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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
disposed of by strangulation which leaves an unrnistakable trace.
Evidently the child was illegitimate; otherwise, it would not have been disposed of in that way. The legal crime of murder must have been preceded by the moral delinquency of "illicit" exual intercourse, involving either a widow or an unmarried girl. Most probably, in this case, the murder was not committed by the mother. Therefore, there was no extenuating circumstance as in the case of the punished woman in the previous case. The crime was all the more heinous because it was wilful. There was no material compulsion. The motive was the lack of courage to stand up openly against stupid social conventions on the part of those who surreptitiously indulge in practices they themselves condemn as immoral when others are concerned. That is a sordid motive. Yet, the criminals escape detection, disgrace and legal punishment, because they were rich, possessed of the means to cover up their immoral conduct and criminal act. The police could have casily run down the person who had thrown the body out of the train, if they followed up the clue which was plentiful and clear. But there was some hidden force to arrest their zeal. When the rich are involved, the wheels of the administration of criminal law, so merciless otherwise, turn slowly, and leave the criminals alone if that could be possibly managed. The verdict of society also is as accom
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