Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-09
EVERY MAN HIS OWN MURDERER
A More or Less Cheerful Meditation on a
Gentle Pastime
Ru RIGRTON KLINE

| MOST of us regard murder as thoroughly
| 1Klmpoite. And yet millions of us are
murderers. Most of us are murderers, and
without knowing it. There is the pathetic
] part of it, Great and accomplished murder
ers are going to their graves unhonored and
| unsung without flowers or offers of marriage
| from the ladies.
| You know, it is only the hopeless block
| head who resorts to the bullet or the pellet
! of cyanide when desrous of murder. That
| kind of murder is nothing more than a
momentary absence of self-control. If you
| don't believe you are a potential murderer
step out of your door some evening, pre-
pared to call upon the young lady of your
choice. An urchin throws a muddy SNOWFALL
which fetches up against the bosoml of your
shirt. In your opinion death is too good
for that urchin. The whole train of tragic
consequences of that SNOWFALL flashes
through your mind. Having to dress again,
beginning with the very fundamental of the
shirt, you may be late to your appointment
The lady of your choice may conceive
poor opinion of you on account of that. She
may say you Nay. That SNOWFALL may have
ruined your life! Well, that urchin was a
murderer then. And in your thoughts YOU.
too, are a murderer. Many a real pistol
murder results from the over-hasty trans
momentary lapse of self-control
Nagging wives are daily doing murder I
once had large, sweet-natured st. Ber-
nard dog. I also had some chickens. One
day of the more immature chickens
broke leg. l put the leg in splinter and
the chicken in a box. The box 1 placed on
the back stoop, near the spot favored by my
dog for his matutinal nap. The chicken
cheeped The dog stood it for long time.
Then he walked over and with every justin
cation pried open the Stats of that box and
killed that cheeping chicken. Cheeping wives
have been killed in just such mood of i'm
patience. The electric chair is an insensate
object Had it a conscience and voice,
what cries it would utter at it's work!
Take the case of an employer who sud-
denly discharges an old and faithful en-
ploye. He murders that employe with a
word as neatly as If 1t were done with a
shot. InValids may be slowly numbering the
generous or defenseless wights upon whom
they are dependent. John Keats was MUIR
dered by critic. Plain people not genuses,
but just honest corner grocers, are being
hacked to pieces every day by thOughtless
criticism, by more successful competitors.
Jealous and mischievous people actually pur-
sue murder as a pastme few of the
downright diabolical variety make 1t a fine
The glutton sinks his own teeth In him
self every time he sits down to the table.
Probably he eats mince pie for breakfast,
with nobody to tell him differently. The
person who fails to tell him differently is
himself murderer.
But there is one type of human being
that nature, with elaborate cunning, seems to
have fashioned deliberately to do murder
Wherever these people meet they recognize
each other in flash They form sort of
guild OF course, the universal in
strument of murder is In every ones hand
or rather mouth; but in the mouths of these
people the instrument takes on a sharper
edge and their skill in the use of It is as
much natural gift Carusos gift of
song The instrument-can YOU have failed
to guess it's of course. the Tongue. And
the guild is the great and universally dis
tributed Grand Order OF Gossps.
The man who shoots another goes to the
electric chair. The gossip goes TO afternoon
tea