Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-12-12

/ ship is established. 1T produces an
effect upon&sns as IL I'VE had been
Itmenaced by that blow and 1t has fallen
providentially upon our neighbor IN.
stead of uDon us.
s.aThnt might have been me" Such Is
i3the selfish and naive cry of well-or-
dered charity that bursts from our lips.
For we feel with a vague certainty
that with the care and tenderness of
friends and the aid of science we CAN
evade the antbushes of illness; hut as
sassination is one of those brutal, un :
expect sfllss.s ssr.f fishing and final dangers
against which there Is nothing that
can be done, not even to commend our
souls TO God, since those murderous
persons have not the ,decency tosallow.
us the time. 5s6l:.
Assassination is, as it We're, the an-5
gina pectoris, the apopleXy, the en-.
bolismof the healthiest persons, and its
details come so swiftly that just think
ing of them for a moment takes ones
breath away.
Then, what personal ardor we display
3in aiding within the litnitssof our
small means, In the hunt for the
How we rush TO the aid of justice,find-
ing it bungling and too slow! Oh, If
we only had been consulted! They
would have been guillotincd already.
The cleverest sleuths seem to us in
capable, and morning and evening.
as soon as the newspapers are out,
we follow with the eye OF disdain the
false trails on which they SO blindly
set out.
The simplest explanation make us
shrue our shoulders and instinctivelys
we adopt the hypothesis of scandal
e and mystery. We must have the old
romance. The hunter and the polce-
man that slumbcr somewhere In the
breast of the most honest and peaceablc
slnen awake and take the trail. Tho
first tales of robbers told to us by our
nurses, reports of the police courts,
memories of novels, that old sediment
which the thick flood Of the Gaboreaus
and the Eugent Sues have deposited in
HPloWing over our youth--;lll these rise
and blend In the upper strata with the
.mostrccent traces left by Conan Doyle,
Leblanc and Leroux. and we soon re-
Gret with the bitterness of misunder-
stood genius that we are not the very
guardians of our security.
Which OF us, as a matter Of fact. In
these days of unknown murders, has
mot conceived the idea of realizing THE
Thirteen" of RalZac and bringing them
up TO date? Thirteen independent and
resolute young men, making use of all
the power that audacity, Intelligence
and money can give, and united by the
redoubtable bond of determination to
stamp out crime, whatever it be, wllcr-
ever 1t be! A band Of counter things
performing their duty of brutal cleans
Ing UP, alongside and often over the
heads of the authorities.
Childish folly 1t may be said. I'M
doubleday And yet--is it more foolish
and less likely that the successful ac-
complishment OF many of the crimes
e11t1,t 1l, H. I,.,t,
ton, by the masterliness of their calcu-
lation, have disconnected society and
sometimes remained forever unpur-
ished? There would be nothing moro
extraordinary than learning tomorrow
that three amateurs had discovered the
assassins of M SteinheiI, Nine. Japy J
and M. Remy that there was amaZe-s
ment at learning the exceptional CIR
cunstances under which this tripple
murder succeeded so perfectly.
Imagine this JOY. To be the good
young man. absolutely unknown. but
endowed with superior astuteness, who.
from the very first has understood ev-
crythtng, who alone, with his small but
formidable resources, has followed IN
his idea, and who, at the moment
when all is ready, goes full Of firm
.linidity and demands to see the chief
of police atS'pnce on an affair of inn
portance which brooks no } delay--and
who, when ut last introduced, after
many rebliffs, over which his gentle
stubbornness. triumphs, declares lin a
calW voice: Do you know this ,nys-
terry in fwllichSyou are so absorbed, this
crime In the, unravelling of which YOU
have made no progress? Well, ut Is all
settled. II you will be kind enough
to follow me. the murderer is at this
moment at such and such street, such
and such a number where I can lay
my hands upon him.
But, no; all the While am indulging
In the amusement Of supposng such
things. feel sure they will not happen,
More's the pity.