A SEQUENCE IN CRIME. Bv H. Gerald Chapin. THE student of crime as an abstract science must inevitably look upon Cariyle W. Harris with mixed feelings of admiration and horror. "He hath outvillained villany so far that the rarity redeems him." For originality of conception the murder of Helen Potts has seldom been equaled. Its discovery was due only to a rare combination of events, so rare, indeed, as to almost war rant belief in the interposition of an over ruling power,, call it Nemesis, Eumenides, Kismet, Providence—what you will. A careful examination of the plan, as originally outlined, reveals flaws so few as to make success almost a certainty. These considera tions, however, are more for the criminolo gists. When we come to view the matter from a more human standpoint we see a irime so hideously diabolical that we are forced almost to believe in the insufficiency of human punishment. One can imagine only the most frightful of Dante's tortures continued throughout eternity as a worthy expiation. In perusing the case as set forth in Volume 136 of the New York Court of Appeals Reports, the close analogv is imme diately presented which existed between the prisoner and Shakespeare's lago, the most masterly portrait of the polished villain ever sketched by the hand of man. The murder involved no great amount of intricate detail. Unlike the Holmes case, for instance, its keynote was simplicity. Cariyle W. Harris was born at Glens Falls, N. Y., in September, 1869, of good, though by no means prominent, family. He was, therefore, not quite twenty-three years old when brought to trial. His father and mother were not congenial and lived apart. The son, by mutual consent, was placed under the latter's charge. After a short career as book agent he joined a second-
class theatrical troop and spent two years playing minor parts. Then, through the influence of an uncle, Dr. McCready, the prominent New York doctor, he was entered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons as student of medicine. Of polished manners and prepossessing appearance, possessed of industry in a high degree, coupled with a considerable amount of ability, he made rapid progress. In the competition for a hospital appointment he stood at the head of between fifteen and twenty candidates. The position would have been his had it not been for the detection of the crime. Harris presented the not rare spectacle of mental ability coupled with moral imbecility. He is a type of what Lombroso would refer to as the instinctive criminal whose supreme selfishness stops at nothing to accomplish a desired end. Of strong animal passions, he was the self-con fessed seducer of many young girls, never hesitating at crime to remove the evidence of guilt. In the summer of 1899, while living with his mother at Ocean Grove, N. J., Harris met Helen Potts. She was then in her nine teenth year, a beautiful girl of affectionate disposition and remarkably pleasing in manner. During the remainder of the summer both Cariyle and his brother, McCready. called very frequently. Boating and tennis were the order of the day. The intimacy thus begun continued in the fall upon the return of both families to the city. Mr. and Mrs. Potts had few friends in town, and the Harris brothers were always wel come guests at the Sixty-third street apart ment. Helen attended the College of Music while Cariyle was pursuing his medical studies. So frequent did the calls become that Mrs. Potts was finally forced to request that they be made less often. No suspicion of the drama that was being played before
