The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-08-08
MngnanimOus Exceedingly --N0W I.0Ok
~ This und Then NJ That.

On page two, section s, chapter ~
of General Laws of Texas, passed ut
the fourteenth legislature we read
thusly: 'rhe members of the legisla-
ture shall be entitled to the sum Of
eight dollars for each twenty-five
miles travelled to and from the seat of
government"
On page us, section |, chapter XCIV
of the same book of the law it Is writ
ten: 'Section thirty and thirty-one of
an act to organize the courts of justices
of the peace and county courts, and to
define their jurisdiction and duties,
approved August ID, 1870, be and the
same are hereby repealed"
SEC. 30. In all cases where justices ot
the peace shall sit rs committing mag
istrates they shall be allowed the fees
heretofore fixed by law, aud twenty
cents for each hundred words for wri
Ing the voluntary statements of de-
PENDANTS and for taking down the tes-
timony in such eases, which shall be
paid rs follows: When the defendant
be committed, the state shall pay the
fees upon the certified account of such
justice, signed by him officially, and if
the defendant he discharged the coun-
ty court shall allow the claim for the
fees upon certified account OF such
justice, to be paid by the county court.
"SEC. 81. The sheriff or constable
who may attend upon the court during
the investigation of any such causes
shall be allowed his ordinary fees, us
heretofore allowed by law, and the
same shall be taxed by such justices
and embraced in the account certified
to by said justices, and paid in the
same manner rs provided for IN the
preceding article.N
The difference between 'ple,un Ct
teum"--"mine andyours' though daily
perceptible in all the walks of life, was
never we opine, more strikingly illus.
trated than in the acts of the legisla-
ture, ns above quoted. In the one in
stance ii was by that body considered
an equivalent for eight of the dollars
taken from the people in taxes, that
the lordly legislator should dispense
the aroma of his sweet presence over
twenty-five lineal miles of the rolling
prairies and broad woodlands of Texas,
Notwithstanding single hour sufliced
aud with his perfume was mixed the
scent of the grease and smoke OF
the locomotive, which fastened i'm
obedience to the mandate of free press
to deposit the magnate within the pre-
cincts of our capitol, that he might
speedily inaugurate an economical adj
minisiration by stopping the fees of
the poor devils of justices of the peace,
and constables, and cause his people to
wonder at the retrenchment of govern
mental expenses.
Retrenchment and reform was what we
wanted and still want, but these ought
10 have been reached through Justice
and fairness. Was II Just for the legis-
lator, because he had the power TO take
eight dollars an hour, when the hour
was all--snd that without expense
that he gave To the state In return
Was 1t fair while he was doing this to
take away entirely the emoluments of
the humber officers without notice TO
them?
Did the legislature mean by this that
crime had become so rife In our land
that the state could no longer under
take TO pay for its repression under the
law? or did IL mean TINT examining
courts were needless, and useless as "A I
means for this? Ii the last, then II /
ought by all means to have repealed
the laws which enforced action 6y off, !