Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-06-21
WHAT CONSCIENCE DOES.
A French Murderer Voluntarily Gives Him.
self Tn to ,yustice.

Charles Dickens in Martin Chuzzle-
wit" and Erckmann-C hatrian in The
Polish Jew" have depicted the case of
criminals who preferred surrendering
themselves TO justice rather than to
longer endure the feeling that they were
| being hunted down like wild beasts,
but such a case OF conscience has
actually happened here in Paris. This
same feeling has just drivena murderer
10 give himself UP to the police after
| they had hunted for him in vain every
where. 4 poor devil named Cornu
killed a dealer in birds ct the little
town of Saint Maur. and then he wan
dered over the face of the earth in
company with man whose acquaint-
ance he had picked up on the road.
The two made no long halts at wayside
inns, they avoided towns and villages,
/ slept under hedges or in such sheltered
| corners as they could find, and they
made long detOurs to dodge the gend-
armes. In this way they crossed four
departments; occasionally they were
Noticed and were chased by gardes
champetres. who perhaps knew in
stinctively that they We're suspicious
/ characters on whom it might be well
| to lay their hands. and, although they
mani .red to escape arrest, they
had the fear of it constantly upon
them, and the specter OF the guilbotine
was ever before their eyes. Perhaps,
| too. renorse, or ut least regret for
a useless crime, hung heavily on Cornu,
numbering his sleep just us it did that
Of the successful Macbeth. Finally
the two trarnps arrived safely at tho
| frontier and stepped across into Bel
GUM. They were now, comparatively
speaking, safe from pursuit, and Cor
nus companion, who doubtless. also,
had his reasons for stunning the gen.
darmes, had papers to prove his ident-
! ity when, on reaching Antwerp, they
applied for passage as emigrantS to the
Congo. He was accepted, but as COrnu
had nothing to show who he was or
where ne cayme from, he was refused,
the agents OF the Free State of Congo
being determined to keep the wilds OF
Africa uncontaIpinated by the presence
of European criminals. 1t was not in
the heart of the dark continent that
the repentant, or least regretful, muir
derer could be permitted to begin a
new life. Before separating the two
made division of the few francs that
remained in the joint purse. and then
Cornu mechanically commenced re-
tracing his steps toward his own
country. He re-crossed the frontier,
followed the same roads, slept under
the same hedges and lodged the same
| gendarmes: finally, fOOtsOre and starry
! ing, he reached the capital, went
straight to the Palais de Justice and
said to policeman: ARREST ME; |
| am COrnu. the murderer of the bird
| dealer of Saint Maur." Now it was
misery as much as any thing else that
| put Cornu in the hands of justice. But
! one of the ways in which relnOrse some
times acts on q guilty man is that it
makes him feel himself isolated from
the rest of mankind. There are muir
derers who are haunted by aveng-
ing furics quite as terrible as those
which women. crowned with writhing
serpents and waving lurid torches,
represented on the ancient stage, and
such men can only find refuge from
this mental anguish in d prison CELL
D,,;. 7 oIyo.