The record-union., 1895-11-21
THE KOVALEV CASE.

as is its custom concerning trials in
tanned, however fair and impartial re-
ports of the proceedings, and made the
guilt of the defendant perfectly clear,
Independent of the so-called 'confes
sion," which was in no sense an admis-
sion of guilt, but rather plea for relief
from the charge of premeditated killing
of human being.
When at last, however, the wretched
assassin had been driven into a corner
by the irresistible force of circumstan-
tial evidence that was open to no pos
sible suggestion of error, Kovalev took
the stand and admitted his guilt, the last
possible doubt concerning his deserving
was removed.
Thus the ordinary processes of the law
have again been shown to be equal to
the unearthing of crime and the bring
ing of the guilty to justice without the
sensational aids of a hysterical press,
which so disgraced the trial of Durrant
in San Francisco.
Compared with the latter case, the
crime of KovaIev is the more repulsive
and horrible, the Weber tragedy greatly
more repellant and altogether more
fearful. In the one case circumstances
alone point to the murder of girl in
church, but without mutilation of her
case as to whether she entered the fate
full belfry of her own volition. Unless
the murderer shall confess, there will
always remain a question in many
minds as to the motive for the killing,
and with many more there will linger
doubt of his guilt.
But in the Weber case two aged people,
whose gray hairs should have appealed
for mercy, were butchered in their own
home, and their blood flowed out of the
wounds that mutilated their bodies and
drenched their own hearthstone
Mr.. Weber cut, hacked and stabbed, and
twelve times did the weapons of the as
sassins crash into the body of the wife
and mother. Then their home was ran
sacked for plunder, their clothing not
only stolen, but donned by the muir
derers, who dressed themselves over the
bleeding and mutilated bodies Of their
victims.
Here were two good citizens beaten
down with murderous axes, and cut and
slashed by knives, and their smoking
blood poured out upon the sacred altar
of their home, a sacrifice to the rapac-
ity of butchering robbers. Here were
man and wife stricken down by bludg-
ecns, pair whose long and useful lives
had reared monuments of esteem and
respect in their honor The father was
a man who had heroically borne arms
for the republic and done battle in its
defense, who, retiring with honor from
the army, had become prosperous mer-
chant, a member of a community to
which all his best efforts were devoted
for public good, cleanliness and pro-
gress; the wife and honored mother an
upright, Christian woman, whose name
was a synonym for the virtues.
Was there ever a murder more merci-
Iaec occo cc{ra+;op YooOra cr,,a1 opd ,oi4i
less? For the assassins of such lives
can there be asked any mercy or toier
ated any excuse? Can any community
OF decent people for single instant
entertain the faintest regret that the
grip of the law has fastened upon the
throat Of the wretch who let out the
lives of these our neighbors, who had
wronged no human being, and whose
daily walk was a benediction?
The law has had it's course. 1t has
demonstrated its capacity to uncover
an almost unparalleled crime and bring
the perpetrators to punishment. Let it
be said of this community that it will
await patiently the final act in this
awful tragedy, when the majesty of the
law will visit upon the assassin and
lobber the penalty of his crime.
There must be on the one hand no
mawkish sensibility that kindles into
pity for Kovalev, the brutal murderer
and robber; nor on the other hand must
there be any interposition that will pre-
vent the orderly and solemn carrying
cut Of the penalty.
1t will be intolerable if hysterica1
women are permitted to slobber over
this red handed wretch and shower
floral favors upon him. 1t will infiame
the public mind If sickly sentimentalists
are permitted to shed sympathetic tears
u on the neck of this brutal assassin
that will soon be encircled by the rope
Of the hangman, who in this case viii
occupy a post of honor, and do service
to his country that will stand to his
everlasting credit.
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NOTE AND COMMENT.
1t is very rare that murderers escape