Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1880 — A Popular Delusion. [ARTICLE]

A Popular Delusion.

A great many persons have an idea that it is unlawful to touch or attempt to aid a man found dead or dying, and that the first duty is to notify some official. Lives have been sacrificed under this delusion. The first duty is to reader every possible aid, and then promptly to make the facts known to the authorities. The contrary idea has been obtained from the laws of other nations, which are as absurd as they are inhuman. Referring to the law of Russia in this matter. an eastern exchange says: “Among the most extraorainary of the tyrannical regulations of the Russian police is one which strictly forbids any one to touch a dead or dying man without the direct sanction of the police. In consequence of this arbitrary enactment, it is no uncommon thing to see a man lying bleeding and helplesg from a very severe fall in the streets of Moscow or St Petersburg, without anybody daring to assist him. To what an extent this curious tyranny is carried, may be judged from a single instance. An English gentleman residing at Peterhof, a coast-town about sixteen miles from SL Petersburg, one morning found his Russian groom hanging by the neck in the stable, and cut him down at once, just in time to save his life. The next day he received a visit from the local Inspector or Police, who, far from commending his prompt humanity, vehemently abused him for daring to transgress the law. The Englishman heard him to the end without a word, and then said, quietly: ‘Well, Mr. Inspector, I’m extremely sorry to have done anything, but I will make all the amends in my power. If I find you hanging anywhere, I pledge you my honor I won’t cut you down.*”