CRIMINALS WITH REDEEMING POINTS.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 55

CRIMINALS WITH REDEEMING POINTS.

The greatest poet that ever lived has told us, with marvellously truthful insight into human nature, that " There is some soul of goodness in things evil," a&d the history of the lives of the most notorious criminals proves that this is an absolute fact, as men who have seemed lost to every decent instinct have nevertheless acted generously and even-nobly on certain occasions.

In France, some 20 years ago, there was r man who had committed well nigh everj crime in the calendar save murder. Hif record included burglary, forgery, arson, bigamy, and a host of other misdeeds, and yet his final act in some measure redeemed them all. A companion of his who had recently married, arfS who was ardently attached to his young wife, was wanted for a murder committed some months previous to the marriage, and after a vigilant search on the part of the police he was run to earth, and would most certainly have been captured had not the other taken his place, declaring that he was the murderer, and so taking his friend's guilt on .bis own shoulders.

-The trial' followed, and the self-sacrificing * man went to the guillotine, and it was only 10 years afterwards, when the 'real murderer • lay dying ' in prison, that he confessed' all, saying that his " pal " bad done this noble : act for the sake of the -true assassin's wife, whom be also bad loved. Here, then, was a Sydney Carton of the criminal classes ; and ' it is to be hoped that when the self-sacrific-ing malefactor comes up for judgment befora the Supremesfc Court of all, this act may help to cancel much that went before it.

In one of the great English prisons not so very long ago a desperate -convict made % violent attack on a warder, and the lattetf would certainly have fared badly indeed hacjj not another convict, to whom the warder it*/

•question had shown some kindness, come up - in the very nick of time and thrown himself on the assailant. The latter at once tamed on the other, bat by this time the warder was able to blow his whistle, with the result that assistance soon came and order was restored.

As the rescuing prisoner's time was nearly tip, his brave action could not be attributed to a merely 'selfish desire to gain more " marfcs," and so shorten his sentence, and it must be put down to those generous instincts which arise sometimes even in the most abandoned. A somewhat similar incident occurred in another prison, and here, unfortunately, the convict who interfered to assist the warder was so badly hurt that he died shortly afterwards in %he infirmary. Poor iellows ! Perhaps had a chance ever bean 'given them they and others like them might have lived different lives.

Even men who have committed murder have been known to ' be devoted to their mothers, and a man who killed a sailor and robbed him of Mb watch and chain and all .the money on. his person, sent half the proceeds of his crime to his widowed, parent, jwho was living, in great poverty in Yorkshire ; . whilst^another, who committed one of the most cold-blooded crimes in the whole history ' of wickedness? sobbed like a child ■when he heard that the news of hia capture tiad so affected bis mother that she had •.broken a blood-vessei'and died shortly afterwards. He pleaded \" guilty," sayiftg that after what had happened he had no desire ltft save to die also. ! Curious impulses sometimes come to those who live by stealing, and such- an impulse must surely, have arisen in the heart of a famous pickpocket who went up to a beggar whom he saw crawling along the road and emptied into his band a purse full of gold. What constrained him to this act it is impossible to say, but it is pleasant to think that such redeeming points are sometimes to. be found even in the most hardened criminals.

But perhaps one of the most extraordinary oases on record in connection with the subject of this brief article was the following :— . In the United States, as many people will be aware, there is a positive epidemic of fires which are brought about by the direst act of kbose.to whom the burning buildiDgs belong —the arson being committed, of course, for the sake of the insurance money when trade Is in a bad condition. .

Sach a fire occarred in one of the Western States about eight or nine years ago, and long before the fire engines could arrive the place was blazing fiercely. The owner of the store (who had fired the house) was calmly watching the tffect of bis vile act from a point of vantage where he could not be seen, when all of a sudden a short, agonised bark rung in hia ears, and at the top window of the burning house he espied a small terrier ( to which he was much attached, the animal having by some mischance been left in the Btore. 1 Love of -his dog overcame all other feelings in the incendiary's heart, and, with a wild shout for a ladder, he ran towards the spot. A 'ladder was soon procured, and with marvellous courage he ascended it and brought down the little creature in his arms, amid the cheer's of the bystanders. So thoroughly unstrung was the man by what had occurred that, when the descent was made, he went to the first policeman he saw and gave himself into custody for firing his bouse. "Thank God, the dog's safe," he muttered, and then calmly went with his escort to the police depot.

Owing to a breakdown ,in the case he was acquitted, although he himself pleaded guilty, for the Insurance Company, in view of the peculiar circumstances, refused to prosecute, Although, of course, they also denied all liability. So the matter ended at that point, und it is to be hoped that the small dog repaid by bis devotion his master's extraordinary unselfishness and courage.