Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-12-17
DECEASED BUT DOMINEER-
ING SENSIBILITIES

Not a few people are slaves TO their
own domineering emotions. They sub
ject reason and judgment and con-
science TO overmastering sensibilities,
which set at nought all laws, both hu-
man and divine.
An extreme case of this sort has &C.
cupied large space in the newspapers
recently; the case of a man who has
conceived a mania for numbering little
boys. In one of his confessions he
says, Three times I have taken life;
twelve times have attempted to take
life; 1 can not helpt it." He attrib-
utes his mania to the use or intoxicat-
ing liquors in recent years and to the
possession of too much money" IN his
youth. He will be regarded as insane
by many; and perhaps he is now insane,
although he processes to feel "remorse"
in his heart on account or his hideous
.rimes. In one of his postal card COM
munications TO the police authorities he
makes an appeal for sympathy in these
words: IF you only knew the re-
morse in my heart on account of the
murders I have committed on account
Of my homicidal mania you would pity
me-" All his statements reveal that
he apprehends clearly the enormity or
his offenses and that his conscience con-
dennis him for his horrible misdeeds;
but ne dulls the edge of his self-con-
demnation by the claim that he is pow
erless 70 resist his homicidal mania,
that he "can not help IT," and that he
deserves more pity than blame" Such
a confused mixture of clear comprehen-
sion OF crime and a disposition to ex-
tenuate II by a plea Of moral helpless
ness discloses a case of a man who has
enslaved himself by willful subsection
of his life to his feelings; he follows
the bent of his sensibilities in utter dis
regard Of the admonitions of his intel
lect and the rebukes of his conscience.
He simply does what "he feels like do
ing" without regard to consequences;
and the only difference between this
murderer and thousands of other people,
who are the victims of their own per-
verted emotions, is in the kind of wrong
which he feels like" doing. The man
who can mot help getting drunk" and
the woman who "can not help" indulg-
ing an ugly temper and bitter tongue,
belong to the same class of sinners or
which this murderer is an extreme spec
linen. They subject reason and con-
science to the tyranny of their Feelings,
and so does he. They lack the desper~
ate courage which moves him to take
human life, but they just as cruelty
break hearts and ruin homes in the in
diligence OF unholy passions and appe-
titles.
Another case OF perverted sensibilities
reported in the press recently was that
Of a gang of boys at Springfield, Mis-
souri,, who have been playing the part
of robbers in that city and the sur
rounding country during the last nine
months. These young scape-goats were
no more than sixteen years old, but they
have shown themselves capable of COM
hitting all sorts Of crimes without
rational motives or any sort of provo
cations. simply to indulge in the sensa-
tons which they imagined that rob-
bers feel. A few weeks ago three of
them were riding together in a buggy
when they met in the road an unoffend-
ing negro named Calvin Higgs. When
they met the negro, one of them named
Dishman. shot him dead in his tracks,
exclaiming as he fired, "If we are going
TO be regular robbers, I'll have to have
a notch on my gun" So to put notch
on hfs gun he puts a man to deathy
The current events Of every day show
that our country is full OF people who,
in utter disregard of every sugges-
ton of reason and conjunction of con-
science, do any evil thing to which their
wanton sensibilities impel them. The
peace OF homes is often broken by the