e
that certain crimes exist; crimes against nature, practiced by force
upon defenseless childhood, disclosed in criminal records of great
cities; but there is one crime in Kansas that we have learned to know.
It ought not to be named, much less permitted in a Christian land. The
crime and its fit punishment, can scarcely be discussed; but how else
can it be expunged? Shall it be by fire? Must he who writes the story
of this new-born age still further shock the world and foul the fair
name of America by pictures of a howling mob, profaning every law of
God and man; with every bulwark of our rights thrown down, the gates
of hell unchained, and passion, loose, unbridled as hurricane,
roaring above the prostrate guardians of the peace, annihilating in an
hour the civilization of six thousand years?

"Death in flames! Savage, bloodthirsty vengeance! Three things this
savory orgy lacks: salt and sweet herbs and a good appetite.

"There is a law that in the last extremity, in the presence of
impending death, all barriers are removed, all ranks are leveled, all
rights are equalized. Supreme necessity is supreme law. Can it be
possible that some such overmastering impulse at times dethrones the
public mind, and, while the fit is on, the latent cannibal runs riot
in the land? It seems it must be so; and, if it be, 'twill be until we
rise to the necessity.

"We may excoriate the cannibal, but which of us will now affirm the
provocation is not great? Poor, helpless woman! Why don't she learn to
shoot? This monstrous crime pursues her like a nightmare. It is an
ever present peril to every woman in the land. Must she shun every
alley and fly from every bush lest lascivious eyes be on her and
unbridled, brutal passion block her way? Of all the hobgoblins abroad
in the night, in fact or fancy or in song or story, there is none so
hideous as the stealthy form of the lecherous brute that leaps forth
out of darkness and drags defenseless woman to her ruin.

"And can it be that we who make the laws; we who have wives and
daughters and sisters and mothers who are dearer than life itself; we
who honor woman, not for her strength but for the very attributes that
render her the prey of force; can it be that we can make no laws that
will protect her, or satisfy the public that justice will be done?

"Concede that in the sight of God the crime of rape is worse than
murder, yet is it plain that the punishment should be death? In the
interes