, 1892-07-27
savage NCENE.
what a Citizen of Olympia Has to
say OF Some Fiendisb Work.

what a Citizen of Olympia Has TO
say of Some FIendisb Work.
Editor Tribune:
l will be very glad if some one will please
inform me whatright the shoulder-strapped
savage in command of the regiment to
which the sympathizer with the would-be
assassin of H. c. Frick belonged, at Home
stead Pennsylvania, had to override the
constitution of the United States of Amer
lea and the letter or spirit of the laws of
nearly or quite every state or territory in
the uniOn-when he had the eaforesaid sym-
pathizer with the would-be killer of Mr..
Frick, strung up by the thumbs for half an
hour according to last evenings paper)
while surgeon had to stand by, the infer
nal torture was so dangerous, to see if the
poor DEVILS heart commenced to fail.
think that any person who is not drunk
or ldlotlc should be severely punished for
shouting 'Hurrah for the assassin" when
done at such place and under such cir
cumstanceS, but it happens there is a
clause iR the constitution Cf the United
Sta tes which says: Excessive bail shall
not be required nor excessive fines imposed
nor cruel and unusual punishments in
flicted." Section 13, article 1 of the pres
ent constitution of Pennsylvania says the
same thing, leaving out the word unusual
Section II Of the same constitution saws:
''No power of suspending laws shall be ex-
ercised unless by the legislature or by its
authority
Now even if the legislature had author
lied this tiendish performance it had no
right to, for every law and legal action
done in the United States must be in ac-
cOrdance with the constitution of the
United States, and that cannot be abrogated
by any person or state. Flogging has been
formally abolished by law in the army and
navy of the United States, as being too
cruel and brutalizing for use by anv power
pretending to be free and ciyilizeo. Will
anyone say that suspending a person by
the thumbs for thirty minutes is not fully
as bad2 do not see how it can be iusti-
ed, even as matter of military necessity
though admit the proYocation must have
been great, (but are not officers amenable
to the fundamental law of the land "a
well as priVates ?)-even if the writ oe
habeas corpus is suspended and the town
Is under martial law. The law allows the
| latter, but nowhere, even by inference, ap-
pllcable to very extraordinary and desper-
ate cases, does any law in this country con-
fer any right on any officer or any other
person TO enter on proceedings which, if
carried to their logical conclusions, would
permit him to have a man pulled apart or
burned at the stake, or have his entrails
gradually torn out. If he had the right to
physically torture one man he had the
right to torture thousand men nnder him
if they had been guilty of the same offense.
How Alexander, the lord of Siberia,
must smile when he reads about
this incident, and what a peculiarly
sarcastic smile it must be, too. Bear in
mind that do not think the offender is
one on whom many tears or bouquets
should be wasted, but there are other ways
to punish such fellows just as effectually,
without resort to a method which showed
the officer to have much of the nature of a
vanished savage. His action has of late
years not been PARALLEL even by that other
gllt-edged savage coward, Commander B.
I'll. McCalla, U. s. N, who when he went
to punish drunken sailor for aggravated
lnsubOrdinatiOn, accidentally on purpose
forgot to have the sailors hanGs unclaimed
before he deliberately and slowly brand
lshed his sword over the sailors head and
then, armed as he himself was, and having
armed men at his command around him.
proceeded to personally take the law into
his own hands, which he had no right to
do except in desperate cases when sur
rounded by many mutiueers, and cut down
that one unarmed man.
JOEE JAMES, JR.