The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-07-20
A COPIED CRIME.
The Terrible Influence Of Evil Liter
ature ON Youthful Minds.


The Terrible Influence Of Evil Liter
ature ON Youthful Minds.
Some time ago two boys, the oldest
under II years of age, arrived in this
country from Paris. They came in
spirit of adventure to seek their for
tunes in the west, butthey soon drifted
to Louisiana and settled among people
who spoke their native tongue. There
they became popular, and every one lent
them books to read. Itwas soon noticed
that they preferred stories of piracy,
lawless love and vicious adventure.
One day-it was in 1S96-the little vii
lage was startled by the news that
man had been horribly murdered. In
vestigation showed that he had been
surprised in his house, tortured to make
him reveal the hiding place of his treas
ure, and then killed. He was the rich
est man in the country roundabout, and
living alone, with the habits of miser,
he was known to have large sums of
money concealed on his premises.
The brutal crime reused the whole
neighborhood. Large rewards were Of
fered for the capture of the murderers.
Bloodhounds and detectives were set at
work. A poor tramp was arrested, and
was barely able to prove an ahbi to es-
cape being lynched. But all efforts to
trace the assassins failed.
A few weeks after the crime the two
French boys showed their employer
letter from New Orleans offering them
work at higher wages. Their employer
congratulated them and advised them
to go; and they went. But the sheriff
had some suspicion. He found out at
the post office that the boys had re-
ceived no such letter. He went to New
Orleans, and the boys were not to be
found at the address they had given.
He tried to trace them, but they had dis
appeared completely
Some months after this two very
ragged youths presented themselves at
plantation near the scene of the crime,
and asked for work. They showed
signs of great suffering and poverty.
They were emaciated and ravenous.
They were recognized as the same two
brothers who had left the neighbor-
hood to go to New Orleans. The sheriff
soon heard of their return, and arrested
them on the charge of murder. Over
come with terror, they broke down and
confessed the deed. 1t was a miserable
story of two guilty and haunted souls.
"The face of the dead man followed
US everywhere, they said. eve couldn't
get away from it,
The sheriff questioned them, and
found out that in one of the dime novels
which they were in the habit of read
ing a murderous plot had captured
their depraved fancy and enticed them
to career of crime. This book told how
an old miser was robbed, and finally
killed, and how the ruffians escaped to
enjoy their booty. They determined to
reproduce the bloody description in
real life. and spent some weeks in plan
ming the fatal work.
They travelled in luxury on the pro-
ceeds of their murderous theft. They
| tried every amusement, every excite
ment; but they could not be happy. In
vain they endeavored to Danish the
agoniZed countenance of their victim
| 1t was as if some chain bound them to
the scene of their atrocity, and the
farther away they went the more in
exorably this strange power pulled
them back. Tortured by remorse, miser-
able and starving, these poor dupes of
a wicked book drifted to their doom as
surely as boat caught in the eddies of
| the maelstrom.
Both brothers were sentenced to
death. Perhaps they will have suffered
the extreme penalty of the law before
| this story reaches our readers.
Fascinate boy with book, and he
will do what he reads. They who throw
criminal fiction--or the details of real
crime--in the way of the youth are
enemies of mankind, sowing the seeds
! of sorrow and death.-Youth's Com