Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-08-03


when that man takes that money, the
ing with it for his own purposes, he Is
and in the most intense sense of the.
word is a miscreant
There are families today-widows
and Orphans-with nothing between
them and starvation but a sewing ma
chine, or kept out of the vortex by
the thread of needle red with the
blood of their hearts, who were by ia
ther or husband left a competency.
You read the story in the newspaper
Of those who have lost by bank de-
falcation, and it is only one line, the
name of a woman you never heard of,
and just one or two figures telling the
amount of stock she had, the number
of shares. 1t is a very short line in a
newspaper, but it is a line of agony
long as time; it is story long as eter-
nifty.
Dangers of Libertinism.
So there has been a great deal of
fascination thrown around libertinism.
Society is very severe upon the impur-
lIy that turks around the alleys and
low haunts of the town. The law pur-
sues it, smites it, incarcerates it, tries
to destroy it. You know as well as I
that society becomes lenient in proper
ton as impurity becomes aff1uent or is
in elevated circles, and finally society
is silent or disposed to palliate Where
is the judge. the jury, the police officer
that dare arraign the wealthy Hber-
tine? He walks the streets, he rides
the parks, he f1aunts his iniquity in
Az
cleanness looks out of the tapestried
window. Where is the law that dares
take the brazen wretches and put their
faces in an iron frame of a state pris-
on window?
Sometimes it seems to me as if So
ciety were going back to the state of
J morals of Herculaneum, when it sculpt-
ured its vileness on pillars and temple
wall and nothing but the lava of a
burning mountain could hide the i'm
mensity of crime. At what time God
will rise up and extirpate these evils
upon society 1 know not, nor whether
he will do it by fire or hurricane OF
earthquake; but holy God 1 do not
think will stand it much longer
believe the thunderbolts are kissing
hot and that when God comes to chas-
against which he has uttered himself
| more bitterly than against any other.
| the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah will
| be tolerable as compared with the fate
of our modern society, which knew
| better, but did worse.
The sacredne.s OF Life.
Then look at the destinations thrown
around assassination. There are in all
| communities men who have taken the
| lives OF others unlawfully, not as exc
cutioners of the law, and they go scot
| free. You say they had their provoca-
| tions. God gave life, and he alone has
right to take it, and he may take ii
by visitation of providence or by an
| executioner of the law, who is his
messenger. But when a man assumes
that divine prerogative he touches the
| lowest depth of crime.
| Society is alert for certain kinds OF
| murder. If a citizen going along the
road at night is waylaid and slain by
a robber we all want the villain ar
| rested and executed. For all garroting
for all beating out of life by club OF
an ak Or a slungshot, the law has quick
| spring and heavy stroke, but you
| know that when men get affuent and
4
wrongs by taking the lives of others
great sympathy is excited lawyers
| plead, ladies weep, Judge halts, jury is
| bribed and the man goes free. If the
| verdict happen to be against him, a
new trial is called on through some
technicality and they adjourn for
1 witnesses that never come, and adj
| journ and adjourn until the commun-
| ity has forgotten all about it. and then
| the prison door opens and the murder
| er goes free.
| Now, if capital punishment be right
1 say let the life of the polished muir
| derer go with the life of the vulgar as
| sassin. Let us have no partiality of
| gallows, no aristocracy of electro
| cution chair. Do not let us float back
| to barbarism, when every man was
| his own judge, jury and executioner.
! and that man had the supremacy who
had the sharpest knife and the strong
| est arm and the quickest step and the
| stealthiest revenge. He who willfully
| and in hatred takes the life OF another
| is a murderer. l care not what the
| provocation or the circumstances. He
| may be cleared by an enthusiastic
courtroom, he may be sent by the gov
ernment of the United States as minis
ter to some foreign court. or modern
literature may polish the crime until
| it looks like heroism; but in the sight
| of God murder is murder and the
Judgment day will so reveal it