Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-20
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PHILOSOPHY OF MURDER.
How 1t Differs in Motive and Quaiii
from Other Crimes.

from Other Crimes.
Some crimes, like forgery, burglary and
the like, are in the nature of professions,
says the New Orleans Picawlne. In order
to succeed in them a certain technical
training and a necessary skill are requisite.
They may be classed as mechanical or use
ful arts. Murder, ON the other hand, is
usually the result of some profound or
powerful motive operating not only on the
| passions, but upon the reason and the i'm
agination, and acting with the force and
energy of an impulse born of inspiration.
Murder often rises to the height Of fine
art, and has been so designated by eminent
essayists like DeQuincey. Thus it may be
that the most red-handed and inexcusable
slayer of his fellow-man is so far from
being a physical monster, often gifted with
exceptional good looks. As to the female
murderers they are often extremely beau
tiful. Any person who has happened to
have noticed in the September issue of the
Century Mogdzine the portrait of Vera
Figner, one of the most daring and desper-
ate Of the Russian nihilists, will realize
this. Her sweet, earnest, ingenious, girl
ish face suggest anything devoted, tender
and pious, but not a hint of bloodshed
Nevertheless she organized and managed
| in Odessa, in 1882, a revolutionary move
ment which resulted in the assassination
of General Strelmoff Take the beautiful
Charlotte Corday, who assassinated the
monster Marat. She was almost angelic in
her purity and loveliness, and neither be-
fore nor after her long contemplated, care
fully planned and bloody crime did bear
the external impress of aught save extreme
beauty.
Murder is not an end but a means.
There are human tigers who delight in
bloodshed, but apart from these, murder
belongs to one sex, class or condition of
life. Any one who may become possessed
| of supreme passion, such as jealousy am
bitlon, love or revenge, or even patriotism
and religious fervor, may suddenly be be-
trayed into the commission of this capital
crime. The most delicate physical consti-
| tuition, the most refined mental develop
ment and the most tender, devoted and
affectionate disposition, and the incest
| sense of honor, do not exempt the pos
SCISSOR from temptation to shed blood on
| occasion. The more delicately organized
mentally, the more high spirited morally,
are no more free from murderous sugges-
ton than are the most brutal and ignorant.
The greatest safeguard against murder is
strong development of the reasoning
powers along with proper moral training.
Those refined and sensitive people who are
| actuated by impulses rather than reason,
make the small-featured and handsome
murderers. Men with great noses, small
chins and broad foreheads often make
great soldiers, delighting in battle and
slaughtering their foes without pity, in or
der to accomplish a great public object but
they are seldom murderers They have
too much good sense and directness of pur-
pose, even where moral qualities are lack
ing, to be guilty of assassination. The ha-
bitually criminal classes, depraved by
association, weakened By evil heredity and
brutalized by drink, are left out of this dis
cussion for obvious reasons.