The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-03-01
A Reign of Terror In Texas.

Special Correspondence 81. Louis Globe Democra
AUSTIN, TEXAS, February 1.-THE great
mass of law-abiding, peaceable portion oi
the people of Texas IN parting with Gov
ernor Hubbard had banked" upon even
a moro rigid policy for the suppression of
crime being adopted under his aged sues
cessor, Governor Roberts. The citizens of
Texas, wishing for repose from the glitter
ing knife of the midnight assassin, and the
horse revolver of the dastardly murderer.
turned their eyes with new hope upon the
accession to power of the whiteoheaded old
man who so lately presided over the Su-
preme Court of the Lone Star State But
their hopes have been dashed to smither-
eens, and disappointment rules the hour.
Governor Roberts administration has
but just commenced, and yet sufficient has
been done to show its animus. In so far as
the suppression of murder and crime is
concerned, the new regime exhibits a week
ness absolutely astonishing, and one which
the enterprising go-ahead people Of Texas
cannot but despise in their hearts. The
old Governor started ont by revolling all re-
wards for murderers offered by his prede-
cessor, thus causing many aSsassins to
elude the law that would otherwise have
been arrested by its officers. When ap~
pealed to by citizens of Seguin to employ
detectives to ferret out the perpetrators of
the late dreadful Holman assassination,
His Excellency fatty refusl d. Again, two
Texas murderers and desperadoes, Dave
Melasky and Charles Read, alias David
Douglass, we're arrested the other day Oh
the North Platte, Nebraska, by an officer of
that State. One of these men, Melasky
had committed an awful murder in Austin,
Texas, and was badly wanted But when a
Texas Sheriff applied to Governor Roberts
for transportation for the murderers to
Texas-back to the scenes of their das-
tardly crimes-His Excellency stated it was
not the policy of the administration to
spend any money to bring back into Texas
fugitives from justice. The murderers
have consequently been turned loose on
habeas corpus. They, of course, laugh in
their sleeves. In fact, Judging of the new
gubernatorial administration by its acts so
far, the great cut-throats, the horse thieves,
and murderous scOundrels of Texas are
justified in believing that they ha re in
Governor Roberts found a protecting
friend, and the desperate do-ridden, law-abid-
ing classes practical and a dangerous ems
envy. Governor Roberts was the first to
suggest the abolition of the State police,
military organization, which under Gov
ernor Hubbard accomplished so much
toward checking the flood of red-handed
crime: and, as it now appears, the whole
moral weight of the new regime Is to be |
thrown in the balance in favor of the Grim
inal classes and against the peaceable, bet
ter disposed people of the State. The
effect is already seen in the increased num-
bor of murders and horrible crimes for the
asst few weeks. There are now an average
If four murders day in Texas, some of
hem of the most shocking and barbarous
description. So utterly weak is the State
government that it cannot, and does not,
ry to protect its own witnesses on the
stand. But week or two ago States
witness in an awful murder case was knock
ID down and stabbed in the streets of Pal>
,stine by a half dozen friends of the nur>
lerer. In other counties the shooting and
of States witnesses is now
.lmost of weekly circumstances.