The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-05-01
THE FEMALE OFFENDER.n

| 1t was Shakespeare who said that
deformity in itself is not so repulsive
as deformity in woman-Or in other
words that there can be nothing so
low as n low woman. Whether Shakes
peare was the originator of this thought
or not, it is commonly accepted.
In pursuance of this statement and
line of thought, Professor Caesar LON
broso, a German scientist, has written
| a book on THE Female Offender" His
| assumption is this: "Woman are very
rarely criminal when compared TO men.
but when criminal, they are infinitely
worse"
He would prove that diabolical
women are more diabolical than dia-
Dollcal men and quotes these instances:
Another terrible point of superiority in
the female born-criminal over the male
lies In the refined diabolicaI cruelty with
which she accomrlishes her crime. To
Kill her enemy does not satisfy her: she
needs to see him suffer and know the full
taste of death. In the hand of assas-
sins known as la Taille'' the women
were worse than the men in torturing
P did not care to wound the lovers
upon whom she was avengins herself.
wound being in her view to small n
thing She preferred TO blind them by
throwing into their eyes a powder made
of fine glass which she had crushed with
her teeth.
D, asked why she had not stabbed
her lover instead of throwing vitriol at
him. answered in the words of the Roman
tyrant, Because l wished him TO feel the
bitterness of DEATH
Sophie Gautier killed by slow torture
seven children who had been given into
her care.
Stakembourg, woman OF bad life, on
finding herself at ~ abandoned by her
lovers. took TO prosecuting her daughter
Il do not like girls" she used TO say
She hung her daughter from the ceiling
by the armpits, knocked her on the head
with a brick, and burnt her with a hot
iron whenever she came near her. One
day, after having beaten her black with
a shovel, she said, laughing, Now you
are a little Degress."
Ruff starved her little girl, and in
order that she might suffer more, made
her sit fasting at the table during meals.
She engaged a master to beat and reprove
her when she did not know her lessons,
which. seeing the child's starving state.
happened very often. She tied and gag
ged her. and then made her little brother
stab her with pins, so that she might
suffer not only pain, but humiliation.
In short. We may assert that If female
born-criminals are fewer in number than
males they are often much more ferocious.
His explanation of this is curious
and not more theoretical than true.
He explains these diabolical instances
by declaring that woman is less sensi-
tive TO pain than man land compass
sion is the offspring of senSitiveness."
Despite the German professor and |
his learned examples the world will |
not accept his theories on the matter |
An observation of the crimes and Of |
lenses OF The day as they are published |
in the newspapers from the world over, !
do not show the female To be more /
diabOlical in her crimes than the male. |
The great bulk of revolving crimes are
committed by men,
The true averment in the matter /
is that the criminal woman appears |
more criminally diabolical than the |
criminal man. but is not SO. She ap-
pears so because the woman occupies |
high grounds. Her character and /
physical being and her mind is of in |
hnitely finer fibre than mans. And il |
is because Of the long drop 10 GRIMM
atty from exalted womanhood thar her
oiTense appears. but is not, so much /
more revolving than mans