The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-26
THEY DO NOT AGREE.

THEY DO NOT AGREE.
 Our two Norfolk contemporaries are not in sweet accord in relation to Mrs. Rogers, the Vermont murderess who has been tentatively hanged several times for the murder of her husband. and who now has a reprieve for near ly six months. The Landmark thinks the gush over the "poor weak woman" is disgusting. and winds up with:
 The law makes no distinction of sex in murder. The woman who murders her husband in order to promote her own faithlessness Is as guilty as any man who ever felt the halter draw: How anyone can wax sentimental ana fearful over the Impending execuSoa H woman is more than we can under stand. We hope that Governor Bell will not be influenced by anything but the evidence in the case. If he be. lieves the woman guilty. he should let her hang. What thought do these sen- timentalists who are gushing over Mrs; whom she betrayed and slew?
 We might be considered hypercriti- cal. if we should remind our contem- porary that the word "scoundrel" does not properly apply to a woman. wheth- CT she Is a poor weak one, or rich, strong one. but let that pass. We merely wish to contrast The Land marks sentiments with those of its neighbor. The virginian-Pilot, which says:
 We have said before and we repeat that if modern civilization cannot Ia, A men it Is not a thing worthy of being maintained. It is seldom in the first place that women commit capital crimes, and in the second place the spectacle of the execution of a wo- man is so unspeakably brutal that its effect upon the general public must necessarily be worse than would tho woman's acquittal in court, however guilty she might be.
 Perhaps these neighbors may make faces at each other because of their diverse may of looking at things, but that is not our affair. We have quoted from both of them. partly to show how they stand, and partly to endorse the sentiments last quoted. and we do so without reference to the individual in the case. The woman is merely one of the units of our civili- zation. She may be altogether as bad as she has been represented. As Mrs. Rogers she is of no consequence. and may be regarded only as an individ- uaI who committed a brutal crime, and has been convicted by a jury of her fellow citizens. We may assume that she was guilty and that her convic- ton was just.
 Admitting that she is bad, and that she is a murderess; even then she should not be executed. We refuse to believe that the structure of our civ ilization will topple and fall. If wo- men are not hanged for murder. We do not believe that the temple of jus tice will be desecrated. or that the sacred superstructure of virtuous hu- manity will be outraged if no hang mans moose ever tightens about wo- mans neck. The country will con- tinue to produce brave men and pure women, kind parents and loyal chill dren, even though no judge or jury should ever again condemn 0 woman to death in these United States.
 We fully agree with those who arr gue that we naturally expect better things of women than we do of men. It is natural that we should place her on a higher plane, and that we should look to her to set for us examples of all that is best in human life and human actions. And because we thus set them above us, we are shocked when one goes astray. At the same time we do not admit that the punishment of women for certain crimes is necessary for the protection of society. To many a woman @ life sentence would be harder to bear than death itself, and she who would go to the gaIlows or the electric chair with out a tremor would shrink with hor- TOT from the thought of spending the remainder of her life in prison, cut off from human associations and human pleasures. Such punishment is severe enough for Mrs. Rogers or any other murderess, and its infliction would not be the brutalizing and degrading spec tacle that would be presented by her ak ha nP hn