Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-05-10

enormous and have scarcely human
shape. His walk is highly abnormal,
with kind Of rolling swing, similar tC
what person would imagine to be the
walk of a chimpanzee. His head is alb
normal in every respect; from the eye
brows it tapers far up and back at a
simian angle, almost to point while
the lower occipital Is enormously en-
larged. His mandible is that Of a glib
bon or chimpanzee. Indeed If he
We're stripped Of clothing and enclosed
in cage, he might readily be passed
off on the unwary, as q specimen of
some newly discovered species OF
Quadramana.
Tho Lombroso Case.
"A soldier in an army in which
Lombroso was young surgeon, killed
his superior officer and was executed.
Lombroso performed an autospy on
the executed soldier and found a
dimple in the occiput, characteristic
only of monkeys. From that time he
devoted his great talents to the inves-
tigation Of the causes Of crime, and
found them to be physical, the same
as in insanity. Lombroso and other
students Of the subject, probably as
efficient but less noted than Lombroso
have inductively demonstrated, that
in all habitual criminals-they call
them degenerates-there is always in
the physical makeup a departure from
the normal, like departures appearing
in those of like criminal tendencies,
and such departures being in dispro-
portionate development or in the quail
ity of the nervous matter; and such
departures are usually discernible by
tbs trained scientific eye from exterior
manifestations; always irrefutably, by
post norton examination, shown to
be present
Society has Junkin in its power =
it is not necessary for the protection
of society to kill him. To kill him
would only be wreaking social re-
venge. Revenge! vengence! It is con-
demned by all metaphysical moral
philosophy as being contrary to the
will Of God, and by inductive sociolo-
gical science as being destructive of
that social order necessary to the we'll
being of mankind. Let not society
exalt it, and bow down to it or exploit
it. On the other hand, let us fling
maudlin simpering mercy to the
winds, and simply dispose Of this case
as. under the advanced scientific en-
lightenment of the age, may seem best
to subserve the interests Of a civilized
human society.
Death Will Be Revenge.
Nevertheless the truly civilized
man will never act from revenge; and
to kill your enemy or society's enemy
when you have him in your power, is
taking revenge; any one who may
have committed such murder as the
one in question, will be found to be OF
such congenital deformity in his ply
steal makeup, as to make him morally
irresponsible; taking his life is not
necessary to the safety of society, nor
is it punishm ent of him. Restrain him
by Imprisonment and society IS Sc
cure from him, and if punishment for
it's own sake is the thing to be ef-
fected, then place him in solitary con-
finement-but let Jehovah, who placed
that life in that deformed physical
makeup, and him alone, take away
that life. We only see through a
glass darkly, and it IS precious little
we really know, but all the time we
are learning, little by little very slow
ly. Science is here and there, throw
ing the CLEANS Of a search light in
the dense darkness that surrounds us,
and we are slowly casting aside the
old dogmas that originated in and
have come to us from barbaric times.
It may be that hereafter we will know
and understand why it is that the
great Jehovah creates and puts life in
deformed degenerates, but until we do
know, 1t is arrant presumption on our
part to unnecessarily take that life
away.
DARWIN and the biologists brought
about reinterpretation Of the book
of Genesis; Lombroso and his success
sors in the science Of criminology
will bring about reformation of our
criminal jurisprudence"