The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-05-22
THE KILLING OF DICKSON.

With the news of the Ryan Dickson
tragedy enacted near Milton, Thurs
day the public ear receives but an
other shock as it has often been
shocked in the past and will be
shocked in the future, the never-heal-
ing wound that rankles in the finer
sensiblities of man receives but an
other thrust and society is left to Ia
ment the transgression of the laws of
God and man, and the splitting of in
nocent blood 1t is but the old story of
the triumph of brute passion
and the outcropping of a saw
agery that has outIived it's
time and survives but to offend and
victimitize. Petty personal quarrels
thus snatched from the hand of jus
tice and turned to crime, insult the
dignity of law and equity and leave a
lasting stain on the moral record of
the community in which they are
nursed.
The Ryan type of man though not
common is met with often enough to
be thoroughly understood. Living the
life of recluse and preyed upon by his
own broodings over past misdeeds and
cut of through self-ostracism from
the tempering influences of home ties
or the blessed love of kindred, he de-
generates and holds communion with
tn demon memories of his primitive
forebears. He courts no mans friend
ship. He asks no favors and grants
none. He drifts farther and farther
ty Might becomes right with him and
he recognizes no law save the gun.
Sinking deeper into the gloomy depths
of his solitary life he forgets the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man and in a moment when his
anger, his hatred, and his revenge is
whetted to frenzied edge, his hand
. flies to the trigger and he kills.
In the heat of his passion, Ryan no
doubt believed that in defending his
property rights he was justified in fir
ing the fatal bullet. Let his deed be
called murder, manslaughter, or JUS
titled homicide. The degree of his guilt
can in no sense lessen the sting of his
crime. Here, as often the case, the
bitterest dregs must be pressed to the
lips of the innocent. Other crimes have
been committed in our midst with de-
tails more brutal but no tragedy has
been chronicled where the scenes are
more pitiful The fell deed as pictured
in our thoughts does not wound our
feelings or touch our sympathies so
much as does the sorrowful back
ground where mOurns a widowed
mother and her orphaned children.
When the law has taken its course
and Ryan has given legal eXpiation OF
his crime. for what will he have
atoned? Will he have restored happi-
ness to the Dickson household? Can
the black cap of death lift the. pail
of misery that has settled over the lit
tie home in the hills? Can the gallows
give back the father and the husband?
Toiling out his days behind prison bars
can the slayer feed the starving mouths
he has robbed or clothe the skeleton OF
penury that must haunt the lives of a
heart broken mother and her father
less little ones? How pitifui the plight
of that distracted wife as she wandered
hour after hour in the silent darkness
of unknown hills, searching for her
dead or dying husband! What heart
rending pangs of dread, fear and sus-
pense must have Vrung her very soul!
What unutterable grief and anguish
chilled her senses when her search was
ended. where lay her dead, sweltering
in its own gore! The picture is sad,
too sad for contemplation. We can but
sigh and despair at the infallibility OF
man and wonder at the ineXplicable
ways of Providence.