Give Him a Pension

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 19, 1882

Give Him a Pension.

FRANK JAMES, the Missouri desperado, has surrendered himself to the authorities, and pleads for mercy. He has grown tired of robbing and murdering, and desires now to retire from the business. He is willing to quit killing folks, and thinks that such magnanimity should win for him the esteem of all good men. He says that an outlaw has the thoughts and impulses of a man, and that he desires to return to the house of his parents, and there, with his family, to pass his days in peace. He thinks that his sufferings have already done penance for his acts. Poor man! It is true he has killed many innocent people, but he had to risk his life in so doing, for the officers were constantly on his track. To what inconvenience he must often have been put. Besides risking his life, he had to be out nights, and away from home. Ought he not to be rewarded?

A special from Jefferson City, Mo., says: "Frank was at the McCarthy House this evening, and many prominent citizens were there, seeking the honor of shaking hands with him." No doubt they were really honored. We are ashamed of humanity. Such exhibitions are a disgrace. What can we expect of the young, when the surest way for a man to become famous is to commit wholesale murder?