Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1875-12-18
The Richland Jail and BastrOp
Republican.

m"hI ~ lew IdtfS, Tfid''' W.
escape of prisoners from our paris"
iail, into an "unmanlv Hn9 at the
Judge of this district except upon
the hypothesis that It's gronhdIesS As
scrti,n is the offspring of an 'Imma-
,ure Judgment" or a mind OF strong
imaginarion-or perhaps, it may toe
one of the symptoms of a chropic
inclination to misrep:c>cnt conirrrc
for nothing was farther from our
intention than TO make any kind OF
fling" at the Judge of this district
!to use the classic language of the
Hcpubican) We only stated, in
connection Of other facts, that Sheriff
Moore requested the Judge to order the
removal Of the prisoners 10 other jails,
and that be refused, without comment
pro or con, neither saving whether
we thought the refusal was right or
wrong. just or unjust, wise or unwise
The sequel, however, showed that
compliance with the request would
very probably have been the safest
The editor Of the Republican seems
to have only read on" sentence of our
article, or he certainly would not have
ignored the fact that we attributed
the escape to the very causes which
he saws we should have attributed it,
and tried TO make the impression on
the minds of its readers that we AT
tempted to lav the whole blame on
the Judge of this district. when we
plainly stated that the Jail was in
secure and a disgrace 10 the parish !;
that the police jury Should make it
secure or make arrangements with
some other parish to X 'ep its prisoners
and that the situa'ion of the Jail
probably rendered it impossible Ia
make It secure while such strong ont
side sympathy for prisoners existed in
the country. We also gave as thc
reason why our sheriff did not detect
the saving of the Images that he was
absent officially. Bat all these state
ments were ignored by the Republ
: can, which appears to have been in
r nucnced solely by the desire to mis-
, represent us and create the impression
: that We were engaged in an effort It
bIackcn the characters Of the iudg,
/. and attorney of our district. as i:
/; clearly shown by the facility will
J.. which it seized upon one single
!. sentence of our article as a text for ;
Y lengthy attack upon us, ignoring th'
/ rest o! the article aud implying tina
i we gave no other reason for th,
escape of the prisoners than that o
: the refusal OF the Judge to compI,
: with the request of orr sheriff
u We presumed Judge Ray had hi:
: reasons for refusing to issue the order
~ but we were not Informed of wha
? they were and as TO the right @
Rlchland "to inflict on some othe
parish the custody of its criminals,
no one has ever claimed such a rigi,
l. for it, but it has long been a custom
d in all States, here there was rea
sonable superstition that importan
l. prisoners could not he held in SAT
Is Gus, ody, by the county or parish il
e which they were prosecuted, to re
q move such prisoners to some neighboT
N ing prison for safe keeping, at tn
e expense of the parish or county from
E. which they were removed.
e We have always commended tn
Is acts of both our judicial distric
ID officials when we have considers
3 such acts worthy Of commentator
and have never censured only wher
Ie we thought censure was deserving an
10 when we regarded it a duty to bC
Oi stow it, which right we reserve as
IL journalist, regardless Of the opinion
e. of the Republican or any other paper
'e as the right Of all journals that ar
~ not time-servers. sycOphants or para
e sites, TO criticise the acts Of a
III officials, regardless of locality, part
VI atiiilation or position.
" The InteIligencer exhibits a sligt
IS inclination to assist the Republica
nc in the PRONUNCIATION of this misrepr'
10 scntation, by copying its misstatemer
70 of what we said and appending there
al to its opinion that Judge Ray di
a right, aud the statement that it wa
-. about all the sheriff of Ouachta coul
:, do to keep his own prisoners. Pc
o. haps the lntelligencer overlooked OF
IT. article. If not it did us an injustiC
ic- by copying from the Republican {
IN our language that which we new,
:. used, and which required a consi'
cradle stretch of imagination to s
~ cOnstrue it.
---''s'
es WILD CAT-On Saturday last VI
IS J. Marx. brought to this Office, I'll