The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-12-05
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
Why do people carry pistols?

Why do people carry pistols?
There are laws against carrying
concealed weapons although the wri-
local application.
But there are laws bearing on this
point.
And yet somebody is always Jerking
out a pistol every other time and
shooting somebody else.
More or less defenceless.
And with a more or less just reason.
If, in instance, the Logansport bride
hadn't had q loaded pistol in handy
drawer which she could get at easily,
the murder of the woman who had
slandered her wouldn't have occurred.
She might have been just as mad.
And, indeed, have engaged in hair
pulling and fsticuff match.
But, barring scratches and bruises,
no harm would have been done.
Instead, here is a murder, MUIR
deress, a murdered one-and, above
all, the innocent living to bear the
obloquy, the shame, the misery, the
stigma, the unhappiness.
bystander" who comes in for the suf-
fering.
It's he who has to endure the tragic
result.
He who has to pay.
There is nothing more insane than
the pistol-toting habit.
They are always going off at the
wrong time, never at the right.
Nobody ever knows they're loaded.
That's one of the curious things.
These fools who playfully point
guns at other people and accidentally
pull the trigger never know they're
loaded
They're always sorry.
But what good does that do?
The ownership, as we'll as the con-
troll, of firearms, should be made the
subject of civic regulation.
For very little shooting is ever done
in cold blood.
Always hot off the bat.
Invariably in a towering rage.
Without exception in a frenzy of
passion.
The Logansport bride, in a rush of
resentful temper, grabbed up pistol,
flew round to the house of her calum-
niator, called the latter to the door,
and fired off her gun"
Nobody ever means to do it. They
act on the spur of the moment. They
fly off at a tangent.
In this particular case the means
scarcely justified the end.
If everybody shot someone every
time the latter was quoted in detrac.
ton of the former, we would have
continuous shooting trays on every
corner in town.
The woman who was killed wasn't
| worth the killing.
The woman who told the tale wasn't
| worth attention.
| 1t is not within human nature to ig
moro the base SANDER, and still society
would adjust itself very much sooner
| if it was done.
Here were a parcel of vulgar mind
ed women erupting nasty remarks
about another.
| You'll find this on every block in
any community.
In the slums and in the best resi-
dence section. The slums have nothing
of this sort.
The great thing is to rise above it.
| Get out of the mire.
! Wade out of the muck.
| Put your feet on a healthy, firm, sol
id basis and let those who like wallow
in corruption.
| AS for you-you will have none o.
lit.
Let people say what they will.
| Let 'em talk.
Permit them to go the slanderous
pace.
! Ignore the whole damnable crew anG
! go your way.
You have the consciousness of YOU
own integrity.
Il am master of my fate, l am cap
tain of my soul"
So said the English poet, Henley. s
lifelong invalid, harried by physica
tortures. tormented by material ills.
| But he defied it all.
He dared Fate to do her worst
Come what may, come what did-.h<
himself, was shown above, beyond
outside
Why waste your life's essence fun
ing over the vaporings of the swine.
Why fret your best moments ava!
over the maunderings of the uncou
Over the emanations of the deprav
ed and the burblings of the degener
late.
| You are yourself.
And your life's your own.
You've got just as much right tt
live as the next fellow.
| Let those who object betake them
selves to the neither torrid regions an,
there stay as long as they like.
AS for you, why let the heather
irage-what do you care?
If the Logansport bride had givel
her dearest friend, who delightedly re
tailed this choice morsel, the merr,
shoulder shrug, that would, in the end
have hurt thousand times wore thai
the fatal pistol-shot.
When they find they can't hurt you
they'll stop.
Or their villiany will dribble off int
nothing.
You must have a target.
If the target simply isn't there
: what's the use of wasting powder an
, shot?