The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1910-03-03
MISPLACED SYMPATHY.


MISPLACED SYMPATHY.
1t is extremely difficult to be just in this
world. Ifone is sympathetic he is tolerably
sure to be unjust, and if he is unsympathetic
he cannot help being unjust. One man
cannot understand or appreciate another
unless there is some bond of sympathy
between them, enabling each to see as the
other sees and feels as he feels. But society
is so organized that we cannot deal with
one person alone without affecting others.
If we allow sympathy with one person to
control US, disregarding all others and
paying no attention to the dictates of rea-
son, we are almost sure to do injustice of
which, however, we may not be cognizant.
When man has committed great crime
and has been committed to prison to expiate
his offense, everybody at first approves; but
after time his case inspires the pity of the
sympathetic. The criminals family suffers
in material comforts because the bread win
ner is absent, as we'll as from the disgrace
he has brought upon them, and for their
sakes the unthinking seek to procure a
pardon for the prisoner. They are kindly
and sympathetic and, when they are OPP
posed, rejoice that they are not as other
men, and yet they may be doing great
deal of mischief. They are, in fact, breaking
down the laws of the land and helping to
make distinction between the criminals who
have influential friends and the unfortu-
mates who have been as outcasts from birth.
AS matter of reason, the cultivated man
with an assured income and hosts of
friends, who goes wrong, is much less de-
serving of sympathy than the poor wretch
brought up to life of misery and crime.
Yet the sympathetic, who yield to impulses
instead of being guided by reason, always
exhibit greater interest in the criminal of
high degree than in commonplace thief.
And in sympathizing with him they forget
to sympathize with his victims. They will
help the murderer and his family, but pay
no attention to the relatives of the MUIR
dered man, impoverished perhaps by his
sudden death; they will help the embez-
zler to get out of Jail, but will do nothing to
relieve the distress of the scores or hum
dreds who were robbed of their little saw
ings through his rascality. What is worst
of all, they help to break down respect for
and dread of the law. One of the purposes
OF the punishment awarded to crime is to
deter others from entering upon criminal
career. But when they see that influence,
especially political influence, and the clam
orings of sympathetic friends are sufficient
to unlock prison doors, they are less afraid
to take the risk of being found out, and that
is all that they dread. Nearly all criminals
who have led double lives and appeared to
be honest and respectable have had in the
beginning at least what seemed to them to
be an honest purpose. They intended to
use for little time only the funds of the
bank or public Office intrusted to them, and
then to replace all that had been taken,
keeping for themselves the profits. A fall
in the stock market or some such accident
has revealed their criminality, and then
'AAOAi ~ =" PothOelS lIAOuOS S0G " WOTk " re.
lieve them from deserved punishments.
And every time they succeed they encour-
age others to take similar risks, with two
chances in their favor-first, that they will
not be found out, and, second, that if found
out, they will be enabled to escape severe
punishment through the unwise assistance
OF sentimentalists. Whenever appeals are
made to cur sympathies in such cases duty
requires that we shall seriously consider the
effect OF any action we may take in the
matter, and that instead of allowing SYM
pathy to control US we shall keep it under
the control of reason and of our sense of
justice.
Fighting Bob Evans,'' as lie persist
emily and vociferously calls himself, has
had another so-called, but uncalled for,
eruption. He has written long letter to
the Secretary of the Navy declaring that
he is opposed to turning the "pilot chart''
over to the weather..
"A LOW DOWN TRICK"