Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-05-05
PERIODS or CONTAGIOUS CRIME.
Do Criminal Epidemics Have Their ORR
gin In the secret Springs of Nature?

Do Criminal Epidemics Have Their ORR
gin In the secret springs Of Nature?
1t has been frequently noted that there
are epidemics in suicide and in other
crimes. A criminal epidemic peculiar to
Chicago, and TO M or two other cities
having a large floating and vicious class
population, is that of Sunday murders,
which are the results Of a day of idLeness
spent in the open saloons, where the vilest
and most fiery liquors are sold. Murders
with peculiar features often occur in
groups in all parts of the country. 1t has
been traditional in France that epidemics
of suicide return in regular cycles, at
each recurrence Of the suicidal Juror, the
successive victims Of their own murder
Gus hands vieing with each other in the
greater ghastliness Of the tragedy that
they enact. During one of these periods
a suicide literally capped the climax
by leaping from the top Of a tower, 200
or 300 feet. to the pavement below.
Stories Of wife murders in many parts
of the country, relieved by a few excep-
honal murders of husbands by their
wives, reach the press and the public ST.
multaneOusly from many different
sources. Murder is in the air. has be-
come an habitual expression from the re.
turn of these bloody times. In esjays
of bank burglaries-now much less fire.
quent, owing TO the projections that sci
ence has provided for money vaults-it
was not often that a single robbery was
reported-they ''came in battaliQns."
This was not because the same gangs en-
gagged ia many different enterprises, but
because n universal similar impulse per.
meated the minds Of the criminal class
devoted to these forms Of guilt.
A curious study might be made Of the
causes OF cpidemics OF crime. In super
stitious times all evils were attributed to
the influence Of adverse stars. This may
have been an approach TO scientific truth.
or IFS advanced shadow. That meteUro-
logical conditions seriously affect the
health and spirits-and affect some more
seriously than 0thers-is a fact of such
every day experience that il is no longer
regarded as phenomenal The causes Of
METEOROLOGICAL change must DE the causes
lying bnck Of the %pervading disposition
at times witnessed TO commit peculiar
Glasses of crime. A suicidal atmosphere
must have its origin in some Of the secret
springs Of nature.
Advanced speculation has recently at.
tributed cyclones, earthquakes and other
terrestrinl disturbances % great changes
IN the surface 81 the sun or in the super.
heated ether surrounding il. Sun spots
and eruptiOns Of solar flames have been
frequently noted as occurring synchronic-
ally with devastating hurricanes, tidal
waves, upheavings Gf the ground or
scorching summer heat. A scientist, who
has made this and kindred questions a
serious study, has advanced the theory
that when numerous deaths by paralysis
or paralytic attacks are simultaneously
reported, they are the result VI such dis
turbances in the sun as are called M
spots. A theory quite as plausible u this
might attribute epidemics Of crime %
similar influences, by which weak rea.
sons ARE overthrown and murderous in.
tents are kindled in excitnble minds with
destructive tendencies. There are causes
for all things in life and nature, and no
study Of such causes il In vain.-Chicago
journal.