The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-03-20
wv MORE HOMICIDES.

More homicide cases for the courts of
our state. The Messenger yesterday
contained accounts of two shooting al
fairs.
The one at Tarboro was most unfor-
tunate . The participants were men OF
high character and Of prominence in
the medical profession, men of education
and refinement. whose position in so
cIety demanded of them that they
should set an example to others of pre-
serving the peace and Obeying the law.
The different reports of this affair are
conflicting. According to n account
DIR. Baker was clearly acting in self
defense when he fired the fatal shot
and the fact that DR.. Bass had a pow
der burn on his hand seems 10 corrob-
crate this. Other accounts state that
both men were being held by friends
when the shot was fired. Even if the
account of the affair most favorable
to DIR. Baker be the correct one, still
the affair is a most deplorable one, and
any way you take it the fact cannot
be denied that il was the outcome of
deliberate violation of the law which
prohibits the carrying of concealed
deadly as are most of the
hOmicides now committed.
As The Messenger has said hereto
fore, when a man of the standing Of the
two engaged in this affair willfully vio-
lates the law he should be made an ex-
ample of for the purpose Of lettering
others from breaking it. Both these men
were armed in violation of the law.
This was not the first time they a
shown that they went prepared. in vio-
lation of the law, to use deadly weap-
Ons should occasion arise. There are
circumstances connected with this case
which GO to show that DR.. Baker acted
entirely on the defensive; still, he and
DR.. Bass were at the time law break
ers. Had they both obeyed the law one
would not now be wrapped in his
STROUD and the other with the mark of
Cain upon his forehead. Some may
say that DIR. Bake was justified in 60
ing armed. We venture the assertion
that when his excitement has subsidized
DR.. Baker will wishJthat he had never
carried hat pistol; that he would
rather nave suffered greater punish
ment from his assailant than to be his
slayer; that his conscience will ever
smite him. 1t is we'll enough for those
who have never axe life to say in
such cases that he did right; that no
man could have lone otherwise; per-
hanS b1,f +hara will aI-ar ~ ,-itL
him the thought that he is the slayer of
a brother. He went armed, ready for
the fray.
The facts developed on the trial may
and probably will show that DR.. Baker
shot in self defense. Still there will
ever be to him the awful consciousness
that he went armed for this very pur-
pose and that he took advantage,
whether willingly or unwillingly, of the
circumstance of being put upon the de-
fensive to take the life of a fellow man.
So long as men go armed just so long
will such homicides continue to blacken
the reputation of the people of our
state.
The other homicide recorded in yes
terday's Messenger was of a different
character from the above. 1t was ap-
parently a deliberate and premeGitated
affair, the result of a determination to
avenge the previous killing of a broth
er. Here one man takes the law into
his own hands and deliberately shoots
down another who had killed his half
brother some time before h This
is a clear illustration of the condition
of affairs existing in our state, whic
has grown out of the laxness of the
courts in enforcing the laws against
murder. This man Morgan felt that
Richardson had not been made to
suffer adequate punishment for his
crime and he took the law into his own
hands for the purpose of ~aVenging
what he considered a crime deserving
of the extreme penalty. These condi-
tiOnS are going to continue and to grow
worse until the courts intervene and
mete out adequate punishment to men
who take human life. When the public
no longer holds the opinion that a man
will escape the consequences of his
criminal acts because he is prominent
and influential then will there be a
cessation of such crimes, and not till
then.