The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-11-28
Sentimentallsm and Crime


| Mr.. Bcattie desired to thank tho
many friends for kind letters and ex-
| pressions OF interest, and the public
| tor whatever sympathy was felt or
Expressed
This Is the message given out by
the. minister who attended the Rich
mond wile-muruerer, along with Beat
! tteS written confession OF his crime.
ana upon whom had these kind let
ters.' these expressions of Interest,"
TINS sympathy" been bestowed? Not
merely upon murderer: not upon u
nun VINO, In gust OF passion, or per-
haps deliberately but under extreme
propocation had taken the life OF an
o,hsr human being; not even upon II
man who, having committed u crime
mad grimly taken the chances OF pun
i,shment. The murder had been care
July tmily planned. in cold blood the vic
spot and deliberately Killed: and tho
slayer had promptly returned to tho
home Of her mother. from which he
mad just taken her. with circum-
stantial lie about her having been shot
by a hiEhwayman. And yet, to the
very last. the newspapers which have
before the public have been telling of
an sorts of sympathy" and interest"
IN this brutal and rdly murderer.
9 t Oh the forms II has taken being
years. He was mere boy" Of twenty
| I'VE, and doubtless would have grown
INTO fine man after a while, If he
mad not happened to think 1t would
pc nice thing to murder his wife be-
lore he got through sowing his Wild
oats.
The mushy sentlmentality of which
tnls case has furnished a somewhat eX-
treme Illustration is Il more serious
element In our national life than most
We don't bother. Indeed. about the poor
aeniis who are being convicted and
sentenced every; day.. without anything
lon IN yE,-o -.
but no sooner does case fgurc con
sspicuously in the newspapers than IT
Is turned over In every conceivable
way on Its sentimental side. and tho
monstrousncss OF the crime lost sIeht
or in the human interest OF tho
criminal Tho wreckcr OF banks is a
inc wife murderer Is not half bad when
YOU get to know him: the debnuchcr
or city Councils and matchmaker OF
tiaIt women and all round corrup-
did what he did simply as the agent
or FORCES which he found lying around
i ,n5nr, In the community, And in re-
forms OF the plea for charity comes
mat universal plea in the shape of an
arErmentnm ad hominem: Can yon be
sure you would have done any better
III YOU had been In his place."
The most serious consequence OF in
diligence in this shallow sentimentality
effects upon action in SPECIFIC cases
What Is most to he deplored is the
weakening, which 1t must Inevitably
Dring about, OF profound Instincts thai
nave their root In ages of human
eNperience-ot real ana effective scnti-
nents In regard to crime. the anti
thesis of these mushroom scntimental-
Ties. More than in police and juries
ana judges. society finds Its protection
from crime in the instructive associa-
tion of 1t with feelings OF abhor-
renee and with the stigma of universal
disgrace TO be thief Is to be not
only punished but despiscd and shun-
NED: TO be a murderer is not only to
subject ones self to the danger of
death, but to be dctested and cast
out by all men. Children no sooner
learn the meanings OF the words than
thcy mcguire along with them those
sentiments of abhorrence which fnr
more than any calculation of chances
make the very thought OF the commits
sion OF these crimes Impossible to the
vast majority of mankind. To tribe
with this inherited defeuse--not merely
or society against evildoers, but, what
is even more important OF individuals
against temptation to EVILS no light
matter. And yet precisely this Is what
the whole tribe of sentimental dnbblers
In the side issues of crime are con-
Stantly doing.-New York Evening
Post. I..f ''19