BLOOD! BLOOD! by R. M. Kilgore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 5, 1877

BLOOD! BLOOD!

By R. M. Kilgore

“Violence covers the earth;” and the cry comes up: When will the carnival of crime cease?

The Morning Mail, of yesterday, records the dark deeds committed within the limits of this city and county during the last two days under the headings: “Oceans of Blood,”—a desperado kills one man and wounds two more, tries to escape, but is pursued, fatally wounded, and captured, “Score another one, the murder market active, and business on the increase,” a man is shot in cold blood. “Accidental death”—a man dies from an accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of another man. “Pugilistic”—a white man makes sausage meat of a negro’s face. “Highwayman”—two men attempt to rob a youth on the streets. But his screams, after being struck on the head with a revolver, cause the citizens to render him help, and the ruffians escape.

In addition to the above, the following headings appear in the same paper recording crime committed abroad: “Another Desperado ‘Dies Game’ with his Boots on,” “Thieves Strung up by Judge Lynch,” “Crime Come to Light,” “The Usual Row in Henston,” “A Nevada Duel with Bowie Knife and Derringer.”

The editor, in the same paper, speaks as follows:—

“Our local columns this morning present a ghastly array of butcheries. Two men murdered, one a few miles distant from the city, another accidentally killed at a neighboring village, while a half dozen unsuccessful attempts are chronicled. We may well pause at this startling array of crime, and ask, When is it to cease? Laws are enacted to punish criminals, but remain dead letters upon our statute books; courts are organized and officers selected to punish law-breakers, yet men guilty of almost every crime in the decalogue are permitted to roam at large and carry on their lawless deeds. Whither are we drifting? When is this reign of crime to cease? The authorities must act. The people, weary of supporting an inefficient government that taxes and yet does not protect them, will be driven to the desperation that seized upon the citizens of California, when they rose in their might, and, acting under a ‘higher law,’ rid their State of the desperadoes and law-breakers who had made their presence a terror to law-abiding people.”

This is a sad comment on the times in which we live. Truly we are living amid the perils of the last days, or is this the beginning of the millennium?

R. M. KILGORE.

Dallas, Tex., June 25.