Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-11-12
IS SOCIETY At THE
MERCY Or CRANES?
Nev York World


Supt. ByrneS is reported to have said,
on hearing of the violent death OF the
Mayor of Chicago at the hands OF a
crank, that society has no protection
against this kind Of assassination, and
that the brightest and best men OF the
community are at the mercy OF the most
irresponsible and least worthy.
This is a startling admission for any
one TO make, but from the point OF view
OF a policeman it is probably a correct
statement. AN officer Of the law can
not prevent such an occurrence as was
that in Chicago.
But the philosopher or the moralist
may have something further to say on
the subject. AT all events, he is not apt
TO believe that society will forever re-
gard itself as wholly helpless in a mat
ter which places valuable lives at the
continual mercy OF worthless lives. So
ciety may not be able to make statutes
of prevention, but it will always remain
e conceivable possibility for society TO
make preventive conditions. II must
always POSSESS within itself the ability
In some measure TO lessen the POSSIBLE
ity OF such homicides, and TO that work
it will sooner or later apply itself.
The killing OF the Mayor Of Chicago,
like the killing of President Garfield,
may be and probably was the work o.
an irresponsible and irrational n :.
But whatever the degree OF dementia,
IL is not without signs Of the pressure OF
the times. Deadly revenge, the use OF
a pistol and the sense OF wrong-doing,
or at least of opposition to the commu-
nifty, are three points worth consider
ing. Whether the injury he felt was
real or fanciful, there was a distinct
concept of vengeance, of wreakinR pun
ishment by means of a pistol upon the
supposed cause OF the wrong, and there
was a consciousness Of the illegality OF
the act in his giving himself up to the
police.
1t is worth asking why an insane man
under the sudden impulse Of mania re-
sorts to a pistol. Why should mania
select one course Of action rather than
another? Why does not the impulse,
being irrational, take any animal
course, as for instance that OF tearing
its victim to pieces with It's hands and
leGkOs why OOCo AO SSAAy NJA~AA
| or gunpowder.
The answer Is hat the use Of these
might have affected his mind through
public examples, and the irrational i'm
pulses follow the lines Of thought
marked out in rational moments. Here
we come upon the mysterious ground
of sympathetic imitation, which makes
crime mimetic and leads one man to
Initiate another who jumps from the
Brooklyn Bridge or suddenly appears in
a gentleman's Office armed with dyna-
mite.
DIR. Milo A. Jewett, OF the Danvers
Lunatic Asylum, recently pointed out
in a remarkable treatise the
analogy Of insanity to dreams, declaring
that in both cases the normal functions
Of the mind were modified, but in both
cases the absrrant action employed only
the impressions made In normal condi-
tions. DR.. Scoltz, of Germany, has pur-
sued the same line OF thought, and q
new light has been thrown upon the &c.
centric actions Of the mind in sleep by
showing that however disconnected and
illogical the dream sequences may be
their material is a reflex Of the normal
Impressions. and that the sleeping ale
Qories may be modified and changed
by changing the character of the
man. Similarly it Is claimed that