Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-09-25
LET HIM BE NAMElESS.
A Method Of Punishment as Old ~
Mankind Itself.


When men wish to punish one of
| their fellows in n peculiar way, when
| they desire particularly TO show their
deep disapproyal Of some wrong he has
committed, they do not cast him into
prison, they do not even take his life;
they blot out his name. All other pun
ishments which men have devised ,rom
the days of darkest barbarlsm to the
present sink into comparative lnslgnlf-
icance beside the subtle, searching,
complete penalty of the simple dictum,
"Let him be nameless."
In the chapel at West Point there Is
q tablet in which names OF the u
in gold. And there IL one name all
but scored out with a sinister bar OF
black, Just enough Of the letters show
ing TO enable one to trace the name,
Benedict Arnold" This was the ma
tons way Of eraslng the name OF q
traitor.
In the regular army the officer who
steals Is ostracised absolutely. Not
only Is he forbidden to have any com
merce with other officers. but they are
forbidden to associate with him or to
recognize him in any way. In his ma
tive place he Is published as n not
fit to associate with gentlemen. This
Is the army's way Of punishment for
those who have failed to measure
themselves closely to the standard OF
an officer and a gentlemen.
Blotting out the name Of an offender
Is not a new method OF punishment. 1t
Is as old as mankind itself. When job
wished TO show his adherence of a
wicked man he said, Ills remem-
brance shall perish from the earth, and
he shall have no name In the street"
David also said Of the transgressors
against divine and human laws, Let
them be blotted out Of the book Of the
living" The eternal fire and brim-
stone Of the earlier-and some of the
later-stern religionists still leaves ex-
istence for the culprit. But man
comes as near to decreelng annihilation
as he can when he would have the re-
membrance of a fellow being perish
from the earth and would have him
walk the streets nameless and un.
known and u~nrecognized.
To the sensitive man, the man who
has reared a structure based on char
acter and embracing culture and So
cial standing, there must be a poign-
ancy about this sort Of punishment
that searches the very depths Of
the soul. TO such a man the quietude.
the isolation. Of a prison cell is little
more than escape from the accusing
| eyes Of his fellows. No laws penalty
can add to his mental suffering. He Is
In a worse plight than Cain, for Cain
bore a distinguishing brand. Cain still
had a name.
! Hale wrote about the man without a
country. But what pen is capable Of
describing the feelings, the sufrerlngs,
Of a man without a name? He has
been blotted out OF the book of the liv-
Ing, yet he lives. He appears in the
streets, but without a name. His re-
membrance has persisted from his
earth, yet he remembers, and in this
remembering while all others have for
gotten lies the chief sting. the deepest
thrust Of the way men punish when
they say Let him be nameless." To
be forgotten Of men while one still
| treads the earth; to meet in the eyes
OF former friends and acquaintances no
glimpse Of recognition; to be a cipher
where once one was a figure Of conse-
q%uence-can human ingenuity devise
| greater punishment than this ?-Chica-
80 Post. 49,,