Judge — July 18, 1885 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JUDCES = Ia 14 f the Grand Jury of Pub You are ¢ » the important duty of regulating disorders, correcting | the abuses, and 5 ng the wrongs that afllict the country Your functions outrank in uwemakers, courts, or 1 these are powerless ud the nuisance or that you present’ must go down, there be statute, court process or club back of your finding, or not, wtulates the Grand Jury recent sig mphs of ran wgainst a rl, such as guardians of ted unpunished, & police official of New York, well backed. by political influence has been promptly trig and sentenced to a long imprisonment. wealthy banker has been sent to state prison of trust. A. wealthy real s been convicted of man- nalties resulting from his A wealthy smuggler nd actnally sent to prison, importance those of | executives, because t your sanction policema This court con e Public wuthority. less. shop ¢ tr ense fT mor orde dishonest has bee! strike conductors and drivers in Chicago, backed by you, has successfully vindicated the right of petition; they chiv- alro a committee of their num- if for presenting company sought to puni r common grievance mu have so far corrected a wicked race a white man has bee nt life for shooting a Chinaman, Justice were secured your tribunal of Public Opinion enforced her demands. ‘The ordinary agen- cies of right have often failed in ‘similar ses becatse i have not sat and acted, tis hoped that the ends of justice and humanity shall be conserved by your Jury’s tinuous inquest upon all public | vigilance is the price nt, of law, of order, of © triumph ; for ete and of ri of progr You need to be cautioned against placing too much confidence in those in authority— even those to whom you have the right to look for wisdom and i ality. Your duties are the more dif your v lance is the more needed, because you ar often misled by incompetent or unfaithful advisers. Thereis, infact, no safety for you except in scrutinizing the conduct of ofti- cials and of the professed friends of the people carefully as you do that of the private citizen or even that of the more lawless classes. Ju your researches you will find that the most dangerous classes are not in the slums, but in the mansions; not behind, but before prison doors; not in dens and dives, but in courthouses, city halls, and departments; THE JUDGE. not in gambling hells, but in gambling ex- | changes, brokers’ offices and ik-directors’ rooms, You will need to make vigor quest into all the dangerous ope suc asses—dangerous because deemed to be respectable and legitimate, or at least as venial and necessary. Their acts can be stripped of respectability and power for evil only by the indictment of your Grand Jury of Public Opinion, One of the first abuses to which the Jury of the Public should turn its attention is the delays and costs of legal proceedings. You will find that under the avowed pur- of preventing injustice by too-summary vedings, snap judgments and one-sided decisions, our law-makers and courts have gone to the other extreme. Codes of pro- cedure can now be perverted from the pur- pose of calm deliberation to. the iniquitous oncs of interminable delays, exorbitant costs, and the final defeat of justice. Inthe name of judicial caution tyranny has become m- trenched in courts of law. Wealthy corpo- rations having oppressed individuals and in- jured communities have been able, by aid: of Uebauched law, to purchase immunity from all penalty for their acts, In United’ States courts especially, and in patent litigation there in particular, the costs, fees, and penalties amount to a terrorism over ordin ry citizens, and they not wanting in courage, either. A poor man may as well surrender at discretion to a wealthy enemy. — These powers are used by unscrupulous men to blackmail business men and oppress peaceful citizens, You will also have laid before you by th people's attorneys of the pre: ystem of black-mail that is openly practised by sheriffs and municipal officers in large cities. Wolves go about clothed in the insignia of law. It should be your first and chiefes duty to make offic f the law law-abiding. The large increase in the number of law- Jers is good evidence that there are illegiti- mate gains to be made in practice. ‘The absorption of great estates and the impove erishment of wealthy fitigants by counsel has so far become a matter of course as to be made a standing jok It needs, i » your most earnest attention. Things have been allowed in New York and Washington that should be possible only f MODERN 3 Wouxsas—t My burden és more than I can bear 114 If your there is eful remedy may, in dury r that a less pea » be invoked. You have but to so decree ings shall be 1 und legal pro- le more expeditions, p, and equitable; oflicers of law less ra pacious und lawless; and the spirit of justie for ull shall dwell within the forms of law The Jepce will, as the sitti Grand Jury of the People ec your attention to other public matters that he thinks require your attention, Overheard at the Race Sheepshead a young man nother sport on various , the odd one of life-insurance some- w obtruding itself. MIL tell you now, my lad,” said the “what it is put life ins mance. only bet that t On the track was talking with topic 1 Ider, It’s the e ticket-holder never can only dead sure thing you ever ard of is death. When any fellow wil- ling to put up money on death's not comin in time I’llecover, if his odds ar heavy and the stake-holder is square. Some of the book-mukers in that ere pool, though, charge too big a comish, and don’t make good when the holder die Said the youth, with a grin:—“It’s a in which you have to die to win.” Yaas,” said the gambler, sarcastically, “Yaas, young man; I've heard that gag afore, and it’s my opinion that the chap which got it up w selfish uss, When I die I want my family to miss me for some other reason than that there ain’t no bread in’ the house, not even the stamps for the funeral bills. e here,” he continued carne taking ont a roll of bills as b fetlock, ** there’ Ws a hors ery cent there is in the dollar of it to-day, S'pose I did and I've done it m vot smashed upon t home, or passed in my chips before I onagin, It’s too many chances to take for the woman and kids. “I tell you, I don’t know what day itll come and 1 keep them well heeled with life insurance,” “Why don’t you put a pot in the bank for ’em,” asked the youngster. “Oh nk bed dt exclaimed he. “Faro bank? How many bank officers are there in Canada and state-prison now? Did you ever know of a life-insurance president to jail?” “Til tell you another thing,” he con- tinued, after a moment's reflection: ** That chap who gets off that chestnut about dy- ing to win, hain’t got even truth on the side of his joke, because if he wanted to win the insurance game without dying, all he has to do is to bet his money on what they call the tontine plan—pay over the pot to him in five or ten years, so he can spend it all on his own or set up a trotter with i 0, my boy, life insurance is the squar- est gambling there is going and the only one I know of where the stakes is sure to do some good to them what needs it.” ‘Tur CLoTu-coLe the letterer be ger is different from he dyes end makes no cnator Vest had not crushed the newspapers of this country under any more loads of profanity—old version. comicbooks.com