St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-10
PROGRESS OF CRIME.
Murder Becomes More and
More Frequent in the
Tight Little Isle.
Education in the Modern Art
Leads to a Propensity
for BloOdshed.
The Use OF the Revolver Be-
coming More and More
Common.
Is the Feeling Of Horror at
Murder on the Gradual
Decrease?

y
ness new development Of crime in
England. 1t is true that the volume of
crime is diminishing. as might be ex-
pected from the spread Of intelligence,
which increases the fear Of conse-
quences, and from the enormous i'm
proYement in the means of communica-
ton, which greatly strengthens the po-
lice, as 1t strengthens all other organized
kinds of authority; but there will be a
large remainder of unsubdued crimi-
mails, and we should not wonder at all if
they became more audacious. more care
less of human life, and more inclined to
risk exceedingly difficult and profitable
attempts.
That change has already occurred In
America, where criminals now attempt
feats, such as the robbery of banks
in open day and the plumber of railway
trains, which are never thought of here;
and it is not difficult to understand one
reason. The brain power of criminals
has been enlarged by direct teaching
and the general diffusion Of knowl
edge, like that of every other
class. With some, possibly ma
jority, that enlargement develops a
certain shrinking from crime, the
penalties of which become painfully
distinct; but those who do not feel this
become much more dangerous. They
know better where treasure lies, they
are more greedy for its pOSsession-On
early effect of education being COM
prehension of what money can buy
and they shrink with a perfectly new
terror from the consequences of being
convicted. When i'll danger of prison
they develop courage of despair and
care nothing about human life at all.
A man like the accused burglar whose
letter to his wife was published in the
papers this week is, like Peace-the
criminal hero Of a few years agO-the
product of sort of civilization. He can
write good letter, very Clear
direct and carefully thought out; he has
a habit of observation like that Of all eli
glneer-witness his calculations as to
the relations of his cell to the surround
ing neighborhOod-and, being result
of natural selection from among more
timid criminals, he is as bold as leader
of forlorn hope. At the same time he
Shrinks from five years imprisonment,
which his predecessors would have
regarded with contempt. with
kind of loathing rather than terror,
is ready assuming, of course. his own
statement to be true-in order to avoid
it. to drug policeman or murder
Warder, OR, in short, to do anything
which gives him a chance of escape,
even up to giving pledge to his wife,
whom he wanted to help him, to live
peacefully for the future" That is
the kind of criminal with whom--when
all men have some tincture of education,
and the paralyZing effect of ignorance
{ba
less dare face the law and its powerful
machinery-the defenders of order will
have to cOpe-at first, it is conceivable,
in vain.
The new men, we may rely upon it
will not be content with stealing coats
and hall-clockS like suburban burglars.
but will fly at higher game, will find
associates, will invent means of secret
organization, combine for great efforts,
and lay careful siege to places where
they know masses of spoil, either in
coin-always the great object of desire,
because the aid Of receivers is then not
required-or jewels or bonds are to be
found. They will not want the means
of gross dissipation for three days,
like the old burglars and footpads,
will strive to get them, as on the Con-
tinent they have done for the last
five years. There the most remarkable
crimes for gains are always directed to
secure ssgreat hauls," such as exist in
large postoffices. bank safes or the
houses of those who hoard. There will
be few in number. perhaps, because
/ they will be a picked class. but they
will be terribly dangerous, and they
will be watched with as much interest,
and ultimately put down with as much
severity as the old highwaymen, who
had. as these men will have. the curious
advantage that as they could attack
only the rich they did not rouse the
fears, and, therefore, the hatred of the
mass of the community.
The increasing readiness Of the
modern criminal to shed blood is, we
believe, strange as the assertion will
seem to many believers in education,
direct result OF increased intelligence.
Not to mention that they understand
better the use of the revOlver-one of
the many scientific inventions which
have positively diminished morality
they comprehend better what modern
trial means, what evidence will be re-
quired by jury. and how fatally
the disappearance OF witnesses EN-
barraSses a prosecution. Suppose
those lads at Crewe had not confessed,
what would have been the chance of a
conviction? The modern criminal rea-
SONS those things out calculates those
chances, and decides that, on the whole,
the excessively remote chance of being
hanged for crime without witnesses is
less to be dreaded than the certainty of
penal servltude if the witnesses sur
vive. So he fires again and again. often
to find, as in Peace's case, that |
he has calculated rightly. That |
''great" desperate enjoyed i'm |
munity for years because, when he |
saw it to be expedlenr he killed with |
out compunction. Criminals, too. are
vain, almost to man, and to use the |
revolver is to mount, almost with a.
bound. to the top of their ladder of |
fame. As to conscience, they develop it |
fore, the possession of such monitor |
warning the hesitating from a trade |
which nowadays involves. so often. |
murder as an incidental instrument
of escape. Besides, the age influences |
criminals, as it influences all other
men, and "the age" for reasons we do |
not pretend fully to comprehend, is los
ing some of its ancient and natural hor-
ror at murder. and has transferred its
dangerous wrath to those cruelties !
which leave their victim alive. This
phase of feeling will pass. the instinc-
tive sense of right and wrong coinciding
in this case with the permanent deter
mination Of humanity to keep itself
safe; but for the moment it Is powerful,
and with criminals as with=the rest.
How can burglars think murder
worse crime than burglary when edu-
Gated men, incapable of hurting any
created thing, talk of PARTICLES as vic
tins of heredity, and pity their ''bilghted
.lives?" Or how can the fear Of the gal
lows coerce them when they see that a
capital sentence rouses the whole ma
ton to discussion, and great parties,
as in the atrocious Lipski case,
to protest. while the much
more terrible though less dreaded
sentence of penal serYitude for life
scarcely eyOkes comment? In Texas,
it is said, men of the desperate class
will commit any crime but one with a
light heart. 1t takes exceptional daring
even there to steal horse, for the pen
atty for horse stealing is instant death !
at the hands of the democracy, which