The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-20
MURD r AND MOTIVE.

When a premediated murder is COM
mitted. such as the atrocious deed in
Wichita Sunday night, the police, The
detectives. the neighbors and the whole
morbidly curious crowd break wildly
into the realm of ina gination for pos
| sible motive.
From this pronounced public demon
stration that a premediated murder can
| not be committed by sane person
| without a motive, it may be reasoned
out that, no matter how brutal or IN
feeling or uncuItured or unciTilized a
| human being Is, the idea of murder is
repulsive to him in some degree, and
| that the motive has been strong enough
| to overcome that degree Of adherence.
While possessing some degree Of alb
horrcnce and renugnance TO murder,
it must be exceedingly slight in the
born or acquired criminal mind. and
the less degree OF repugnance he Is
possessed with the less his motive is
likely to be.
Among the people generally, the idea
of premediated murder. when taken to
themselves is impossible. 1t is not
hard to see how a crime may be com
mitted in a frenzy of anger or extreme
jealousy or fancied dishonor. but the
average man and woman of today, and
probably of all ages preceding this, can
not see how any one can with malice
a forath on pbt with n calm estimate of
the promised and anticipated gain and
the possible dangers incident TO the
crime, can wilfully and with preme-
diation take the life of a fellow-being.
The fear of legal punishment and the
fear Of future eternal penalty may act
as a preventative On many Of the Grim
inal class. but to the great majority OF
human beings, the question of proven
tive or penalty never occurs, but in its
stead is an inherent horror and terror
for premediated crime that is greater,
not as a preventive but as repugnance,
than all the tortures of human device
and all the agonieS of eternal VICE.
In this connection it is related by
man who once shot train-robber in
the back, that while he had no diff
ficulty in raising his rifle and in prepar-
Ing to fire, he did have a repulsiye feel !
ing when it came to moving his finger |
against the trigger, and that the pres
sure against the trigger was only ac-
compliShed by a great nervous effort. |
Similar testimony is given by many |
men in the west who have killed other |
men, when the necessity was para
mount but when the men shooting |
were not in passion or frenzy.
So the murder is, in all probability, |
foreign to the healthfGl mind. and pre- !
mediated crime possible only among
born criminals, and even in the Grim
inal mind possible in different de-
grees of motive. The cr'iminality Of a
foot-pad who murders for few dol
lars is much lower and demands less
forceful motive to overcome the in
herent repugnance than that of the man
who murders for thousands as Holmes
is supposed to have done
But the whole thing goes to show that
we have criminals among us. who are
only detected by deeds We would hope
to, but cannot, prevent. And the only
preventive on the whole criminal class
S education and, that falling on the in
1ividual, rigorous legal punishment.
For we are still "a long way from the
millennium, with its promised CAPABILITIES
IF mind, condition and its mild COM
nunity of interests wherein no man
will take an advantage of his neigh
Dor, and where if the desire of gain
still survives it will be content to sue
.aad without in irIu To others