The Washington times., 1912-03-15
VIRGINIA's MOUNTAIN OUTLAWS.

The wholesale assassinations by which band of
lawless mountainecrs from the lower Blue Ridge Of
Virginia wiped out judge, sheriff, and prosecutor
with three jurymen and three innocent bystanders
among the wounded has shocked the moral sense
of the State Of Virginia and of the country at large
to degree which is almost unprecedented.
Even in the heyday of the man-killers of the
pioneer West when the James and Younger
brothers were the terror of a later period, there
was, perhaps, nothing to compare in reckless hard
hood and inherent contempt Of law, with the bloody
drama of Carroll county.
The court and all its officers had been duly and
repeatedly warned that they invited death in execu-
ing the processes of the law against these Bad Men
Of the Mountains but the officers, aside from being
sustained by high of duty, seemed unable to
realize that such primitive and deep-seated defiance
of social order could exist in the midst of cvza
tion.
They have paid fearful penalty for their con-
hdence, or at all events of their devotion to duty
but it is evident that they will not have died in vain
The governor Of Virginia is aroused. A.reward of
$1,000 has been offered, and $500 has been Specif-
cally set apart for each of the offenders, dead
alive.
After recovering from the stupefaction of the
first outbreak the law-abdng citizens of HiIIsviIle
and the surrounding territory feel that the good
of the community and the interests of an orderly
administration of the law are at stake. Men have
been found who are as desperate in their deermina-
ton to keep the peace of the State the chartered
libertnes of the mountains were to break it,
From an altruistic point of view, the tragedy en-
forces the lesson that it is high time to seek out these
men of the mountains who, in several States stand
apart unique in their combination of good and evil
impulses, and subject them to the training which
ed Of
blood of the first settlers. They have been equally
untouched by foreign immigration or domestic law.
They are naturally keen of intelligence and inde-
pendent to fault. Specific efforts are being made
TO give them the education for which their children
prove to be eager when once they taste it,
Tomorrow is the day of the schoolmaster but
today is the day of rigid discipline. In the mean
time the sympathy of the whole country goes out to
the bereaved families of the victims.
One need not be particularly bloodthrsty to
feel considerable satisfaction when train robber
happens to run across an express messenger who
takes to fighting like duck to water. The mes.
senger on a Southern Pacific train who killed two
bad men deserves a great deal of praise for DEM
onstratng that this business is not always pleasant
little outing. The easy way in which bandits usually
get away with train robbery has rather put
premium on this plan of getting rich quick.
There has been entirely too much disappearance
of important documents in the matter of important
inquiries and the question is becoming acute if il
is not time to make the demands little more personal
and insistent.
Paul Rainey addressed a large and fashionable
audience last night the methods of killing lions
Public interest this year, however is in the mutual
hunting of the elephant and dear old Dapple
In the first access of joy over the Wiley announce
ment our leading food poisons will probably be SC
inebrated as to have less than their usual strength
1t hasn't been much of a mornin, but the top o
! it to you, Major Markham.