The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-29
BOY MURDERERS.

derers of the two Dubuque farmers. whom
they shot to death deliberately with their
rites from ambush, are conspicuous ex-
amples Of precocious depravity and brutal
ity, and what better crop of boys can be
expected in country whose juries acquit
boys proved guilty OF trying to wreck pas
senger trains? The growing boys of this
section see that when their elders resort to
the rife TO arbitrate their disputes the
manslayer is seldom convicted, and when
convicted is usually let off with light
punishment for the lowest degree of man.
slaughter.
Any boy who can read knows that it is
quite as safe TO shoot man to death as it
is to steal horse. The penalty for steal
ing horse is seven years in the peniten-
tiary and convictions are frequent; the
penalty suffered by men convicted OF man
slaughter in this state does not exceed on
the average seven years; that is, the man
slayer seldom serves more than seven
years for his crime if convicted, and con-
vlctIons are not frequent, while convic-
tons for murder in the first degree are al
derer be friendless and repulsive.
If the fathers of the boys had curbed
their tempers and respected the law in the
settlement of their disputes with their
neighbors their boys would not be today
in Jail accused of murder. Boisterous pas
sions at home displayed by the parents
breed bad boys; parental contempt for the
laws which seek to protect the sanctity
of human life from invasion educate chill
dren to deeds OF murderous violence The
statement of the boys after the murder
that the murdered men "got not more
than they deserved" shows frightful con-
dition of mind on the part of the young
fellows. The law defines the killing Of
these Dubuque farmers as murder, but
these young fellows have decided that the
law is wrong; that the murdered men in
their judgment deserved to lose their
lives at the hands of two young ruffians
shooting them to death from ambush,
So long as juries are prone to treat
crimes against the person with absurd
leniency, while they punish crimes against
property with comparative severity and
rigor, just so long we may confidently ex-
pect the multiplication of such crimes as
were committed by the boy murderers.
The master mouids his men; the parents
mould the child. and parents cannot edu-
cate children to an experience and ex-
ample of violence without educating them
into bad citizens, likely at any moment to
commit murder and theft. If the parent
does not teach by his example of self-re-
straint his respect for law and the sanctitv
of human life; if the juries do not teach it
by wholesome verdicts, need ANYBODY be
surprised at the apparition of boy MUIR
derers? The detestablc doctrine that the
life of man is no more sacred than that
OF a barking dog, who was disagreeable
but not dangerous, is taught to the grow
ing generation of reckless boys. and the re-
suit Is that we threaten to become a per-
feet fish hatchery for spawning young des-
peradoes and murderers.
The test of high civilization is its pop-
ular regard for the sanctity of life, liberty
ana property, and measured by this test
there is no state east of the Mississippi
that can be called a highly civilized com
munlty. Human life does not come first:
neither does liberty: our chief solicitude
is the more sordid and selfish regard for
property. Convictions for murder in the
first degree are most difficult to obtain.
and severe sentences for any form of hon.
'cide are rare, while acquitta.s of murder.
ers are not intrequent. Lynch law not
seldom disdgures the history of the trans.
Mississippi states of the North. MANY
murders are committed: few assassins
escape arrest, and very few of them suffer
the penalty of their crimes. The growing
boys read all this; they reason swiftly
that it is light and not altogether I'M
heroic act to shoot r fellow creature TO
death on very small provocation, and the
result is large and increasing crop Of
young rutfians like the boy murderers of
the Dubuque farmers.
In the large towns the boys are pre-.
cociously dissolute or dissipated; in the
more remote districts they are disposed to
arbitrate all disputes with the pistol on
the most trivial provocation So long as
vile juries turn these young rutfians loose :;
so long as jures turn the father. loose
when they shoot down their neighhors
over boundary line disputes. what can be
expected of children educated by exam
pies of passionate, murdecous violence
that often go unwhjpt by justice?