St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-23
MOTIVES FOR CRIME.
THE MANiA or The FIRE-BUc AMONG
THE GREAT cURi0SITIsS.

Man has been called an ''animaL with
the privilege of self-deStruction, but
the criminal anomalies of the human
mind are by no means limited to pen
chant for suicide. When wolf rends
flock OF sheep or mink depopulates
whole poultry farm in a single night
their inspiring motive is not gratuitous
cruelty as much as the wish to make the
best OF lucky chance and provide
supply of food for the need of less pro-
pitious times.
In beings of our species, on the other
hand, the propensity of destructiveness
has often assumed form that appears
to make the luxury Of murder its own
reward. In default of other victims
buccaneers of the seventeenth century
would attack one another, and the
troops of the Ghengis Khan howled for
carnage like the Roman rabble for the
blood of the arena victims and the idle
pelados of Madrid for the bOnfreS OF the
inQuisition. There have been amateur
assassins who disdained to avail them
selves of a chance of plumber. but
stabbed strangers in the dark for the
sole purpose of enjoying the consequent
sensation; ana the mania of Jesse Pom
erOy is by no means without prece-
cent, remarks the Baltimore Herald.
A FiendIsh Baron.
About the end of the sixteenth cen
fury country baron of the neighbor-
hood of AuXerre, France, was besieged
III his own chateau by mob of peas
ants, who, with more and more en-
phasis, demanded the return of their
children, or at least a satisfactory ex-
pianation of their fate. Monsieur lie
text or other, eUticed at least twenty
youngsters to his castle, and failed to
account for their disappearance till the
teudal SubmiSSiveneSS of his SerfS eX-
hauSted its resources of appeal, and the
distracted relatives of the missing chill
dren were Joined by vendetta mob of
several hundred armed rustics.
The magistrates of AuXerre had post
poned the proposed investigation in def
erence to the protests of the barOn's
brother, wealthy abbot, who denounced
the whole matter as marotte Jacquerie
-GiodhOpper'S craze; but the formi-
dable spread of the revolt at last obliged
the baron to surrender himself to res
cuing party of militia. and an impartial
trial then established the fact that the
defendant had spent considerable sum
IN brlblng his domestic; to kidnap
twenty-five children and assist him in
torturing them to death with every re-
hnement of cruelty.
One of the few excuses that can be
admitted IN defense of Marat and other
leaders of the terrorIStS is the plea that
the zeal of the rowing bands of man
IN for. Tod hi. fHnSn 4
instructions. The chronicle of the
campaign against the insurgents of the
Lower Rhone and the memoirs of Nine.
de la -Rochenjaquelin mention instances
where nordeS OF uniformed cut-thr0atS
Invaded peaceful country town and
butchered away with beStial disregard
of constant offers OF unconditional sur
render.
Military Horrors. ID.
The crusadeS against the Albigenses
and the followers of Peter WalduS were
crowded with similar episodes, and
Mohammed III. had several brlgades Of
military amuck-runherS, who were apt
to take the bit in their teeth, as during
the capture Of ConstantinOple. when
they precipitated general massacre,
and drowned the shouts of their officers
in pandemOnIum of savage yellS.
w
often experienced a similar difficulty in
checking the rage of his man-butchers,
and after the sacking of Magdeburg
satisfied his SuperiorS that the enormI-
ties of the victorS had been committed
in defiance of his explicit orders. ''Ih
sreply to the charges of our adverSaries,"
he said, Il assumed the sole RESPONSE
bility, because L would much rather be
suspected of a league with Satan him.
self than to have it known that l was
unable to control my own soldiers"
q Judge Armstrong, of Leeds, has made
a study of the arson mania, tending TO
prove that in three out of five cases
the motive of the tirebug is not revenge,
but an unexplained and apparently ir-
.TeSiStible pencEant for mischief. The
supposed delight in the pyrotechnic
grandeur of the contiagration is only a
secondary factor of that propensity, for
in Northern Italy numerous individuals
mere boys. some of them-naYe been
arrested and punished for mischievous
tampering with the dikes that line the
principal rivers of Lombardy. In some
cases the offenders pretended to have
resisted the evil impulse for weeks, in
the firm belief that the instigator of the
crime must be il demoniO in person, but
we're apparently unable to resist the
temptations of the fun to inundate
whole township by few minutes of
midnight work with spade.
Freaks of Lynchers.
There are strong reasons to suspect
that the freaks of Judge Lynch are
occasionally due TO similar motives, and
il is a suggested circumstance that the
White Cap outrageS are less frequent in
the laWless and egulatlon-needed Dor
der lands of the Southwest than in
states where the scarcity Of game and
infrequency of social sensation deprive
/ tine natives of the ready-made chances
for exciting pastimes.
! In the PyreneeS bands OF rusticS camp
& for weeks in the wilderness of highland
( forests, living on roasted beech nuts
and enduring untold hardships till their
scouts at last report fair chance of
running the blockade Of the frontier
guards and cargo of contraband can,
; be spirited across the border at COM
'pensation of SIX reals (about rs cents)
per week of danger-Sweetened toll
Game stealing exercises an analogous
charm on Austrian farmers, abundanuly
able to afford the small expense OF a
hunting license; but in recognition of
the difference between maniaS and Or
binary crime, the law, on the whole,
ideals leuiently with such Offenders,
Though they may not be backed by the
social influence that saved the members
! of the Vienna Association of Amateur
Shoplifters.
The vienna ShOpIifters.
Some of the fair kleptomaniacs were
girls in their early teens, and nearly all
could plead the doubtful excuse of dis
interestedness from form and penny
point of view. They never patronized
pawn shops. rarely enriched their priv
ate wardrobes with their ill-gotten dry
goods. but contented themselves with
boarding their plumber Including hard
ware, mathematical instruments, text
books of political economy, and other
articles of no earthly use to young
female aristocrats) or exhibiting it,
Yauntingly, at their secret meetings
There are kieptomaniacs who will
pick up a handful of garden gravel