davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29
THE JIRY SYSTEM NUISANCE.

The jury system has lost prestige every
where, in the East especially, and SO intol-
cradle are its vices that honest lawyers are
apt to advise unaccustomed litigants to
compromise rather than submit their rights
to the DEGREES of a jury. 1t is called our
heirloom, and it does constitute webs of
horrible luck woven for those entangled in
its meshes, and the sooner it is practically
swept away by the hand of progress the
better for the fortunes of our race. This
applies to juries in civil SUITS In criminal
cases jurits now and then commit incom
parable follies, but, since they will obey
neither law nor reason, and only make up
verdicts in accordance with the dicta of
public opinion, We suppose they should be
employed IN cases of life and death. When
we had kings and noblemen, and these
were the peculiar governing class, the jury
was invaluable 1t protected the rights and
persons of the many against the few, the
poor against the rich. But here the Judge
does not represent the nobility orsthe rich
He is of the, people, and elected by them,
jury, and invested it with universally of
action, no longer exists, or certainly is no
longer necessarily operative as when our
British fathers gave it origin. 1t is curious
how we cling to follies sanctitied by age
,Juries cost US incalculable sums in money,
and avail us less than nothing, and, worse
than this, the habitual juror, as seen in
cities, becomes the habitual perjurer,
loafer, whisky -guzzler, dead beat.
1t is not the time lost by indus
trious people in court house towns
that costs the country SO much, but the viii
lainous habits acquired by innocent bump
kins, who spend days befogged by lawyers
ingenuity, and nights by their wit and dis
sipAtion. The same faces soon appear at
the same places on the juries at each success
sive term, and these faces grow ruddier un-
til the history of litigation in each county
is developed in the glistening noses of
standing jurymen. The system needs rad
cal reform and, very certainly, since judges
are elective by the people, juries should be
required, in civil suits, only at the cost of
parties litigant. 1t is none of our business
to pay for the folies of those who practi-
cally play poker and call 1t litigation, and
it is enough if the public furnish these
gamesters with a gambling hell called a
court house and with an honest ''dealer''
called a Judge Moreover, the names of
the great mass of taxpayers never appear on
the records of these courts. Industrious,
toiling citizens stand aloof, and only those
htigious in nature, even as some men are
naturally gamblers, drag victims into the
meshes Of the game, in which all are losers
except the croupiers-the lawyers. Year
after year the same people are plaintiffs and
defendants, and these are the ropers-in for
fresh annual supplies of victims, and the
masses of taxpayers never have their names
called in ''halls of Justice" and these
should not be forced to pay for the follies
or msfortunes of those whose homes are
consumed in litigious or other conflagra-
tions.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

THE disposition to surrender corporation
charters and suffer towns to become, as
originally, part and parcel of the several
counties in which they exist, manifests
itself in many places in Texas. These
town governments concern nothing but
property aud taxation The money is coll
lected, however, from one class and ex-
pended by another. 1t was designed to
be used in making highways and bridges
and streets, and in guarding public health
but the suffrage, unlike taxpaying, is uni
versal, and the universal suffragan IS after
the money of the other fellow, aud he gets
it and pockets or squanders it, and tax.
payers don't like it, and therefore the dis
position to pull off corporation clothes and
go back to the original nakedness and-tle-
eency of Adam and Eve. teel 8Gl
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29
TUIIT BIG LAND GOsBLE.


The STATESMAN has, upon several occa
sions, referred to the character of the bill
passed at the last session of the Legisla-
ture for cleaning out Oyster creek, the Ber-
uard river, and Caney creek, and those
who place any value upon the landed in
terest of the State dare not pass over this
meas ure without rejecting upon the mser
able uses and purposes into which lcgisla-
lures are often led. We have heretofore
given, an insight into the motives which
placed this bin before the Legislature, and
finally secured It's passage. 1t was begot-
ten for private ends, passed without due
consideration, and its provisions have been
executed with blindness to justice and
decency, which requires more than pass
ing notice. The bill was first introduced
in the House by the member from Brazoria,
and an attempt made TO rush it through as
an appendage to another bill then about to
pass. Several members, however, beng
Immediately posted upon the enormities Of
the proposition, the bill was rejected. 1t
slumbered until an opportune moment, not
long before the end of the session, when it
was introduced in the Senate, passed i'm
mediately without, due inquiry, aud upon
the heels of the session was brought into
the House and rushed through. it is pre-
sumcd, without recognition. The Cover
nor, without delay, signed the hill, made
the necessary commissions, and huge
land gobble, without consideration, has
been the result. ~. t,.-s,s
The bill provides that the State shall pay
eight sections of land per mile for the
cleaning out of the above-named streams,
While III reality the work can be done at an
expense of not over ffty dollars mile, and
probably much less. The work on these
streams will average between fifty ard
seventy five miles, according to the greed
OF those having charge of it. Tide water
extends many miles above points where
even the smallest fishing smack can 60 IN
these streams, and il may be that eontrae-
tors win be allowed the greatest latitude.
The lowest estimate will give the contrae-
tors 1eS, 900 acres OF land, and the amount
may reach even to l, l5a, 900 acres. The
matter IS such huge fraud that the
people Of Brazoria county bs.ve been NOV
ing IN the matter, and the county court had
I some action in the premises. The court has
alemoriaii1ed the Governor. true there Is No
indication cf any relief rs yet. Ii Is
claimed That the appointment Of the
commissioners Tor the Brenard Tiver Was
a fraud, and so the court states. But q
show the ramiiications oG this ring within
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29


AN innocent Bostonian and wife reg
istered from that Hub of immensity in a
Little Rock hotel last week, and the reo-
pie, fresh from newspaper fountains of pat
riotism distilled from the late heavenly in
cidents at Bunker Hill, went for the raw
Yankee and his wife. The pair was
scared at first, having heard much OF Ku.
Kluxism in those parts, but champagne was
produced, speeches were made. Bunker
Hill was fought over again and they made
the New Englander and his wife blind
drunk and then deadheaded them to St.
Louis. Those good people at Little Rock
swear they will never be outstrpped in
generosity or hospitality by the, children of
the Puritms, and as these two the first
Yankees to come along after the magnificent
entertainment at Boston, became the
vicarious sacrifice of New Englandism or
the altar of eternal friendship between the
States
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

IT is commonly stated that the presidency
of the Bryan Agricultural College will be
rendered 20 Gen. Braxton Bragg. We have
sail that there were palpable reasons why
the office could hardly be accepted by Mr..
Jefferson Davis, and there is every reason
to believe that Gen. Bragg, a consummate
organizer, an excellent scholar and practi-
cal mathematician, will be rendered the
position profTered Mr.. Davis. Gen. Bragg,
now that he has severed his connection
with the Galveston and Santa Fe road,
would no doubt accept the Office, and thus
the success Of the institution at Bryan win
be assured. There are areacy hundred { Z!
applications for professors chairs before tile
board OF trustees.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29
NO. l


Ms LYNCH, One of the candidates for
the constitutional convention in the C0ero,
Iwenty-iour,h District in his speech last
Tuesday, said that ''hefore the war the
State Comptroller's office cost S9250, now il
costs So, 600; the General Lind Office for
meriy cost $lS.400, now it costs So. 500;
the Treasury Department formerly cost
$4,000, now it costs $1l, $50; the judiciary
formerly cost S76.7 200, now it costs $s5O, osO;
before the war the ad gdloren tax was
twelve and one-half cents ON the hundred
dollars, now 1t is fifty cents on the HUNDRED
dollars; that the spirit of extravaganza was
alarming, aud should be checked, or gov
ernment would be impossible, and that il
was high time 10 go back to first prin-
eiples. When the STATESMAN made STINT
lar suggestions the organs nearly
howled themselves In hoarseneSs, and re
peated the word . Radical 50 often thai
their educated tongues are incapable of ut
tering any other. We fear that Mr.. l.ynel
will be lynched. l
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

THE rolling mills at Atlanta arc to be
used again. Those at Chattanooga are bank
rupt. At birmingham, in Alabama, where
coal fills mountains, and three miles away
iron is stored thirty feet thick and on the
eastern side of the railway for fifty miles,
the coal fields on the other sids-eren there
furnaces are worse than proftless- But the
people of Texas are expected TO conduct
furnaces or rolling mills, using The labor Of
penitentiary convacts- Beware Of IT, Tax
payers viii punish at the ballotrbox the folly
Of those who go mad and subject the State
to enormous losses in behalf OF rolling
mills o, iron furnaces. There are greater
e4lAmities even than Ward, Dewey & Co.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29


1t WAS the Radical convention at Hemp-
stead, convoked- by the Federal placehold-
ers in order to show Grant that Radicaiism
was not entirely defunct in Texas, that in
vested Irelandis follies with share Of pop
uIar approval Davis lifted up his sore
head and Ireland struck at it and everybody
approved, and thus Radicalism itself is re-
spoEsibIe for Ireland's conduct and for this
partisanship, which must affect the conven-
ton held to reform the Constitution of
Texas. Radical newspapers should not for
get the misdeeds Of their own leaders; and
their crime becomes the more unpardonable
when their convocaron at the time could by
no possibility result in good and only in
upmixed evil Radical leaders themselves
can now see and should confess these plain
facts. Ireland took advantage Of the empty
stage thunder Al Hampstead, designed for
Grants ears, and Texan wisdom and nod
Grafton and siatecraft were plunged into the
maelsirom Of partisanshiP. So
- 1 he: zi
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

alON twenty dollar United States bank
note is picture entitled ''Tbe baptism Of
Pocahontas.p The robed priest is pouring
the water on the ''coloredr damsel, and one
A. j. Holt writes well aud Indignantly
about what be conceives to be the pious
fraud He thinks Poca. was isdipped," ("
and if not, she was never .sbaptizcd' at all.
Thus it will be observed that the question
of baptism will be dragged into the poIiti-
cal arena, and we would advise everybody
to get Judge Ireland's opinion on the sub
iect. Anyone that differs from the Judge
on the subiectof baptism will be denounced
as a hereticaI Radical by the two ..oFgans.' p
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29
WHITES AND RLACKs.

From 1890 to 1880 the increase of whites
in the United States was 34.02 and of ne
groes 81 A F-om 1880 to 1910 the increase
of whites was 34.71, and of negroes 22 80.
From 1910 to 1850 whites increased 37.63,
negroes 26,G2. From 1850 to 1860 whites
increased 27.69, negroes 22.07. From 1860
to 1870 whites increased 24.7G, negroes 0. .S6.
The rate of increase of negroes is constant
ly lessened, while that of whites was only
retarded while war ragged. The next CEN
sus, if it tell the truth, will show, while
the rate of increment of white population
has remained nearly the same in each dec
ade, save that from 1860 to 1870, that negro
relative retrogression is strongly marked.
The Shreveport Times says that the number
OF blacks has not been lessened since eman-
cipation, but their relative rate of increase
has been steadily growing less. Every
farmer tells this story, and it is certainly
true that in most cities of the South the
number of colorcd people has been greatly
augmented, and the death rate among them
has been twofeld greater than among
whites, and everywhere the fact is asserted
that fewer coIored children are born and
fewer reared than IN the days of African
servitude. The New, York HeyuLrs Mr.
NordhoiT is therefore greatly at fault when
he declares that negroes in numbers out
grow whites. Never before was this asser-
tion made by anyone IN the South supposed
to be entitled to credibihty, and therefore
the value of the facts given by the Times.
But these are rather suppositions than facts
The books kept by managers of Southern
cemeteries in towns and cities, in which the
relative numbers of whites and black in
tered are aseertained, would furnish yalu-
able information on this subject. But there
is only one opinion among those who have
the best opportunities and are most inter
ested in observing accurately the course of
events, and it is needless to say that ex-
shareholders, despite the opinion of the
Shreveport Times TO the contrary, believe
the whole number of negroes in the South
has been absolutely lessened since 1865.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29


TIE production Of pig iron by the State,
on the newly-chosen site for the peniten.
tiary, near the Governors estates, will soon
cost more than it comes to. The iron bust
ness happens to be oyerdone in this coun-
try and in Europe, and, if private enter
prise cannot make it pay, Texas, when en-
barked in ii. will lose enormously. In
fact, the State will soon abandon the ex
pertinent. If the buildings were reared and
furnaces perfected, and ore enough depos-
tied in front of the furnace to employ Its
machinery for twelve months, the pig
me e.al could not be delivered at q profit
in St. Louis. These things have beer
tried, and invariably failed New York
has great State prison at Sing Sing, on
the Hudson, and within two hours of the
best market In the world. And yet tbs
manufactures of Sing Sing cost the peopI,
a million annually, and three or four othel
penitentiaries cost the people heavy SUM
annually. There may be grievous defects
incident TO present modes of distributing
conYicts over the country and employing
them on plantations, but taxpayers will find
no relief in iron furnaces or in Judge Ire
lands deaf and dumb printing Office.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

learned most by practical management OF
periteutiaTie~. we are much inclined to be-
lieve that there is much of maudlin senti-
mentalism in this hostility to the old fash
iohed stocks and whipping post, and we are
not surprised to learn that even in England
these modes of preventing crime are again
populanzed. But one fact is fixed: as so
ciety is now organized in Texas, peniten-
tiaries cannot accommodate the rapidly
multiplying criminals of high and low de-
gree, and unless the lash be used, or its
equivalent, what disposition can be made
of the knaves1
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

TIE Chicago Tribune says that zone cause,
and perhaps the most prominent cause, of
the disorder and unprosperous condition of
the South liesin the fact that the labor of
the South is performed by one-half of the
population, ana the other half lives upon
those who labor. Therefore there is no
surplus of production for profit. The idle
man eats up the surplus produced by the
laboring man. All this might be remedied
if the ex-slave oligarchy of the South ac
cepted the New England idea that every
man should work and produce a surplus
with his own hands," The Chicago Tribune
should know that the cotton, sugar, rice,
wheat, corn and tobacco crops produced by
the ten millions of the South show very
plainly that the people toll industriously.
Poverty here results from the transfer of all
this wealth to those having monopoly of
money. We sell the raw product for less
than we pay for the manufactured commod-
ity. The least half falls to our share.
The tariff, navigation and bounty acts and
expenditure of the whole five hundred mil
lions OF Federal taxes in the East begets
relative poverty in the South. No harbors
are deepened ON our coasts; no Pacific rail
ways are endowed in behalf of these
States; no credit mobiliers waste wealth in
Southern communities.lG TO perpetuate tile
process of robbing one section, that the
other may he enriched forever, the wa- debt
is to be made payable1n gold as represented
by bonds, and we are taxed not to ex-
tinguish but to pay interest on it, and thus
the relative poverty of States, recently rob
bed by war Of nine thousand millions of
property. is to be perpetuated. 1t is not
inaction or supineness that begets Southern
poverty, but system of government which
converts one class of States into provinces
for the aggrandizement of those that are
deemed States. sl5 1Hs f3ss 5.es
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29
PEEDWELL MATHEMATICAL AN
y ENGINEERING COLLEGE, .....

Upper Flores Street San Antonio. Texas.
Will oprn ON the hrrt OF :uary, lSij for the ccp
tion OF Young gentlemen.
The COURSE of instruction will be thorough-theor-
ctical aud practical-rand embrace all branches Of
mathemAtics pure and mixed with lectures npoH zen
cra SCIENCE and upoa snch subjects as MAY ten To
prepaGe the student for entering upon the profcsso
of surveying and engineering: civil, mechanical, TopO
graphical hydraulic or military.
Students will be required. when the weather may
permt to enter the Held with compass, transit level,
ctc. for practical exercise In surveying and engineer
They need bring with them for reference snch math
cmatical books a. they may have in possession.
Tuition tee in advance, per mauth $40 coin. A
small additional expenditure for sratioecry drawing
tnstrnnionis = etc. will h1 Indispensable
A limited number ~ stud nts can be accommodated
AT the college with board and lOdging moderate
terms aud board and lodging be had in the city
au expense per month not eAceedhig $40 TO so
civil Engineer; Professor OF Applied Mathematics and
Engineering. $3.50 -U -
Graduate Oneida College. New York; Professor of
N'' ~N~ THos A. DwYER
fet WY staiionori frearirr'r
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

OLD Texans, ever addicted 10 hard
money, never yet, at any time, having
abandoned its use, will cooperate, in many
instances, with that wing of the Democ-
racy which would have the currency at
once equalized in value with gold and sill
yer. While gratifying a fancy, OF making
a concession to a fixed habit, they will
make the Gadgrinds and bondholders
enormously rich, and pro tanto paralyze the
energies of people and States. t.r ,..
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

MEN like Gen Preston, who delivered
Bob Toombs sort Of speech few days ago
in Virginia, lived too long before tho war,
aud are too thoroughly imbncd with pas
sions and memories of old partissns. The
war was another Noah's Hood, aud we be,
gan, when the ark of government was at
last anchored on dry land, a new life in a
new world of Thought, of law, and of
opinion. The young of to-day see it and
acceptit; the old cannot be metamornhosed.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

THE laudation of its candidates for the
constitutional convention by the Fredericks-
burg Sentinel was wholly just. It spokes
strongly and properly of their worth, and
the STATESMAN, perhaps, in translatng the
Sentiners assertions, exaggerated their force; !;
but this was only designed to show how
strong are Messrs. King, Waelder and
Cooley in their own district. l3t Has
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

TnR newspapers that have been Bcechcr's
assailants say that his intellect Is impaired.
They ascribe his sermon, IN which be deiied
all the devils in hell TO prevent his preach
ing, to insanity. The fate Of the over
tasked Greeley awaits the once great Brook
1Yn preacher
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

GAMBETTKs refusal to fight duel, be-
cause he expected to be more usefuliy en-
ployed, injects a fresh idea into the average
Frenchman's mGrcurial intellect, and fewer
people may be "winged "in fancy fights in
the Bois de Boulogne. Bologna is the
place in which sausages are made for peo-
pie, and Boulogne the grove in which they
make sausages of people. Gambetta don't
care to be chopped M. nt3i
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

THE New York Herald, with singular
significance, speaks of the Sunday school
children of the Plymouth congregation as
''the kids of the church.p The editorial
IN which tins illustration is employed is
perhaps the finest in its rhetoric, most ter
rible in its sarcasm and eloquent in dcnun-
citation that ever graced the pages of the
Herald The Herald has never been special
ly distinguished for the cultured literary
taste of its editors as for their admirable
recklessness and sort of iRsoucidnce
that has ever made the paper attractive
among people disposed to think for
themselves and to listen to opinions
and facts affecting all sides of all
questions. 1t is proper to say that in
reference to this Beecher-Tilton embroglio,
the Herald has been the fiercest and CON
sistently the most terrible of Beechers
prosecutors. Its reporters daily comments
upon incidents of the trial were quite as eff
fective and eloquent and logical as the
speeches of the lawyers in the case, and if
Beecher, in after years, confess that an irrem-
ediable calamity has beiallen him, he will
never forget, however he may pretend to
despise the press, that the Herald struck the
blow from which, he can never wholly re-
cover rI t-es ,r',slHf rG. l. N.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

WHEN fellow says now that another has
''gone up, reference is had to Prof. Donald
son, who went away from Chicago in a
balloon last week, was seen in the Lake, but
assembled, disappeared and never has been
paper reporter,of course, but he sends down
no speeials. 500 srss afl .a sfr saIst,
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

THE New York World, in concluding a
deserycdIy laudatory editorial, says that
the history and conduct of Charles o'Conor
vinaicate our institutions by showing that
The same country which bred the plunder-
ers of the city bred champion in o'Conor
to pursue and confound the. ''Boss and bis
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

THE THO Republics, of Mexico, says that
hn English company is buildinga road from
Houston through Lockhart and FredcricI1s-
burg 10 Presidio del Norte, and thence
through Mexico to Guaymas. For this
concession is asked from Mexico by ] NJ.
Mitchell, now At the capital of the Republic
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-29

TIE Marshall Herald proposes the forma-
ton of an association in each county to buy
a home for Mr.. Jefferson Davis; the initia-
ton fee one dollar, no site for the home 10
be designated, save by Mr. Davis. Texas
has begun TO work and can't look back. To
fail would be discreditable. -sI 80