The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-16
Observer Weather Bureau.
l. temperature; W, wind; Y. velocity.
BRITISH WOMEN RUN AWAY.
Their Strange Conduct in a Fashion
able Part Of London.

able Part OF London.
From the New York sun.
London Dec. S.-Two ladies of the Sun
correspondents family were making calls
just after dusk yesterday in Kensington.
They had some difficulty in finding the new
address of a friend. and not seeing a Do
liceman, stopped to inquire the way to
Queens Gate Terrace of a group OF four
women who happened to be approaching.
Before they had time to speak two words
of their question the four women turned
and fed, with every evidence of sudden
terror. The ladies walked on a few steps.
met two more women, and attempted to
make the same inquiry. The second couple
seemed seized with even greater alarm
than the first group. They gathered up
their skirts, ran across the street, and
away without waiting to hear the ques-
ton.
This extraordinary power to put British
maids and matrons to flight by a word so
amused the two American women that
they tested it once or twice more with the
same result, except that one woman re-
tanned sufficient self-possession to call
back, don't know" over her shoulder as
she ran away.
The incident furnishes striking proof of
tic ltttIdA reign OF terror now DfeNalliuE
IN one of the most fashionable quarters
in London by reason of the series of
strange crimes about which the cable has
already told you something a mysterious
yelled woman in black, whose mania is to
stab others of her sex has appeared no less
than five times within a week in district
less than a half-mile square, and al
though scores of detectives are lying in
wait for her. she is still at large. In each
case she has approachedher victim with an
inquiry about a certain street. Her first
victim lost an eye, and the second was
stabbed in the neck, narrowly escaping a
fatal wound. The fear of her was now
widespread, so that the others she accosted
fed before she could strike them. There
is some suspicion that she is a small man
in disguise, as all describe the person as
having gruff voice, but the police believe
it is a woman, and that she is undoubtedly
insane.
There is no direct connection between
these crimes and young Saunderson's
murder of an abandoned woman in the
same kensington district, but certain ex-
perts in mental diseases and crininolo-
gists endeavor to trace the epidemic of
violent crime in London to a single source,
namely, the great public agitation over
the South End murder, the very mysteri-
Gus crime for which Reed was hanged on
last Tuesday. The matter has given rise
gun by Dr. Forbes Winslow, who, per
haps, is the highest English authority on
such subjects. He writes:
1.-The force of imitation is so great that
an irresistible impulse exists in certain
class of individuals, who, though at large,
are, nevertheless, in such a state of
mind as to warrant their detention in an
institution. 1 alluds to weak-minded per-
sons, considered harmless, between Is and
80 years of age, of excitable instinct, with
out occupation for their minds, and who
waste their spare time in gloating over
accounts of various crimes, or are seen
hanging about the Old Bailey on the
day of some criminal cause celebre. Jur-
isprudence is full of homicidal epidemics.
oxford, who was acquitted on the ground
of insanity, of shooting at her majesty
in 1874, was Immediately followed by an
imitator. A case is related where a muir
derer purchased a revolver from a pawn
broker to murder a man named Blewett.
1t was a very sensational case, and was
followed by a similar one. The pawn
broker said: Immediately after the as
sassination by Wix 1 received a great
many applications for pistols, and after
the second tragedy several persons ap-
piled at the same time
1.-The horrible murders perpetrated by
Nine. de Brinvilliers in France may be
forgotten, but what occurred at that time
is instructive. During the trial all Paris
was in a state of great excitement. The
murderess was the sole topic of conversa-
ton. All the details Of the crime were
greedily devoured. and the idea of secret
poisoning the offense she was accused
of, was put into the heads of hundreds,
many of whom became guilty of it. For
two years the poison mania took hold of
the popular mind, and the prisons of
France teemed with persons accused Of
this crime. l could give hundreds of in
stances where murder, suicide, incendiar-
ism and poisoning have had imitators
AT the present time case has occurred
which bids fair again to agitate and up
set the public mind, especially those who
are insanely or morbidly inclined. The
evil is a great one, and the remedy is yet
to be discovered to prevent a series of
crimes following epidemically. l would
suggest the following:
Il. Curtailed and non-sensational ac-
counts of such crimes.
SO 1t is most important in my mind that
the date Of an execution be, as in France,
secret, and that the criminal have notice
the evening BEFORE"