Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-31
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Judging from the following printed
in The Star Of August %, 1880, pes
sinism regarding pub
fesslmlsm lie morals is not who'll
nc tn Crime ly Of latter-day de-
velopment:
1.-THE remark is frequently made that
one proof of the degeneracy of this age
is afforded in the numerous reports
contained in the daily papers of crimes.
The man who is too far advanced in
life TO look forward to anything this
side of the grave loves to think and
speak of the good old times when he
was young, nearly everybody was
honest and crime was a rarity. His
proof, which he considers unanswerable,
is reference to the columns of the
daily papers, and, 1t Is true, very large
proportion of the space daily devoted
to Geographic news Is filled with MUIR
ders, suicides, robberies and all sorts
of crime, many of them shocking in
deed. But this Is really no evidence
that the people are any worse now than
years ago. In the first place, the facil-
tiles for gathering and spreading news
at present are vastly superior to those
of the past and are being steadily i'm
proved. Every report of crime, no mat
ter how obscure the parties or how re-
tired the place of its occurrence, is put
in the papers, so that the reader of
daily newspaper has presented to him
every twenty-four hours the crime rec
ord of this whole country THE rapid
growth of our population, too, natural
~ adds to the increase of crime. In
the good old times that the believer in
the degeneracy of man delights to tell
of, population was scarce and telegraph
was not dreamed OF"
The following letter from reader
printed in The Star of August "a, 1880,
~ tells of a situation on the
River Boats Potomac River that has
in Races se Da ago of p t5s law pn snd
public disapproval:
1.-THE excursion to Fortress Monroe
and back by the Potomac boats is so
DELIGHTFUL that there ought to be no
drawback TO its enjoyment. But there
Is such q drawback when boats of rival
lines run abreast mile after mile, with
in only O. few hundred feet. OF each
other good deal of the way, as was
the case during the last few miles be-
fore reaching Piney Point Sunday eve
ming Under such circumstances the
slightest accident to either rudder must
have precipitated frightful collision.
The worst feature of the affair was
that there was no necessity or excuse
for the boats running so dangerously
close"
Half a century ago efforts were being
made by counsel for the three men VINO
had been convicted Of
Mercy for the murder of young
Criminals Hirth and had been
a. kGA.s ~ f1nf ~
fences. The Star Of August 20, 1880, !
said:
"Thc- Is a feeling in the community |
that should the murderers of young |
Hirth escape hanging, human life Will
not be worth much In this city. The
sympathy for criminals that |
shows itself in spaSmodic appeals Tor
their forfeit lives or in making their {
deaths an ovation Is well satirized In !
the address of M. victorien Sardou, the /
French author, on the occasion OF dis
the French Academy prize OF
10 900 francs for virtue. He said that
the prize was a misnomer, for virtue is
no longer in fashion. The philanthropy |
of the nineteenth century takes diff
ferent direction entirel
lit is no longer the virtlous who |
interest us. but the criminal. A new
claiming TO be based on
science, sees In man nothing but a
of matter, and declares
that his morality depends solel. on the
perfect equilibrium Of his organs; and
this doctrine. having many partisans
among medical men, it Is not surprising
If IL sees in humanity only patients.
The theory Is very precise. Every unsle-
factor is an 1l-ba1anvSd being; his nns,
Instincts are the effects of q morbid
and often hereditary state, which cir
aggravated and for which
he Is scarcely responsible, Therefore,
ne deserves not so much anger as pity.
he must be pitied, II possible cured,
above all placed in an inability to do
u; but II Is not allowable to hate him,
;hastiss him. An invalid d not a