Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-01
FOUR rRANs06EssoRs.


 We wish to take of our hats to Judge Jonathan Dixon of Paterson, N. ,. He did not forget the dead mill girl in the natural sympathies which the living, even If base and criminal, and particularly their innocent and distressed kinstolk and relatives, are always able to arouse. Out of the stern and solemn sentence which he reiluered on Tuesday, upon the four men concerned in the brutal and b. sLal crime of iaterson. tue narrow | -.u uinsy Attle court room Was IAuml- .-t .eu luI d s.ue4e ino lant Dy one L-vu- ui uI Dut D-t,ut44-,.l ray Ui nu- luan sympatAy. Au.s .Was, wnen lne i.44eA4D.e yo4ce oi y,.s,.ee Its~al s.4aIf l.. oAe oN CT .Ae NU.s.o.- 'IOUi Jei.II,e Los,sculeler. SAe u4u not deserve LAdt t.-Le.
 in all that goes to make up the eIAeet.re aulA4n4a.Ii,.on or Justice -NSW JeIaey Has d. ~1u-feu SitAt uoAor by the u al at a.eISon. 1 Ae pro .eedlngs ,nrOusuUut weIe piompt aud business-iIEe; tue desNADie ceierlty certainty oI .he law Were IuTly ata4n- ed, without careleSsness on the one hand or inaccuracy on the other; and the public feeling doubtless is that in this instance the guilt of the convicted men has been established beyond any doubt whatever. It is only necessary to be satisfied as to che guilt of the men charged with the crime in order to approve of all the results reached.
 Judge Dixon's feeling appears to be that the strictly legal penalty for the crime proved is death; but it may be questioned whether among those who are not lawyers the sentence of thirty years for three of the participants, and fifteen for the fourth, who prac- tically pleaded guilty, and all at hard labor, does not convey an impression of penalty, of punishment, of the dread certainty that the broken criminal Jaw will find the offender out and pitifessly demonstrate Its rightful authority over him, as great and AS terrible as would have been created if the four men had were dead. Imprisonment for the active years of n mans life Is very terrible and very deterrent punish ment. It leaves to the criminal so much time to think, to remember, to live through the whole horrible drama detail by detail and week after week, month after month. It chains the criminal in all the intellectual facul- ties close to his victim, and leaves him there for years, in that horrifying and dreadful intimacy; and 1t per petuates this condition by hard work, which keeps the body we'll, and by monotonous existence, which never furnishes the mind With new food for thought.
 In the popular opinion imprison- ment for long term of years has come to be regarded as less painful than 1t really Is because often this penalty has really meant swift par don. It does not seem probable that these Paterson murderers and brutes will find that way out. Judge Dixon's solemn remark to them: II am not to punish or reward you for your pre- vious conduct, but for this crime of which you are convicted" Is likely to lnterpose a barrier over which these wretched and base creatures cannot pass until they have fully satisfied the demands of the law upon them, under the usual communication regulations of the prison in regard to good behavior All four of these men were sentenced to the full terms of the law. Practi- cally, In all the usual senses of ambi tion and performance In our American life, three of them have passed away from the affairs of men-and the fourth will find a new kind of world awaiting him if he should live to be come a free man. Yet all of these four men are alive, and must await death by natural processes like the rest of us-and that is their penalty. Accord ing to all human knowledge they have learned it, fearful as 1t Is. AS q mere matter of exchange, without regard to the duties and decencies of life, these four men could not have made worse bargain for themselves.-Hartf Courant.