OCR Text |
Show took place in the south and twenty-seven twenty-seven in the north. Of these lifty-two were whites, sixty-fivo negroes, four Indians, one Mexican and one Japanese. There were more persons lym bed than were judicially hanged, the i nciiiijg footing tip V.t'i, of whom 0 were women. Of these 121 were colored, 0!) white, .' Indian, 2 Chinese, and 1 Mexican. The south produced 1(59 lynching! and the north 20. Various conclusions may be drawn from these ligures. An obviously fair inference is that there is a frightful disregard dis-regard of the requirements of the law as regards the crime of murder, and that throughout the south and in certain parts of the north there is an irresistible irresisti-ble Inclination to visit summary vengeance ven-geance upon those guilty or strongly suspected of certain grades of offenses. Whether society would be better pro-! pro-! by trusting to the slow ttit orderly or-derly processes of the law in such cases, especially in the south, is a question ques-tion not easily answered. As regards the immunity from punishments of hundreds hun-dreds of those who deserve to be hung, it affords ground for the argument that capital punishment ought to be abolished abol-ished altogether. This is a rash conclusion, con-clusion, however, since there is no tolling to what extent homicides might increase in case the death penalty was removed. A VKAK'M HOMICIDES, BtatiaUaa abow that during the year lb'Jl thero were no Less than GliOO homicides homi-cides committed iu the United Stats I. It would bo impossible, in the absence of any reliable information on tho subject, sub-ject, to form even hu approximate estimate esti-mate of the number of murders) which railed for tho imposition of tho death penalty. When it is known, however, that there wore ouly UN! local executions, execu-tions, or a fraction more than one in fifty, it is apparent enough that the gallows has been cheated out of many victims. It is worth noting that feu as were the number of haugiugs, they exceeded ex-ceeded those of any previous year during dur-ing the decade. In some sections of tho country thero seems to bo a growing sentiment against, capital punishment, or an in dilTereneo to the enforcement of the! statutes for the punishment of those I who commit willful aud deliberate imir- i der. Of the legal executions niuely-sU |