The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-12-13
DEATH.

solemn, or more awful, than that act
whereby the State sorrowfully, yet de-
terminedly, carries out the full be-
hest of the law, and takes away the
life of a fellow creature, in part as an
expiation, in part as warning, for
having committed the crime of muir
der.
This morning a murderer was pass
behest. 1t was peculiarly brutal
csime that this man had committed.
He had in the dead of night gone to
the house of a Chinaman, who kept
small store on the Island of Molokai.
With two companions he knocked mt
the door, reused the old man, asked a
few questions, and dragged him out
into the road, where, while one of his
companions held the quivering, tremb
ling wretch, he beat out his brains
with stone. The Chinaman's wife
was choked into unconsciousness and
left for dead, and the house was GO
ing to be set on fire, when the murder
ers took their miserable booty and
decamped, on hearing a voice of some
one coming. Fortunately for the ends
of Justice, the woman was not killed,
was found, brought to and was able
to give evidence, which sent the man
who was hanged today to his deserv-
ed doom.
The crime was peculiarly horri-
bic and dastardly one. If ever the
crime of murder deserved the extreme
penalty of the law, this one did, and
vet there were those in the commu-
J nifty who would have had the penalty
committed, and this red handed muir
derer saved from the gallows. 1t is
one of the peculiar phases of the HUI
man mind that it centers itself upon
the criminal and forgets in toto the
crime. Those who We're so anxious to
save this man forgot the poor wretch
of a Chinaman, who was hauled sud
denly out of his bed, and sent without
warning before his Maker 1t was no
deed of hot blood, which we all, know
ing our own weak nature, are inclined
to forgive. This was no father, hus-
band or brother who was avenging
the DETAINED honor of his home or his
family. 1t was no case of sudden pas
sion. 1t was cold, calculating murder
for the most sordid of purposes. The
Star considers it false and morbid
sympathy which wastes itself on the
murderer and forgets the murdered.
From the point of vision of this paper
never was criminal more deservedly
hanged. But this being The Stars
view, it has still withheld this opinion
as long as there remained a chance
for the murderer's reprieve.
Thus the man, as far as human pow
er goes, has eXpiated his crime, but
We have to consider the other posi-
ton, the warning. This man has been
hanged as an example to the low
minds of the community that if they
take life. their own life will be Ia
ken. The law DEGREES that the eXecu-
tion should take place in private with
in the walls of the Jail. The mere Kill
ling of the criminal is but an act of
revenge, the fact that he has been kill
ed and the details of that last solemn
and awful time should be made known
to the community as a warning, pri-
marily, and also to let the community
and those outside of it know that ev-
erything has been done properly and
decently.
For this purpose the reporters of
the newspapers are present, not to
satisfy morbid curiosity, but as the
representatives of the public, whose
eyes and ears they are and it is for
this purpose that full and accurate
report of the proceedings is this day
made in The Star and in the other
journals of the city. Upon this phase
of the question and the relations be-
tween the journalists and the govern
ment, The Star will have more to say
at another time, but in penning these
lines, which are written as the sands
of Noa's life have run out, one feels
the solemnity of the moment, one
feels that no controversy should be
brought into this article, which has
been dictated purely from ideas of the
justice of the law, and the hope that
the example, and the others which
must follow, will stop the wave of
crime that has seethed up. 1t must
be remembered that mercy sometimes
becomes injustice, and really fosters
crime. This is what one fears has
happened here. But, however just has