The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-03-20
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MISCELLANY.
From Appleton's Journal.l
HOW OUR COURTS RENDER JUS
TICE.

.
unfortunates who fall within the power
Of our criminal courts. It is that of a
lad who, at the age of fifteen years and
eight months, was sent to Sing Sing
prison, with hard labor for fifteen
years, to expiate the crime of seizing
from a lady'sfhand wallet containing
six dollars and some odd cents. He was
carried before the judge of court of
April, 1873, and after an examination,
which lasted but a few minutes, was
conducted thence to begin a term of i'm
prisonment which was to be rs long as
the time that had elapsed since his birth;
or, in other words, his fifteen years of
childhood were TO be supplemented by
fifteen years of cruel degradation. Let
us briefly review the history of this
dangerous criminal:
The judge who condemned him did
not ask for this history. 1t DID not oe-
cur to him that it could in any way af-
feet his view of the wickedness of the
misdeed.
William J. Gott is the son of an
honest, hard-working man, dyer and
scourer, who has shop in Canal Street.
At the age of fourteen the lad began to
work, in the intervals of school terms,
in various shops where his services were
valuable, for short periods. At fifteen,
or thereabout, he left school altogether,
and became an apprentice of frame
maker in Thirteenth street. Here he
labored assiduously and intelligently.
Up to this time, he had lived the or
dinary life of a son of poor and indus
trlous parents. He learned a little, earn
ed little, played little, and was still
tenderly and thoughtfully treated.
But OH entering the shop of the frame
maker, he began his career in earnest
The mandatory was under strict man
agement. The employees entered it and
left it at stated hours, and against the
boy Gott the foreman had no charge of
negligence, tardiness or ineficiency.
The story of the crime that the boy
committed, together with what immedi-
ately precede it, is as follows:
He was accustomed to rise at an early
hour, and to walk down Eighth Avenue
from Thirteenth street, where he then
resided with his parents.
On the 1st of April he followed his
regular custom, and, dressed IN his work
ing clothes and carrying his dinner-pail,
he fastened toward his shop, intent up
on reaching it before seven o'clock, the
hour for commencing work.
On his way thither, he encountered
some acquaintances. These acquaintan-
ces, not being working boys, were natu-
rally jealous of Gott, and, half playful
ly and half in earnest, they began to
to impede him. The more he hastened,
the greater became their opportunities,
and, the more he tried to rid himself of
them, the more they obstructed his ad-
vance.
Finally, they wrested his dinner-pail
from his hand.
A working boy without his dinner
pail is a cadet without his uniform, or
a chevalier without his decoration.
Gott pursued the scapegrace who had
thus crippled him, and, after running
half dozen blocks, he heard the seven
o'clock whistles blow, and he knew that
he was shut out for that halliday from
his work. Having thus accomplished
their purpose, the boys gave up their
prize to their victim, and encouraged
him to feel that a short vacation would
not be so bad matter after all.
1t was easy enough to fall in with this
view, and Gott at once went home and
informed his mother of what had hap
pened, at the same time asking permis-
sion to out with his friends until noon,
when he intended to go to his shop.
The permission was given, and he
started, still in his working clothes, for
a stroll.
The party walked down Eight Ave
nue., chatting and talking, and turned
casually into Twenty fourth Street.
They walked eastward until they reached
Fifth Avenue, then, apparently obeying
one of these slight impulses which guide
ramblers, they turned to their left hand,
and strayed up the Fifth Avenue.
Perhaps all this was the development
of plan that existed in the head of one,
or more than one, of the party. But, if
it was, Gott did not know it. There is
not the slightest indication that he was
not completely innocent of premedita-
tion of mischief of any kind.
Suddenly there appeared in the path
before the boys two ladies, one of whom
held in her hand red wallet.
1t was fatal torch. The eyes of the
most daring and rapacious of the boys
beheld it from distance.
The fellow was much older than Gott
and he shrewdly pitched upon the un,
fortunate boy as the most innocent an {
tractable of the group.
He spoke to him, and urged him tt
run up to the lady, seize the purse from
her hand, and then escape with it. Ht
enlarged upon the pleasure that the
money could purchase.
Gott refused, with alarm.
Two or three other boys Joined il
with the tempter, and the chorus be
, came strong.
! They taunted Gott with cowardice.
!, A taunt is the one weapon with whicl
! to slay a, boys resolution. They de
t scribed to him how easily the act Nigh
D be performed. It consisted of nothin
t but a short rush, a grasp, and then
0 hight-after that, endless enjoyment.
r They described the deed as one requi
e ring courage. He burned to show ther
y that he possessed this courage. He wa
d infamed beyond measure with the nov
r city of the idea; he was startled an
n confused, and yet charmed, by the risl