The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-01-15
MONDAY. JANUARY Is, 1865.
Our Criminal Court Prompt Justice
Administered.

creatures. 1t is rare circu instance in the
criminal annals of philadelphia thatmore than
one homicide case is disposed of in single
day. The principal offender on Saturday was
young female, whose life is a fearful COM
mentary upon the text that "the ways OF the
transgressor are hard. MARY ridley, at the
tender age OF thirteen, was debauched by
fiend in human shape, and the mother
accepted money in payment for the horrible
act. 1t is not to be wondered at that a
life so inauspiciously begun should have
ended as tearfully as it has. Born and
bred to degradation and disgrace, she has
only bettered the instruction which she
received from maternal lips. Her entire life,
has been spent in brothels and groggeries
amid scenes of vice and infamy too shocking
for recital. Her surroundings led her to every
vicious practice. Unacquainted with any re-
gious or moral course, she became the sport
of ill-fortune; an inebriate before she had ar
rived at womanhood, and the assassin Of her
destroyer before the bloom OF youth had faded
from her cheek. Could one expect to
find an angel in such circumstances? She
would have been more than human had she rose
above her position. We do not feel disposed
go into the disgusting details of the trial.
It occupied several days before the Criminal
Court, and despite the clea1est proof Of the
act of murder, a sympathetic jury con-
sldered the act as comparatively venial.
Murder in the second degree was
certainly q very mild verdict, consider
ing the fearful character of the crime. Upon
a second indictment the wretched girl entered
plea of guilty, under advice of counsel. The
leniency exhibited by the jury in this case, as
well as in those of JOHN CONNER and JEFFER-
SON SPANIER, who were sentenced at the same
time, is considered by many as reprehensible
in the highest degree. District Attorney
MANN, in the course OF his speech in the Ridley
case, referred to the inability Of the prosecuting
officers to procure verdiCts of conviction in
capital cases and suggested the idea that If
such things continued, the growing belief that
trial by jury was sometimes a farce would
gain larger credence 1t is unquestionably in
the power ofjuries TO do much harm by making
vice and crime matters not punishable IfeVery
bully can carry his slung-shot and billy, and
every inebriated harlot can use her unsheathed
poignard to aVenge supposed wrongs, where is
the safety OF human life? There must be
some stop put to the lawlessness which is
rampant in the community, and the officers Of
justice can do nothing if their efforts are not
warmly seconded by those whose sworn duty
is to decide upon the facts. The public
prosecutor may be able and earnest in his
attempts to bring eVil-doers to punishment
and the court may desire TO do its duty, but
they are both powerless, if too lenient Jury
box blocks the way by insufficient verdicts
Our city is overrun Just now by hordes Of
villains, who nightly congregate at our most
prominent corners, and infest the low grog-
geries in all parts of the city. The local
columns Of our daily papers are crowded with
the particulars OF midnight brawls, and rob-
berries. Men are attacked every night in
public places, and manage to escape from the
meshes of the law by adroitness and skill.
Judge THOMPSON, in commenting upon the
action of the jury in the Ridley case very
distinctly intimated his views in regard to it
by his remark, somewhat ironical, we presume,
that the court would have sustained a verdict
Cfmurder in the first degree. Judges THoMP-
SON, ALLISON, and LUDLOW have discharged
their duty with frmness, making the punish
ment as severe as the statbte permitted. The
number of years given to the three criminals
foot up at something like forty years in the
aggregate, and is sufficient to show that the
judges are determined to make examples oi
some OF the more prominent disturhers of our
peace. 1t is TO be hoped that when these un'
fortunate wretches have served out their
term of confinement, they will enter
society under improved conditions. But
the action of recent juries in criminal case;
has not tended to decrease the prevalence o.
outrage and lawlessness This is a question
in which every citizen is deeply interested
and it becomes every one, in view of his OWL
safety, to urge that more decided stand bC
taken in the case Of bold defiers of law anC
order.
We are approaching that state Of societ!
which prevailed in San Francisco some year
ago, when the citizens, unable to trust tn
laws delays, resolved themselves into Vigi
lance Committee, and administered justice t
the Iascals and vagabonds who had rendere
life and pro- rerty totally insecure. We Gel
tainy hope that no such ate of things wi
ever occur in our quiet and orderly cily; bu
cannot be expected that life and pre-
perty are to be jeopardized in order that wortt
ess reprobates should live in idleness, c