Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-05-25
Especial Correspondence of the Cleveland LKADEa.l
CHICAGO, May %, 1866.
A JUDICIAL MISTAKE.

A JUDICIAL MISTAKE
The venerable Chief Justice of the Su
perior Court of this city, than whom
there are few abler jurists in the West
has recently stumbled; and it is to- b'
hoped that his stumbling may warn other
in high places, and prevent their stumb
ling to fall
A man murdered his wife, at least ne
caressed her with extraordinary emphasis
and she died of the emphasis. The au,
thorities took the widower in charge, and
made him guest of the county. He wa;
brought TO trial. His lawyers asserted
that he was insane, hallucinated, deluded
The District Attorney thought not. The
witnesses differed. The case seemed
about to turn on the question of sanity
and the Chief Justice ruled, that when 6
fair assertion of insanity was urged, the
burden OF proof tCas ttroaOn apon The
Stats, and the jury must acquit unless the
State could prors sanity beyond a reason
able doubt!
Under this ruling an aeqaistal was a
matter of course. But prior to he pris-
oner's actual release, the Distrirs Attor-
ney moved the court, at the request of the
widowers former neighbors = among
whom he had borne the name of dagger
ously brutal wreteh-thaL this insane and
irresponsible sufferer be transferred to the
care of the Superintendent of the State
Lunatic Asylum. "oh, no. quoth our
Chief Justice, 'the object of the hallucin-
alton is buried, and the paroxysm of in
sanity exhausted itself sspOn that object.
The man is as sane as any of US now, and
must be instantly enlarged"
We are wondering whether our excel
lent Chief Justice has exhausted this
very original sort of law upon this cob
iect," and will be sound hereafter. The
widower's neighbors, hear, are nervously
wondering how long it may be before an
other "obiect" will Ghallucinate and
amuse him, until it in turn shall "exhsust"
the new "paroxysm."
The sage jenkins, think it was, once
observed that 'there is nothing like law"
GOOD ENTERPRISE.
Several plans for block like the Bible
House in New York, have been partly
matured among our citizens within the
last four or five years, and at length we
seem to be near the building itself.
The earlier plans looked toward Joint
Stock Association, in which the Young
Mems Association, the Young Mems Chris
tian Association, the Mercantile Associa-
ton, the Historical Society, and any other
kindred organizations so disposed, might
take stock, and be provided with fire.
proof and otherwise satisfactory quarters
Naturally, this plan failed because there
were too many interests to be harmo-
nized.
Next came the proposal to erect by pop
ular subscription large block in which
all the societies above mentioned might
find room, but in which the chief features
should be a free library and notable
public hall; the block to be managed by
trustees for the stockholders, and to be
known as the Lincoln Institute; ft
and lasting monument to our Great Citi-
zen.
This plan was better, but failed because
there was too much of the popular ele-
ment and too little of the individual.
Finally, a single society, the Young
Mems Christian Association, whose Off
GERS are among the weslthiest and best
known business men in the city,
proposes to build block Of its own. A
chartered stock company is formed of the
subscribers, none of whom are permitted
to own less than one FIVE hundred dollar
share, and the association first guarantees
a fixed dividend of six per cent, and then
reserves the right To purchase all the
shares at par with the surplus earnings Of
the building, which its officers are conf
dent can be done in few years.
The capital stock is to be Sl50,00o,
nearly all of which was subscribed in a
few DAYS. The leading stockholder is the
well known and universally esteeraed
head of the largest dry goods jobbing house
in the Northwest, GIr. John Y. Far
well, an ex-President of the Asso-
citation, and the Chairman of the North
western branch of the Christian Commits
sion during the war. He puts in the lot
at the appraisal of $4,000, and would
put in as much more in cash if it were ne
cessary. The subscribers are among the
very wealthiest and shrewdest business
men, bankers, capitalists and others in the
city, who could give no better evidence of
their confidence in the wise management
of the enterprise than is shown in their
eagerness to take as much Of the stock as
they can get.
The location will be central, within q
block of the Court House and new Cham
Der of Commerce, and when the various
literary, historical and benevolent societies
are snugly housed under one roof and the
| secretaries and local agents Of the various
religious and philanthropic organizations
occupy score of contiguous Offices, with
the Bible, Sunday School and Tract De-
positaries in the stores below, grand So
cial crystallIzation of one very important
class of interests will have been effected,
the value of which, not only TO the city
but to hundreds of Northwestern,
towns to whom the city is the metropolis
can hardly be overestimated.
REAL ESTATE.
Our rents were so enormous last year
that everybody called the rise sn imitation
and even landlords, who could not con-
scientiously omit to charge all they were
likely to get, soothed suffering tenant;
with an assurance that prices were sure tt
be lower "next year" The owner Of tht