The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1904-08-27
THE TOO READY "GUN"

| io;Vu Wllltn ne lla'N NNlhPh III SAFETY
ON hundreds of days for thirty years or
mere. whether done by II chance foot
pad or by one who knew him well. fed
upon his home community and the p"o-
pie Of Maryland lis well. with as stun
ming Il force ;rs that of n thunhrrclUp
from II clear sky. Upon the .@uprfac-
ton which the crime CAUSED followed cX
aSprlHtion that the murderer seemingly
| had gotten beyond rracn or might be
free within ready reach of justice. With
all our available police power it has rot
been possible to catch the callouS brute
| Il crime.
| Crimes such aS his rouse us from our
Snug assumption that this is the best
of all possible worlds" and that civili-
zation with it's belauded benefits is
worth the sacrifice of an occasional vie
tim such ms WAS the cultured gentleman
| who was slain to meet the real or sup
posed needs of his slayer.
Our long exemption in this immediate
| ncighborhDod from a tragedy 80 shock
| ing had brought most of lis to the belief
| that its occurrence was impossible. True,
| il WAS but one of the thousands Of like
atrocities THAT are daily brought to our
notice in the public prints; but 80 long
I,,,- Il nil. b,, .a..I
rate community reads the details or
merely the bare headlines accordingly as
they occur the nearer or the farther
from it's own immediate neighborhood.
| That He who notes the SpHrlow'~ fall
permits such things to come to pass can
pa.y he accounted for from His purpose
to- force lis to realize that sin and crime
are but departures from law. And vet.
we birtlly stumble ON from year t" year
and from age to age hugging our deu-
SONS and raising our golden na yes
while singing hrS,innaS to the Son of
| God. But whether we believe with the
| saints of old in mans inmate de l,ravity
or with the prophets" of the times in
| his ultimate or needless regeneration,
| the time hats come to consider whether
| something better than punishment
awarded by due legal (often dilatory, or
summary process as a prevention of
crime should not DE considered and
tested.
Economic conditions, arising largely
from the accepted doctrine or system of
production, fill the land with cohorts of
the unemployed who speedily recruit the
legirns of the vicious and the grand army
Of the criminal which operates for the
most part in rur great cities but from
community is not exempt. Besides.
large sections of our country are eX-
posed to the predatory or h,Stiell instincts
of free Americans. white and black. who
assume the right to carry deadly wea-
pomS or a~ the ''chartcr of our liberties
has it ito bear arms.
y great foreign >tatcman said that
the way for Europe to diSarm was to
diSarm.' "Abolsh armies and aSSur.
peace. And 50 with lis. To make our
streets. alleys. highways and hywayS
secure or at least safer disarm our. h,-
boeS. Migrants aud idle vicious members
of society whose standing or lack of
standing in every community eliminates
any consideration of their feelings or
their rights O. All such gentry should
be searched on sight. if strangers, wher-
ever they appear and searched repeated
y where they continue to abide. To Jail
all our habitual wearelts of deadly wea-
ponS would. no doubt crowd our prisons
and rcformatoliera. but to diSarm us
many of them rs possible would mini
mize to II" small extent the peIils that
heSct peaceful people in all commune
ties. especially those with limited or no
police protection
The brute who shot down the foremost
citizen of Cecil county for the sake of
whatever plumber he hard hoped to OBJ
tain would scarcely have ventured to at
tack him with natures weapons alone.
The handy gun" now all but universal
III its readiness. gave the slayer of AL
bert Constable the persuasive drop
upon him which he might have needed
III time. if DOt absolutely Stopp,arnI hy
the call Of hands up" Failing the
remedy suggested or amy remedy at all.
each and all of us must go armed with
and meet our molestors on fairly equal
footingS, if thugs callous to all human
instincts can be met upon such footings.