The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-09-26

DIsGRACEFUL SCENES IN A COURT OF
JUSTICE.
JUDGE ASSAULTED AND THE
CLERKS DESK CARRIED OFF.

CLERKS DESK CARRIED OFF.
From the New orleans Republican Sept. 23d.l
The following complaint comes to us
from St. Tammany. Some of the SEN
fences are rather familiar to us, having
been employed in a friendly lecture re-
Gently delivered to the people of st.
Landry, yet the writer assures us they
suited St. Tammany better than any
that occurred to him at the time:
EDITOR REPUBLICAN,: -'es T. ~ Il
There is in C%OVington a number OF
young men who have no regular en-
ployment, and, being elegant gentle-'
men of spirit and leisure, passent among
the people as in some sort better than
mere honest plOdders, Not being stu
diOus, O in any manner ambitious, ex
cept to fight and raise rows, they neg
leCt to turn their undOubted talents to
account in the walks of science, wheth-
er literary, mechanical, " agricultural.
No; they could hire a Yankee school
master for a small sum to toll at letters,
while the elegant Esaus a through
the country by day with their double
barreled guns, and indulge in drunken
carOusals at night. No disgrace seems
to attach to such profigacy, and. the
Guill0rys in st. Landry parish, like the
boys Of st. Tammany, might have gone
| on to destruction in their OWE way so
long as they confined their acts to
hunting wild beasts, shooting a negro
occasionally in the heat of passion, and
exhausting their surplus energy inmak-
ing night hideous with their wild bac-
chanalian songs and yells but it will
not do to indulge the red-landed as
| sassin to carry. on his murderOus de-
signs in broad daylight and raise rows
in the courthouse, as the COvingtOn
boys did on the 10TH Of August, pre-
venting the parish judge from holding
court. when he had to examine the gull
| ty parties-when one murderer, with pis-
| toll in his right hand, seized the Judge
with his left hand by the, collar and
threw him down on the floor from the
| clerks desk, on which the judge was
sitting in order to protect it from being
carried off by the mob; shooting at the
judge and at some witnesses who were
summoned to give testimony in said
cases. But against brutal force there is
Ia force IL My q pas de resistance. While
the Judge was Kept down by one ruftian
the others triumphantly carried off the
desk, shouting and yelling, TRAMP,
Tramp, the Boys Are Marching
Such Genes are a disgrace to the
whole community, and sensitive fathers
and mothers, like such as we know to
live in st. Tammany parish, must feelit
all the more keenly when they have
themselves to blame, for permitting
small offences to grow gradually into
great crimes right before their faces.
conscious that they took no steps to
prevent their growth. A healthy public
opinion is the strongest safeguard to
society. The disappearance of rowdy-
ism in a young man should meet with
ism and rufffanism should not be toler-
ated; the incipient vagabond should
not be lured to his destruction with the
apologize common-places "Well, well.
young men Wilt be a little wild.n s"Yorl
can't expect old heads on young shout
ders. "After he has sown his wild oats
he will settle down. etc.; for bv the
time these same wild oats have all been
sown the man is usually a wreck in BODY
and soul, and the poor victim closes an
ignOmini0us career in a drunkard's
grave, a fel0n's cell or is@knOeked down
or shot-killed by a wild beast in HUI
man form, by a neighbor or barrOom
friend in self-defence, as it happened
again lately in Covington, at the mid
night hour, when some ruffians of the
DIAlL COW EAA1T 1C11 upO1 pOOIL LIT NEW
man, who was thought to be dead as he
did not move or breathe for a quarter
of hour, and who is to-day in a preca-
rious state. a. .,@5s .-l -
These ruffians imagine, in their stu.
pidity, that, because they are bred
born and raised here, having never seer
and heard Of anything else but tbei,
piney woods, they think that st. Tam,
many parish exclusively belongs to them
and any stranger who comesamOmgthen
will have to dance according to thei]
whistle, otherwise, be killed or driver
; away. A law and order lovins
man cannot well exist among then
withoutyielding and sacrificing, in som
degree, his principles. This is the yer,
cause why ST. Tammany parish is de-
I serted, capital and immigration KEEP
| away, no business Of any consequence
! going. ON, and misery, starvation, dis
! honesty and ~rascality met at every step
{ Wrapt up in the cloak of religion, will
> sweet words and promises, braggins
about their honesty, they empty tn
, stores of the merchants and suck1e tn,
, last drop of@blood flowing in his veins
showing, II Y can succeed to do SO
the reason why so'manY merchants fail
not being able to pay their bills.
5 For many years CovingtOn has beer
the asylum for murderers and rufians
l who when the police of New Orlean
. are sent after them for a misdemeano1
: decamp into the woods and swamps an,
come out of their holes. when there i
nothing more to be feared. 1t is tn
!, peoples fault, when outlawry, rufian
I ism and red-handed assassins WELD th
l the sceptre of terror-when men charge,
I with murder can successfully evad
> Justice and do what they please. til
the fault of, the people who tolerate I'll
. lawless acts of idle vagabonds who ar
: too elegant to work. The people O
COyington seem to be 10 terrOr-strickel
9 that they have not the courage to Oh
pose them, on the contrary, they eve
I take sides with them, and this cliiuueE0
. Democratic .ruffians boast of hayin
thewhO1e parish at their back.
We hope that there Id yet honor, viz
tue and energy enough left among tn
! citizens of st. Tammany to redeer
: their good name. e IF you wish capita
and Immigrants to come among yo
and give the magic touehOf labor Whic
! will transform st. Tammany into a hou1
. ishing garden, and develop industry in
. to life and activity unexampled, the
do away with your rufians. and mut
derers. You viii then see thousand
of law and order loving immigranti
with millions Of capital, come anon
- you, and do you and your country go0C
4 AN OLD CITIZEN OF ST. TAMMANY.
~ ~, - 4