THE NEW YORK TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 230, 25 September 1908, Page 5

THE NEW YORK TRAGEDY.

CASE OF CAPTAIN HAINS AND WILLIAM ANNIS. ETHICS OF THE UNWRITTEN LAW. FREMANTLE, Sept. 16. English newspapers to hand yesterday have full accounts of the terrible tragedy at Xew York last month, when Capt. Peter Hams shot Milliam E. Annis dead because he believed that the latter had ruined his young wife. Atte rthe shooting a boatman sprang to seize the murderer, but Mr Thornton j Hams, a brother of Captain Hams, i caught iii_ arm. saving, "That's all right. | I It's, all over now. and it's best to send [ for the police.'' The two brothers then i walked on to a verandah, and Captain i Hams bezan to write a telegram to his I j father, General Hams, a retired army ofi ficcr. The telegram opened with the senj tence "Annis is dead." A member of the club, looking over I ! the captain's shoulder, remarked, "Annis iis not deiid yet." i " him. he ought to be," Captain i Hams exclaimed. "He wrecked my j i home.'' "It io recognised." says the New York I [ correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph," I , "that the unwritten law is occasionally j j too frantically invoked, more especially :in the Southern States. The idea of ! shootiug one's enemy in the presence of; '■ the latter's wife and children, or in the . j presence of a holid-ay crowd, revolts pub- j lie feeling. Americans who defend the | unwritten law stfU have their unwritten ! rules. The first is that a man who seeks ' deadly vpnge.ance must do it immediately upon the discovery of the injury, and j the second is that if he is unable to ' I met his enemy forthwith he. must serve notice on hitn of his intentions, so that 'he ir.ay have an opportunity to prove his . innocence or to defend himself. Captain i Hams admittedly did not fulfil theso ! conditions, and for that reason public i i sentiment is against him." , i —