The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-10-12
The Whiteohapel Murders.

! For some weeks past the city of
| London has been in great Consideration
| over series OF remarkable murders
that have taken place in what Is known
as Whitnchapel, one OF the lowest quar-
tiers of the city. A number Of women
have been found with their heads and
arms missing, and their bowels pro.
truding from cuts in the abdomen.
All bear the same marks and The mur-
ders are evidently perpetrated by the
same person. A recent dispatch from
London says.
Since last Sunday the evening papers
have been busy contr dctng stories
of the morning papers about the
Whitechapel murders, and the next
days morning papers have returned
the compliment in kind. Except that
mutiated bodies have been found and
identified no fact throwing light upon
the deed or the murderers has traus-
pired. The Eoenin0 Ne,os which has
been the greatest manufacturer of in
cidents, rumors of arrests, ETC., is COM
PEELED to say this evening:
''Matters stand now, as far az the
murders are concerned, just where they
did on Sunday last, and it is safe to
state that not the faintest evidence
likely to lead to detection and arrest
has been forthcoming. At the present
moment there is not one person un Ter
detention"
Doubtless some of the sensational
and groundless tales have been cabled
across the ocean. Nevertheless, they
are the rumors and concoctions of fan
ciful reporters.
The reign of terror that has held un-
disputed sway in the East End since
Sunday continues with unabated force.
Popular excitement and indignation as
time goes on seems to be intedsifying,
and the public and police alike are be-
coming more and more determined to
unearth the miscreant, who doubtless
still haunts the scenes of his fiendish
deeds.
Exasperation pervades all classes of
society in the East End, and should
the murderer fall into the clutches of
the Wlitechapel crowd it will result
in an outburst which it would be diff.
cult for the police 10 control and per-
haps give Englishmen no longer
chance to arraign American vigilantes
or Judge Lynch.
The New York World says:
The fact that all the victims of the
Whitechapel murderer are abandoned
women who prowl in the streets at
night indicates that his maniacal rage
Is directed against them as class, and
against them only. He may have
suffered through one or more of them
griefs that have taken away his reason.
His wife or his daughter may have
found her. way to their ranks. Or he
may have fallen through his own dis
solute courses ane have been stripped
of fortune, respectability and health
until all hope vanished and a consum-
ing craze for revenge took its place.
1t cannot be supposed that any
rational being would undertake such a
career of murder and mutilation as is
pursued in this case. 1t may be that
the deep cunning involved in escaping
detection could not be exercised by
man in the full possession of sane fears
and hopes. The unfaltering determin-
alton evin ed could only co-exist with
an absolute indifference to conse-
quences which is not compatible with
sanity. And the mania of the murder
er must confne itself to one vent,
otherwise he would speedily be run
down.
The London police come in for much
and derision for their failure
to arrest the culprit but there are men
in Scotland Yard who are far from be-
ing fools. 1t would be well to suspend
judgment concerning them until this
strangest of chapters in the history of
crime is closed