The morning call., 1894-06-27
THE DISASTER OF THE DAY.

1t is a mistake to talk of "hOmicidal
anarchy being a new social phen omenon."
The bomicidal mania is old; when the
homicide says be is an anarchist, he does
not know what be means. certain num-
Der of persons are born with homicidal
instincts; when those instincts become
too powerful to be withsto0d by infirm
souls. their possessors quite frequently Sc
lect persons of prominence as their victims
from vanity and desire to be talked of.
Thus Guiieau took the life of Garfield,
cranks shot at Queen Victoria and the
late Emperor William. and now Santo has
slain President Carnot. In the cases of
Lincoln and the late Gar, the assassins
bad specific objrct in view, and were
willing 10 attain that object at the cost of
their lives. They occupied very different
ground from the miscreants who took the
lives of General Garfield and President
Carnot. 1t would be more correct to class
the acts of the latter as instances of homi-
cidal mania than as examples of "homi-
cidal anarchy"
The use of the words anarchy" and
"aparchist" introduces confusion into the
cases. Anarchy has been defined as "a
state OF society in which there is no capa-
bic supreme power, in which the several
functions of the state are not performed,
and there is no direct government of man
by man" and an anarchist as zone who
seeks to overturn all forms of society and
Government, all law and order. with 40
purpose of establishing any other system
of order in the place of that destroyed"
Proudhon was an anarchist; but he was a
humane man who never thought of killing
anarchist. though there is no proof that he
vas. Santo may be an anarchist, but we
have only his word for the fact. The SIM
pie truth is that Santo is, as Guiteau was,
a mere black-hearted murderer, whose ap-
petite for assassination had nothing to do
with political opinion. There was in
Guiteau. and there is in Santo, congenital
deformity of the moral structure, which
generated a hOmicidal mania. Santo was
born a murderer, and it was a mere Quss-
ton of time when he would commit muir
der, and a question of accident whom
he would kill. In such mapsters the thirst
for blood is often coupled with desire
for notOTiety; it was this which led Gullean
10 select Garfield and Santo to select
Carnot as victims. If they had not been
able to reach men of prominence they
would have killed some one else-an old
man, or young girl, or perhaps their OWN
father or mother.
There are just two lessons to be learned
from the tragedy with which the world Is
ringing. The first is that the time has
come to set limit TO the quibbles of the
law in murder trials. The sentimental
plea of insanity is more than sanity can
endure. Here is Mayor Harrison's assas-
sin going through second trial on the |
ground of insanity. OF course Prender-
CAST was insane; If he had been sane lie
would not have murdered the Mayor. |
Whether he was insane to the degree of |
irresponsibility no human jury can deter |
mine; it is a question which the murderer
himself canno; answer with certainty. As |
the tree is judged by its fruit so the mur- |
derer must be judged by his deeds. He |
who takes life must surrender his own. |
The rule may possibly, in case here and |
there, involve harshness to one whose
mental balance has been oveTthrown; but
it is better for society that it should be |
understood that murder is ineIorably fol- |
lowed by the death penalty than that |
uDg0verned passion should cherish hopes |
of immunity through plea of Irresponsk |
BILE impulse.
And it is true, too, that those whose |
lives are of value should not expose them |
as recklessly as they have been in the habit |
of doing. There are great many persons |
scattered through the world who are |
secretly, perhaps uncon sciou:lY, afflicted |
with the homicidal mania. 1t is not right |
that these persons should have uBques- |
toned access to-those in high station. No |
one is admitted to the presence of the /
Queen of England or the EnIperors of |
Russia or Germany till the police know
something about him; but any creature In
human shape can attend the Presidents |
leyee, and the late M. Carnot talked to
every one whs addressed him. There is
some foolhardiness in this. It would be /
no hardship to visitors to the White House |
10 require them to send in their names the /
day before. so thatthe police ip attendance |
might have az opportunity of finding out |
something about them. and of watching /
their actions if there was anything sus-
picious in their record. Public men are
like soldiers; they must be prepared to |
die on the battlefield; but as far as possi- |
ble their lives should be guarded against /
fortuitous accident.
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