19° MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



men had murdered her mistress! Afterward, by her own confession and other 

 testimony, it was proved that the mistress had always been kind to the girl, conse- 

 quently there was no revenge in the murder; and it was also shown that the girl 

 took nothing away from the'burning house, not even her own shoes, and consequently 

 robbery was not the motive. Now, the reader says, " Here comes that same gld 

 plea of insanity again." But the reader has deceived himself this time. No such 

 plea was offered in her defence. The judge sentenced her, nobody persecuted the 

 Governor with petitions for her pardon and she was promptly hanged. 



There was that youth in Pennsylvania, whose curious confession was published 

 some years ago. It was simply a conglomeration of incoherent drivel from begin- 

 ning to end, and so was his lengthy speech on the scaffold afterward. For a whole 

 year he was haunted with a desire to disfigure a certain young woman, so that no 

 one would marry her. He did not love her himself, and did not want to marry her, 

 but he did not want anybody else to do it. He would not go anywhere with her, 

 and yet was opposed to anybody else's escorting her. Upon one occasion he 

 declined to go to a wedding with her, and when she got other company, lay in wait 

 for the couple by the road, intending to make them go back or kill the escort. 

 After spending sleepless nights over his ruling desire for a full year, he at last 

 attempted its execution — that is, attempted to disfigure the young woman. It was 

 a success. It was permanent. In trying to shoot her cheek (as she sat at the 

 supper table with her parents and brothers and sisters) in such a manner as to mar 

 its comeliness, one of his bullets wandered a little out of the course, and she dropped 

 dead. To the very last moment of his life he bewailed the ill luck that made her 

 move her face just at the critical moment. And so he died, apparently about half 

 persuaded that somehow it was chiefly her own fault that she got killed. This 

 idiot was hanged. The plea of insanity was not offered. 



Insanity certainly is on the increase in the world, and crime is dying out. There 

 are no longer any murders — none worth mentioning, at any rate. Formerly, if you 

 killed a man, it was possible that you were insane — but now, if you, having friends 

 and money, kill a man it is evidetue that you are a lunatic. In these days, too, if a 

 person of good family and high social standing steals anything, they call it kleptoma- 

 m'a, and send him to the lunatic asylum. If a person of high standing squanders 



