The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-04
WHERE CRIME Is
THOUGHT CLEVER
Amazing LawIessness 10 The Gay CapltaI
OF France.
MURDER A PARlSIAN PASTlME
A Comparison Of Paris with Chicago
Provoked by Partisan Editors
| Jeers at the Windy Citv--Astonish-
ing Disregard of Life and Property.
Where Epigrams Win Acquitta,.
'aris Letter in the Sun.


To any one with a bent toward the
law there could be no more interesting
field for study than the codes under
republican France. The peculiarities
ven begin with the constitution. They
ire not hoary laws, full of the anoma-
lies and inconsistencies of long de-
scent, like those of England, for in
stance, but brand-new laws made for
\ a progressive and up-to-date country
which calls itself the soul of the uni
a.Srse" and the greatest civiliZer the
Eorld has even seem"
.sIhe laws themselves may be of in
terest only to legal minds it is their
working which affords to the ordinary
Anglo-SaXon intelligence one Of the
most startling exhibitions of justice, or
attempts at justice, this century has
witnessed among an intelligent people.
In France the average person pays
scant attention to these matters; he
shrugs his shoulders: he is not in
volved; doubtless things will be
! Strengthened out some time, if they are
y not right now. He prefers to believe
that they are right now, because, for
one thing, that belief is less trouble
some than another might be. The
a thinkers of France, however, are more
concerned, as the voluminouS litera-
ture on the subject of criminology
proves.
AS regards all French laws. but par
ticularly the criminal law, it is per-
haps only just to say that the country
e in a transition state Probably the
bthors of the penal code and it's sup
|lements are really sincere In their
efforts to learn, through experience,
exactly what is best, not only in the
punishment of crime, but in its preven-
tion. At the same time it would seem,
\ perhaps to almost any one but Latin,
y that they have put.the country to seri-
Gus risk Of danger at the hands of the
criminal classes while gaining this ex-
perience. Speaking broadly under the
present code and the law passed in
1891, commonly known as the Beranger
law, Frenchman may rob and mur-
der almost at will. If the jury does
not look out for his welfare, he has any
number of tender laws of mercy at his
disposal; failing all else, the president
of the republic is there with his par
1doning or committing power.
NO CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
There is in France very strong sem
timent against capital punishment. The
|. advocates of its abolition say that
criminals are not deferred by the fear
of death. They point to the fact that
u
tugal, and in most of the cantons of
Switzerland. Their constant agitation
of the question has resulted in it's prac-
. tical abolishment in France also, as
there has not been an execution, aside
from military executions, since that Of
Emile Henry, the Anarchist bomb
thrower, in 1894. In the three years
since then there have been nearly six
hundred murders, but all the culprits
have escaped the death penalty. In
the army, on the other hand, and in
\ Algeria, there have been many eXecu-
tions. The military executions We're.
! without exception, those of soldiers
sentenced to death for striking an Off
! Ger.
Six hundred murders, without one
sentence to death, will doubtless strike
most people, out of France as incred-
ible. 1t may be explained that some
of the murderers were really convicted
and sentenced, but that the president
intervened. A case of this kind is up.
sn the Paris court records for this
Nonth. A man murdered his wife
under circumstances inconceivably
brutal, because he had seen her speak
to another man on the street. When
she got home he tortured her for three
| hours, then was another two hours kill
ing her. He broke every bone in ner
body, as well as her SKULL and when
she was found it was impossible to tell
that she had once been human. Even
French jury was revolted But the
! president said that the murderer was
clearly entitled to clemency, because
he had been moved by jealousy. The
newspapers applauded the president.
SARCASM FOR YANKEES.
This case is cited not because it is
inherently remarkable in the way of
French murders, but because the
French say that capital punishment is
brutality worthy only of barbarous
peoples; that its inf1iction is without
the pale OF civilization. Notwithstand-
ing the records of their revolutions and
of their commune they set themselves
UP as being a hyper-humane people
..umaner than any nation the world has
ever seen. Lynchings in America are
stock subjects for the Paris newspa-
pers. One paper refers to US habitual.
ly, when discussing these matters as
''the hog-sticking and garroting Yam.
KEGS" Another occupies much space
with boxing and prize fighting in Eng.
land and America, usually defining
such sports as "revolting beyond ex.
preston to. any nationality even hall
civilized" A few days ago another
paper lis off:
THE pI- -etice of electrocution (sic'
in America, which is the official way
Of carrying out the death sentence
throughout the states, is one that can
not be too severely reprmanded It il
only to such people as the gross sor,
did, unfeeling Yankees, who have no
yet had the benefits of even minor cul
ture, that such a barbarity can seen
other than the height of brutality"
Finally. the six-days' bicycle race a
Madison Square Garden was the sigma
for a concerted attack against America
and Americans such as probably NJ
nation has ever been subjected to a
the hands of another. unless it be tn,
Germans, attacked by the same grea
"civilizing force" Putting out of con
sideration the chagrin of the Frencl
at finding their own riders beaten il
the race, the exhibition of bile was no
so childish as 1t was disgusting 70
at least two OF the Paris papers in thei
revilings made use of epithets regard
ing Americans which, in common de
cency as we'll as to avoid a descent b!
the police, they were obliged to sig
nifty by letter and a dash.
PRETEND TO BE BETTER.
These instances indicate the fact re
marked, that the French really pre-
tend to be Il little better than othe