The record-union., 1894-01-27
McNULTY,s REPRIEvE.

The reprieve of McNulty was received
with manifestations of delight in "Mur-
derers' Row." The accounts published
in the San Francisco papers of the dem
onstrations of joy does not leave us in
doubt as to what cause triumphed in this
reprieve. One account says:
The news was received, and moment later
the corridors of the prison resounded with
cheers which shook the black emblem of
shameful death from tTapdoor to beam.
Cheer followed cheer until great crowd gath
cred in the street, and hearing the cause of
the prisoners rejoicing, joined voices with
those on the inside.
No doubt Patrick Collins and his COM
peers were rejoiced. Patrick Collins,
drunken brute who abused his wife un-
til she could not live with him, followed
her to a schoolhouse, of which she was
the janitress, and with a pocket-knife
give him her nard-earned money, and, of
course, Patrick joined in the cry which
"shook the black emblem of shameful
death from trapdoor to BEAM"
McNulty's sentence was commuted
chiefly on the ground that somebody
asked it. Certain sybodies, calling
themselves Daughters of the Good Shep-
herd, according to Governor Markham
himself, joined with the attorney for the
murderer McNulty in false representa-
tions and conscienceless statements which
were not subsequently borne out by
facts. In short, the Governor pillories
these people as having shamefully de-
ceived him as to the position of Superior
Judge; and then the Governor commutes
the sentence of this redhanded murderer,
not because he is not guilty of murder.
but because somebody asked him to do so.
The Governor declares that his defense
of insanity was fraud and sham; that
the thought defense of having COM
mitted the murder in self-defense is un-
tenable and untrue.
The widows and the orphans of MUIR
dered men, and the worse than orphaned
children of murdered women, will find
no cause of congratulation. The next
step in this miserable contemplate farce
will be petitions for pardon, and when
such pardon is obtained the corridors of
the prison, where untried and uncon-
victed murderers are kept in comfort,
will ''resound with cheers that will shake
the black emblem of shameful death from
trapdoor to BEAM"
It is easy to determine what element of
society triumphed by observing carefully
the source of the applause. The untried
and the unhung murder element of Cali
fornia gained triumph in McNulty's
commutation Of sentence.
Chris Evans robbed Wells, Fargo &
Co.'s Express. He attacks modern civili-
zation and its instrumentalities. He re-
sists attempt to arrest, he kills or wounds
four or five men in cold blood, is tried
and sentenced to the penitentisry for life.
He makes his escape from Jail, wounds
and mains public officer in the attempt
to escape, and flies to the open arms of a
public sympathy, which shields and
hides him from the clutches of the law.
He has no occasion for further hiding.
1t appears to be the business of the
Daughters of the Good Shepherd to make
murder easy and respectable by securing
communication of sentence through the ex-
ercise of executive clemency.
The richest inheritance to which chill
dren are born, whatever estate may be
theirs by birthright. is the civilization TO
which they are heirs; and in these mod
ern times the country which shows dis
regard of the sacredness of human life
will be summed by those who find them
selves making an exchange of high for
low moral conditions.
No change of fortune with reference to
personal prosperity can compensate any
man for leaving high condition of civil