Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-11-12

OF impulse which have been worn Dy
thought in q prior condition.
The action OF the Chicago mailman
Is pretty sure to be followed by one or
more imltators. Why? Because the
action OF the Chicago mailman fills the
public mind; it becomes an all-sur-
rounding subject OF discussion and pro-
vocative of emotion. The weak mind
is uueonsciously affected by the audible
vibrations OF the event, and 1t only
needs tho m~Gniacal impulse to set the
perturbed will and the unregulated I'm
~aRipatIon into initiative example.
l have on more than one occasion had
opportunity to watch the curious result
of the impressions made upon weak and
undisciplined minds by public events.
At a public execution l have seen the
notoriety, the magnitude OF the event,
the inten Q interest in the malefactor,
completely obscure the Nervousness OF
the crime. Ignorant people went away
with but one impression, and that was
the supreme Importance for the time
being OF the culprit. / dare say that
those people were afterwards visited by
dreams in which they played the part
of proud culprits upon whom the atten-
ton of the world was suddenly fixed,
and who TINS in their i~maginations
were lifted to conspicuous and crafty
ing eminence.
Ifawe sooner or later understand that
we must always have among US men
and whose mental capacities are
but little higher than the brutes, and
that they are influenced like children
| by obiect-lessons mainly through their
emotions; that, in a word, they live
like persons In dreams, with the con-
seriousness only half operative and the
volition unaffected by the Judgment,
we shall begin to understand how great
is the responsibility OF the community
itself. We may not be able to prevent
the dreams, but we can modify them
through the impressions that serve as
their m aterlal.
And here let it be observed that the
impulse to kill Is altogether prior TO the
maniacal exhibition of 1t. 1t does not
find it's genesis IN the demented par
oxysm; that is but the automatic result
OF it. The irresponsible action follows
the paths OF previous thought, and some
consciousness goes with IL, as when the
Chicago crank goes to the police after
committing the deed. The demented
wretch who threw the dynamite In a
~millionaire's Office in our city and paid
the penalty with his life brought to the
deed the preconceived and perverted
concept of the tyranny Of wealth and
the heroics Of violence. This concept
was not the outcome Of his individual
insanity, but the cause OF 10.
We have TO ask ourselves il the i'm
pulse to kill does not in this country
constitute an event in itself sufficient to
| affect weak minds by the pressure OF a
continual impression. Nowhere on
earth out Of China is life so cheap as In
| the United States. Crimes OF violence
not only increase, but the tolerance OF
them grows. We are becoming more
and more lenient OF crimes against the
person and more severe against crimes
that affect property. The air is heavy
with violence. The pistol and the knife
furnish the daily new report. The
auto-da-fe is a defended institution,
Unauthorized bands strip and fagellate
men and women In the name Of decency.
Barbarism calls Itself white caps" here
and regulators" there. The murderer
initiates insanity.
All the machinery Of defense and al
the morbid sympathy move toward:
him, red-handed as he is. We get a re-
hex OF border life in the clubs, and the
bushmen. who tramples upon an old
man walks Broadway for a while in
patent feathers. Men who assault each
other with the ferocitv Of demons gel
FIVE year In the penitentiary, and the
gilded youth who wrecks a thousand
lives is pampered in an asylum. The
desperate hero who hurls physical de-
'ction has an apotheosis Of notoriety
/ and q tribute of power.
Does not this laxity Of public opin'
ion affect those minds which receive
impressions but cannot just draw con
! illusions?
To go little further there has GROVE
up within q few years an order of mer
who openly propose to rectlfy the evil:
OF our social condition by physica
violence. They are destroyers, but
they disguise ~atrocious vengeance with
remedial cant. They have organized
hatred: the taking OF human life is an
allowable means TO a social end. They
have their literature and their ora
tory, and they have succeeded 10 con.
~vincing weak minds that murder first
and eli-destruction Afterwards are
short cuts to glory when all Other
avenues are closed.
What effect has this propaganda o.
violence upon Unbalanced minds? W.
have constant evidence Of the result
of It's sophistry upon minds that arc
only weak (of which the Governor OIL
Illinois is onel in the attempts to de-
fend and p~alliate the crimes Of anarchy
What. then, is the effect of Ignorance
and obscurity.
Recent Investigations Of vice by soci'
ologists have led TO the conclusion tina
vice is less the result OF heredity thar
Of environment.
1t is not at all unlikely that, alonG
the same lines of investigation, science
will sooner or later point out that indi
vidual alteration is the result, in great
measure, OF social pressure and irrita
ton Of example.
In that case the philosopher and th'
moralist will not agree with the police
man that society is without any protec
ton from the miseries and the destruc
ton that ill-conditioned and frenzieC
men infict upon 1t.
Let society but once array Itself Will
all its moral strength against violence
to the person, and the pressure Of tina
force will reach ven the 10 YER grade
Of intelligence. 1t will at least help Il
abolish utterly the homicidal measure
Of men who are not insane, and whei
their examples are removed from thu
public eye the Incentive to sympathetic
imitation Is gone.
...i.tn nnact laua mt nanaaaarir