The trifling character of the causes of the quarrels themselves is shown by the fact that in three of these particular cases, tried in a single week, the total amount involved in the disputes was only eighty-five cents.

That is about twenty-eight and one-half cents a life.

Many a murder in a barroom grows out of an argument over whether a glass of beer has, or has not, been paid for, or whose turn it is to treat; and more than one man has been killed in New York City because he was too clumsy to avoid stepping on somebody's feet or bumping into another man on the sidewalk.
The writer sincerely regrets that his own lack of initiative prevented his keeping a diary during his seven years's service as a prosecutor.

It is now impossible for him to refresh his memory as to the causes of all the various homicides which he prosecuted, but where he can do so the evidence points to a conclusion similar to that deduced from Mr.Nott's record.

The proximate causes were trifling--the underlying cause was the lack of civilization of the defendant--his brutality and absence of self-control.
With a view to ascertaining conditions in general throughout the United States, I asked a clipping agency to send me the first one hundred notices of actual homicides which should come under its scissors.