Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-01-29

tramps in jail. During days that are past
they frequently jeered men, women And
children from window at the east end Of
the corridor that traverses the jail from east
to west, until their insolence became a SUBJ
iect for general remark. Wishing to keep
in the grace of the Sheriff, they cast their
insults when ne was absent; but with all
that precaution, he was informed of their
iusolcnce, and concluded TO restrict their
view of the street by requiring them, last
Friday, TO confinement in the northeast
room of the Jail. The confinement consist
ed only m removing them from place from
which they could abuse the people who pass
by, to the secluded room jus. mentioned /;
but such mild reproof of course could have
no other influence upon such good-ior-
nothing people than to stir their resent
ment, which was speedily turned upon
those connected with the Sheritf7s household.
1t was bake-day; the Jail oven Stands in
the jail-yard, in full view Of the only win
dow in the room that the fourteen trsmps
were confined in. The tramps turned their
attention, and resentment in full on the
women who were attending the oven, and
their remarks were SO obscene that the wo-
men were prevented from discharging the
duty of the baking. OF course the Sheriff
was informed of the new direction in which
the insolcnce and resentment of his tramp
prisoners were turned. He demonstrated
with them, and relieved the women from 4
further attendance upon the oven, and sub
stituted a couple of men prisoners from
this county. No sooner had the men begun
to visit the oven, than the tramps set up
derisive shout, took out the window sash,
aud pelted them with stove coal, and threw
water out at them. The appeals Of the
Sheriff to them to keep quiet, now seemed
only 10 make them worse. He refused to
give them supper, unless they would be-
have. Instead of subsIding TO decent con-
duct, they threatened To tear down the Jail,
burn if down, anu gradually but steadily
worked themselves 10 a shocking state OF
depaved excitement, and by nighfsll, the
din IN that neighbOrhoOd was startling.
When on their last visit 10 the yard, they
carried up a number of sticks of wood, Sc
creted in their clothing, which they now
used 10 pound on the floor, the wall, the
door, and the windowg grating. Their tin
dishes were brought into play, and such
noise as they Kept mp was never heard be-
fore in that neighborh0od, unless il was long
ago, IN the days of an Indian var dance,
and then the poise could only have been
heard by the dusky sons of the forest.
Substantial as the old Jail is, the work OF
the Irishmen in the northeast corner room
kept il in a tremor, which the surrounding
ground seemed TO partake of. They cursed,
shouted fire, and shricked at the top OF
their voices, until il seemed as If Satan
himself was holding high carnival there
Of course sach fiendish performance must
needs soon collect crowd of people, and
citizens, rpon whose mind the belief was
Impressed that the tramps would break cut
sometime during the night, became alarmed.
All kinds of suggestions were made as to
what should be done.
The aperatus of cuffs and rings was
too limited for the claiming Of such a
gang. The crowd could rot be divided, as
the cells were all occupied. There was no
authority TO take them from the Jail. Some
people wanted to take them out ard hang
them, and rid society of their presence,
and the cost Of keeping them. Some wan;-
ed 70 get up on the jail-yard wall and dis
charge 4 few loads of buckshot among them
through the window. Some wanted to take
them out anil tie them up and whip them a
they do In Delaware Some wanted TO get
clubs and go IN among them and club them
10 submit to decent conduct. but there
was no LegislatiIe authority for the admin
istrarion CT such punishment, and it was not
administered. The community did not as
sert its natural rights The Sheriff was
cool and humane in his conduct, and organ
lied an armed guard OF twenty men, and
placed them around the jail, and in the cor
riders, with orders that if the outlaws
should get out of their room they should
not be allowed to escape Some time dur
iBg the night the room door was vigorously
assailed. The guard at the post told the
tramps to get away from the inside of it, as
he intended to ire through. He fired, and
the bullet sped through the door, through
the window, acoss the jail-yarj, through
the upstairs hall of the house occupied by
James Deem, ex-clerk TO the Commission
ers, and thence through the hall and out OF
the window at the north end of the hall
making clean little hole in the first win
dow, and breaking two lights in the latter
window. The shot through the door some
wha; inlimidatel the outlaws, and gradually
their riotous demonstrations subsidized.
During the night they did their best tc
cut the heavy plank partition of the room
They heated a stove poker, and tried to burr
the plank in two; but they failed in thei
object. On one or two occasions the fame
that blazed up when the poker came in con
tack with the plank led numbers to believ,
that they bad fired the woodwork OF the
room. But that they would not do, fol
they wonld have been burned up in thei
own wicked work
At3 O'Clock on Saturday morning all va
quiet; but the guard kept its post in anC
around the jail till daylight. 1t was goo'
for the tramps and the community that thu
outlaws did not get out of Jail, for the peo
pile would not have tolerated the aggressive
worl, of the tramp Almost every gun anC
pistol In towa was carefully loaded tina
night, and throughout Saturday it VAS nj
uncommon sound to hear weapons dis
charged, in back yards.
PUBLIC SALES.
FEB Il.-winfeld S. Switzer Will sell a
public sale, at: his place of residence, 2
miles west of Patterson, at 10 O'Clock A. y
on Tuesday, February. IL, 1879, large lo