The record-union., 1897-05-09
THE ANARCHIST NOT MUCH TO
BE FEARED.

Those who have feared the anarchist
am his bombs, can take comfort, not
so much from the fact that twenty
six anarchists have just been condemn
ed TO death in Spain, but from the es-
say of Dr. Olindo Malogodi, who has
been making a study Of the anarchist,
and finds him to be not nearly so dan
gerous as has been popularity suppos-
ed. The doctor is a student of the
Lombroso School of Criminologists and
has examined into auarchistic conspir-
acies and acts psychologically. He
finds the anarchist as a rule to have
predominance Of the visionary imagin-
alton over the other faculties, includ-
ing that of critical judgment and of
reasoning. This prevalence of the
imaginative is the chief cause for an
archists. The doctor Interestingly says:
Positive psychology has already
proved that while the intellectual fac
ulties of reasoning and criticism pos
sess very little expansive force. those
of sentiment and imagination, based on
simpler elements, on the emotional
and pictorial faculties. are enormously
contagious. Humanity is exposed to
epidemics of sentiment and visions
and to these no epidemic OF good taste
is to be found as an antidote There
fore in these anarchical assembIages
reciprocal excitation exercises an ex-
traordinary influence. and leads the
whole group to such grades of vision
airy intoxication, to such paroxysms of
imagination as not one of the individ-
uals composing the group would singly
be capable of experiencing.
Predominance of the imaginative
faculty, inaction, and mutual psychoIog-
ical excitation are the three funda-
mental elements of the colossal imag-
inings of anarchial conspirators. And
thus, from the gatherings of these gen
orally half-mad, half-imbecile half
criminal individuals. from obscure clubs
met for drinking and chatting in su-
burban public houses, there arises a
continuous misty cloud OF terribly
grandiose plots against society. gro
tesquely impractcable. but beside
which the most sensational revelations
Of the police seem insipid. In the
gravest moment Gustly considered
such) Of agitation and anarchicaI con-
spiracy in Italy. one of the best paint
ers of the present day, an anarchist
and harmless as a child-who was au
courant Of all the threads Of the dark
world Of conspiracy. kept me Informed
Of all. 1t was a question Of huge pro-
jects which We're to continue day after
day. Dynamite and the dagger were
relegated to a secondary position; the
upsetting Of trains and explosions
We're mere childs play in comparison
The idea was to poison the aqueducts
Of towns. either by poisonous matter
or by means of microbes, to call typhus
and cholera to the aid Of the anarchist
Utopia. 1t was a ghastly exposition
enough TO make one shudder even to
hear it mysteriously talked about
Yet. TO the great indignation Of nv
confidente, ! only laughed at il and
never troubled TO warn the police of
these internal plots.
The doctor concludes that anarcbism
VIII continue to live in a small sort of
way. but on small deeds always. .compar-
atively speaking, and that the gravest
danger is not in the conspiracies of
anarchists which he says gradually
vanish as do soap bubbles in the sun
light; nor does il so much reside in the
projects of the leaders. who always
take care to preserve themselves from
harm. but it is in the possibility that
in their associations. in that artificial
atmosphere, there may chance to be
some individual whose intelligence is
so low that he is unable to criticise
but who is capable of action-one of
those poor wretches who become at
once eXecutioners and victims of the
takers.
1t must be confessed that the doc
tors theory is borne out by public
knowledge of anarchists captured in
the act of carrying out an anarehistic
decree. Almost invariably they have
proved to be men of low intelligence
at least such erratic creatures that
doubt has frequently been expressed Of