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Show THE SO CALLED "CRANK." More Dangerous Than the Outright Lunatic Luna-tic and Should lie Made Harmless. In 6ome respects the crank is more dangerous than the outright lunatic. The latter usually gives warning of his intention, in-tention, and he makes his assault on the first man within reach. The latter inspires in-spires carelessness by the very contempt in which he is hold, but when he gets ready for his bloody work it is not the next bystander, but the most conspicu- ! ous frequently the most beloved and useful members of the community whom he has marked for slaughter. Is his worthless neck really so precious that we should take this chance for it? The indulgence of law and authority for the crank should come to an end. i "Whenever and wherever a man is known to havo made threats against any one, whenever menacing letters are traced back to him, whenever he is shown clearly clear-ly to be of unsound mind and possessed by delusion, ho ought to be placed under some restraint or surveillance, and whenever when-ever he carries his peculiarities to the length of murder the community should be rid of him. The insanity defense has done its work by saving a few real madmen from the scaffold, to drag out the rest of the living liv-ing death that life is to them in asylums Qr to plot new dangers to the community, communi-ty, but it has offered untold encouragement encourage-ment and immunity to crime, and it has deprived us of some of our bravest and our best. Tho tolerance of the crank digs the mine and lays the train by which innocent men and valued citizens are to come to their death whenever some peculiarly pe-culiarly stimulating and exciting circumstance cir-cumstance sets the disarranged mind of the crank on murder. Embryo assassins walk tho streets of nearly all our largo cities and are regarded only with a pitying pity-ing smile. It is time that we drew the hnes more strictly, and in the interest of self preservation provided for the crank a safe retreat. St. Paul Pioneer Press. |