Year: 1871




In former eras, and in countries which
would, in the estimation Of the present
generation, have ranked with the Valley
of Rasselas, or with Sir Thomas Nore's


Utopia, there have been communities
among whom the inventor Of means
Of accelerated destruction, such as the


direful revolver, would, instead Of reap
ing reward and honor, have been doomed


to be put away from of the face Of the
earth as an enemy Of the human
species.


The boasted enlightenment d the pres


ent age views the subject differently; and


the inventor of death weapon combin-


ing facility with appalling certainty Of
human destruction receives the honor
and consideration which the world gives
to success-the same whether its re-
cipient has bestowed some great good
upon his fellows OF originated a: horrible
evil


Ideas of right or wrong are not shaped,
any more than circumstances are created,
by public opinion but the reverse of this


is the case, and public opinion is, if not
formed by, at least qualified by change Of


circumstances. n.
Years ago, when the Queen Anne musket
Brown Bess) and the single barrel flint


pistol were the desdliest weapons that
science had yet devised when homicide
was slow affair, and when, as the statis-
teal calculations of that time proved,


a soldier fighting twelve hours day for
|. three days killed an average of one man


in those slow old days, there were some


strongly defined ideas respecting the liza
bility of man to account to the law when
! he had shed the blood of his fellow. At
that time, the respectability Of the she'd
der of blood, or hD standing in society,


did not for one moment shield him from


the consequences of violation Of law.
Endless instances could be adduced to
prove the correctness of this; but we
quote only +wo-one the case Of Governor


Wall, who was executed for Wnrder at


London in 1902, and the other that of
Lieutenant Richard Smith, who died


under the gallows for similar crime in


1916.


In 1852 Wall was an officer in the Brit


ish army, and held the post Of governor


at the military station of Goree. on the
| coast Of Africa. One of the men in his


command had committed some act which


was considered to SAVIOR of insubordina-


ton, for which he was subjected by the
governors order to trial by an informal
court martial, and received severe fog


ging, from the effects of which he died
| shortly afterward. Twenty years after


this occurrence Wall was tried for it, and


underwent the death penalty in London.


About the year 1916 Richard Smith,
lieutenant in the United States navy,


being on leave at Philadelphia, met with
an attractive woman named Ann Carson,


who represented herself to him as


widow. The unhappy young man was


tempted into iiaison, which was i'm a


short time interrupted by the arrival of
Captain Carson, the husband of the sup
posed widow, who had been absent on


sea voyage. Some idea may be- formed


of the disturbance that followed. Goaded


and instigated by the woman who had be-
guiled him, in an evil hour he shot Car


son with pistol, inhicting wound from
the effects of which death ensued in some


fifteen days. For this homicide Smith
was tried, convicted and executed, not


withstanding all the efforts Of able ooun-


sci, and all that money and influence
could command; for the unfortunate man


had wealthy connections, among others
New Orleans millionaire.


Compare these two cases, occurring


little more than q generation ago, with
what happens in our midst almost every
day.


1t was but q short time before the late
civil war thata a physician of New Orleans,
on visit to New York, slaughtered fel-
low lodger while in frenzy Of inebria-
ton. For this crime he was sentenced to
few years imprisonment, and portion
of the then existing press in this city
raved about the conviction as if the cul-
prit ranked with the noble army Of mar
tyrs. He was pardoned after some time,.
and returning to New Orleans, was, with
in the time to which his sentence would
have reached, killed in an attempt to
commit another murder.


What is taking place among US almost
every day? We need not look as far back
as Washington, or the case of Whitaker
who killed barkeeper with the ever-ready
death weapon, because he did not sufi-
GENTLY hasten to give him light for his
cigar. We need only refer to the past few
years to reoollect murder after murder,
one causeless blood-shed after another,
and no other consequence follow to the
shedder of blood than q few weeks inn
prisonment and the expense of counsels
m - eo-or~n ,v,oe% ,okn,o1 1lv 1vov,n