The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-26
20 tax more than

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be helped.
Answer me that. then. and I'll ssh
no more for the present
'Yes. the rnfHan got clean away. and
10 one knows % this day how be did il.
DO youg'
Eyes I saw him do IL"
ssThe deuce you did, Bot there. you
shall tell ne all abont it tomorrow.
Have . drop O. beef tea and then go &C
by-by."
Which did
Ny powers Of Incorporation are great.
and a few days saw me comparatively
well in body, though by no means easy
IN mind Up 90 this point my search
for Captain shannon had seemed 10 me
a somewhat public spirited and deserv-
Ing enterprise. To bring such a scoun-
drel 10 justice would be doing a service
10 the country and 70 humanity, and in
the wild scene Of excitement which |
knew would follow the news Of his ar
rest liked 10 picture myself as receiv-
ing the thanks Of the community. and
I in fact being regarded very much as
the hero Of the hour.
But while had been lying in my
room. idle N body. bat abnormally active
in brain, the matter had presented it
self 10 me in a very different light, and
/ was by no means sure that were the
facts made public / should not be look
ed upon as knaye rather than as "A
hero. bad 10 ask myself seriously
whether the course had taken could be
justified at all, and whether, by with
holding from the authorities the suspi-
cion / entertained about the man with
the red beard and by taking upon my
self the responsibility Of keeping, IN
aided, an :ye upon his movements, /
was not morally answerable for the
lives whica had been lost in the last
terrible outrage be had effected.
1t was quite possible that bad gone
TO the authorities before the event and
informed them Of my unsupported sus-
picion / should have been laughed at
for my pains. But were / to come for
ward after the event and admit that be-
fore the outrage occurred and while yet
there was time TO prevent it bad sus-
pected the man with the brown bag TO
be James Mullen and yet had withheld
my suspicious from the police l might
be looked upon az less of fool than a
scoundrel.
My motives for having kept silent
ton, and / should be everywhere de-
nounced as an enemy of society, whose
criminal vanity had made him think
himself capable of coping single handed
with the greatest artist in crime of the
century and whose yet more criminal
greed and anxiety to secure the entire
reward for himself had led him to with.
hold from the proper authorities infer
nation by means of which the capture
Of the archmurderer might have been
effected and the last dreadful outrage
prevented.
Knowing, as I did, how uncontrolla-
BILE was the feeling Of the populace in
regard TO the outrage, could not dis
guise from myself that man who
made such a confession as / had to
make would, should he be recognized
in the streets, run very good chance
of being mobbed, if not lynched.
An Infatuated mob is not given TO
make nice distinctions, and SO long as
it has a scapeRoat on which to wreak
vengeance il does not wait to inquire
too particularly into the question of the
scapegoat's innocence OF guilt.
Let the object of its wrath be not
forthcoming, and let some evil or fool
ish person raise the cry that this or that
luckless passerby is the offenders rela-
tive or friend, or even that he has been
seen coming from the offenders house
or is of the same nationality, and in
nine cases out OF ten the mob will "go''
for the luckless wight en- masse.
have made study of that wild
beast which we call "a mob''-the one
wild beast which civilization has given
as in exchange for the many she has
driven away-and, knowing something
Of the creature and its habits, / must
confess that would rather fall into the
jaws of the wild beast of the jungle
than into the clutches Of the wilder
beast of the ca, and the slum.
One day-one not very distant day
that wild beast will turn and rend its
tasted human blood it will not be beaten
back into its lair with its thirst for
blood unglutted.
To be mobbed or lynched in a noble
cause and in support Of great princi-
pie is not without its compensations,
but there is no glory in being subjected
to physical violence and personal insult
as scoundrel and knave.
Worse, however, than the possibility
of being mobbed was the certainty Of
being held up in many quarters as an
object for public odium and private
scorn, and the more I thought about it
the less inclined did feel to face the
consequences of confessing the part
which l had played in the recent TRACE
dy. 1t was upon my own responsibility,
argued, that had entered upon the
enterprise, and so long as kept within
the law it was to myself only that was
responsible for the way in which the
enterprise was carried on. That had
fo,laI ,aaont vothsuo ,,,n~a 49,, 49,