple. II must be treated rs such. The
felon's dock, the felon's cell, and if need be
the felon's gibbet form the only remedy for

felon's dock, the felon's cell, and if need be
the felon's gibbet form the only remedy for
such crime.
A sentiment must be vocalized into Or
ganlc exp ession which will compel legisla-
ton The sentiment exists. It must be
expressed In the only effectual way, until
rumseller will no more dare to open his
house of death among us than would q
dealer in deadly pestilence; until he must,
like other miscreants-of which there are
none greater-hide himself in the dens and
cayerns OF night from the vengeance of hot
pursuit. Brand felon on his brow; huddle
him with co-fellows in the criminals dock;
drive him with the gang in striped gar
the earth will be delivered from his devil
ish sorceries. No man in his senses can
say that there is any other remedy, or that
this is too severe. All that is demanded is
concert OF action. 1t will come; it is at the
door. There are men enough not hope
lessly debauched to vote such laws. They
will yet unite and rid the earth of
this foul monster. It lives, not be-
cause it can not be put to death, but
because We have not the will to strangle
it. Let christendom arouse, and in single
day of brave work the land will be freed
OF the vilest gang of criminals that have
ever cursed it, and the prisons will empty,
and the slums will dry up. and the vicious
classes will vanish, and the miseries of
poverty and wretchedness will cease. If q
Christian nation SO will, it can be done in
| one day. It we will not, the Moloch will
devour our bones and our, children. Mod
| Grafton is counseled. Moderation! Who
| counsels moderation? Have we not tried
temporizing policies with this wild beast of
nameless possession long enough? Have
We not sought to tame him with moral
suasion, to melt him with the tears of broken
hearted womanhood and childhood, by ap-
peals to any latent humanity that might vet
be in him, by the homes he has desolated,
and the victims by millions he has immo-
lated? Have we not resorted to measures
OF mild repression only to see how futile
they are? Have we not bound him with
the withes of low license and high license,
and hampered him with local option and
obstructive legislation? Have We not worn
ourselves out with crusades and petitions
and circumstances? Have we not, despair
exhausted all possible methods of rescuing
his victims, only to find him, at the end Of
q hundred years of unsuccessful effort, still
intrenched and defiant?
1t is seventy years since the great
Beecher stirred Boston and the nation with
his startling appeal. For half century
the impassioned Cough has gone up and
down the land creating, by his appeals that
would move heart of stone, moral senti-
ment. Thousands of others have pleaded,
and wept, and prayed. For twenty years wo-
men have knelt on curb stones and entreat-
ed. The state still pampers the beast, and
turns him loose to raven and destroy.
Where he had novels he has built palaces.
The low GROCERY has Powered out into the
gilded saloon. The scurvy miscreant, once
despised but patronized, has become the
acknowledged gentleman of fashion. He
has moved from his obscure quarters into
the streets where decent citizens live, and
is toasted and feted by we'll men and
women. He has formed an ostentatious
league, and banks millions to defend his
respectable profession. He calls conven-
tions, and sits, with parade, in delibera-
lions of his rights and immunities, and the
public press busies itself with reports of
his proceedings, and speaks of him with
respect. Moderation, no! Who talks of
moderation in the coils of a beacon
strictor? We have temporized too long. II
is time we talk and act like men. MUIR
derer, cold, heartless, cruel, is among us.
Not the assassin of .one or fam
lily. His victims count by mil
lions. His butcheries are progress
ing daily and nightly within sight
Of our dwellings. The screams of his vic.
Tins, if We would but listen, would chase
away sleep from our eyes. He knows the
fact; we know it. His sole and only bust
ness for which he lives, and by which he
lives, is first to debauch youth and inno-
cence, and then to hurry the dishonored
hulk away to drunkard's grave, and pam
per himself and his family upon the price
of his villainies.
The teocalli of the Aztec war god, upon
which the quivering hearts of thousands
were lain, is a shrine of beauty compared
with the horrors Of this modern demon of
destruction, the rum-hole. We men stand
by and see it, and raise no hand; nay,
worse yet, vote the right, and take the as
sassin of virtue and life by the hand and
treat him as our equal. The annals of
human history furnish no parallel of stu
pidity and monstrosity. Moderation! No,
no! There is but one way; it is plain and
simple. Treat the criminal as he deserves;
let criminal law do its functions; put him in
the culprit's dock, which is the only place
to which he is entitled; carry him from the
dock, by sentence of law, to the felon's
are his only fit associates. Let the process
be the most summary possible; let the law
take hold Of the factor in simple evidence
of his business; let the evidence of crimi-
nal intent be the presence of the article;
put it under the ban of right of search when
its presence is suspected. Deal with ii
precisely as we deal with theft, murder,
abduction, and classes of crime which
grade with it, but are far below
it in atrocity. In nation whose
legislation is controlled by univers-
al suffrage and direct vote, if half the
voters have not sunk below the level Of
men, it cannot be long until we are delivered
of this insuferable shame. Despairing OF
usher fathers, husbands, and brothers
woman, to avenge the wrongs Of her Sc,
and her offspring, has come to the rescue
What we will not, if SO be we will not re.
trieve the dishonor Of long continued in.
action, her future sons, more noble thar
we. will do; and the coming ages will mar
vel at the stories of our supineness, oul
stupidity, our shame. The avenger is born
o-day, and nothing can stay him. The
slayer will be slain. and virtue and hui.
munity will breathe freer when his loath.
some carcass shall be hidden in shameful
grave.
Il The Tahorer's Race for Life,