The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-07-12
The "rHlRD DEGREE
Ethics of the Process as Defined by
Inspector Byrnes.

/ inspector ByTneS,
"rhe third degree" said Inspector
| Byrnes, the former chief of detectives,
should be a psychic rather than a
physical process. 1t Is not remorse
brought about by continual thought
upon the Nervousness of his crime that
drives II guilty man 10 confession. 1t
is the nervous strain involved in long
effort to maintain his pretense of In
nocence. while he Is in constant fear
that the police are In possession of evil
dence that may prove his guilt. Some
thing like parallel case would be
that of priZefighter who should sur
mise that his antagonist was playing
with him In the ring while capable OF
sending In a knockout blow at any
time he felt so inclined Apprehension
that he was dealing with conditions of
the nature of which he was unaware
would eventually weaken the man In
that case. Tell suspected man who
Is guilty that you have evidence of his
guilt and that he will get nothing to
eat or will not be permitted to sleep
until he confesses, and unless he Is
n particularly stupid fellow he will
know that you have no proof against
him and are only trying to get 1t. For
instance, show him ostentatiously the
weapon with which he may have killed
man and tell him that you know all
about the crime and he would better
confess it. He will say to himself.
They haven't got sufficient evidence
to convict me and are trying to make
me furnish 1t, for If they had the evil
dence they wouldn't care whether
confessed or not and thus he will be
encouraged to hold out. Also, If he
does confess under duress, he makes
false confession, which he knows 1t
will be impossible to corroborate.
Now, a guilty man in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred Is not sure that
he has covered every trace of his crime,
and he may readily be put into the
state of mind of the man In Poe's
story Of The Telltale Heart wherein
he can't help believing that proof Of
his guilt has been discovered and that
his cross examiners are mocking him
by pretending not to be aware of it.
Let the guilty man catch sight of an
implement with which his crime Is as
. ISOLATED in the possession Of the po-
D lice, which he believes has been un-
Intentionally left where he sees 1t. and
1t throws him into panic, because he
does not know how they came by the
weapon nor what else they may have
discovered demonstrating his guilt in
/ getting hold of it. Perhaps he has con-
{ cocted a story In his mind which the
D discovery Of this weapon renders i'm
3 plausible. and he mentally puts to-
: gether and rejects one sequence of lies
8 after another. wondering whether II
: is\safe to take chances on this bit of
information or that being not In the
1 possession Of the police. Then he is
n overwhelmed every few moments by
/. the thought that everything Is known
= and all his efforts are useless. The
s guilty man in this condition is no long
j er normal, and his collapse is only @
! matter of time" Frank Marshall
n White in Harper's Weekly.
In eighteen years. with the increase
:. In steam vessels and decrease in sail
a lug SulpS. tue ueutuS dnuudlly uut "
r wrecks and casualties to ships have
f decreased tu about one-third.
o The word "caloriculture" has beer
coined to designate the new system o.
:. horticulture which is designed to re
s place the old French style OF intensiv,
g fruit and vegetable forcing by soil cul
Y tivation.
: Letters curiously formed and writer
with red chalk on card in the win
y dow of frame building in New Yorl
e not 800 yards from Columbia univer
J. sity announce, Day Bored and Woke
d Musick Taught"
L In all King Victor Emmanuel's ia
l. nous collection of coins the treasur
e most priced by that monarch Is an an
- cient Montcnegrin gold coin, the onl.
l. other known example of which is il
e the numismatica gallery at Vienna.
China has discovered that it needs t
run its postal and telegraph system
,, itself instead of depending upon tn
;, labor OF foreigners. The Celestial en-
!, pire is therefore opening schools :
train young men to enter these tw