The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-11-23

Inc county jail is an iron cage,
twenty feet wide, thirty feet long, eight
feet high, set In the middle of a high
ceiled room, about thirty-6ve feet
square. Taking up nearly all the spsce
of the iron cage is an iron box, divided
into ten cells, each i've feet by seven,
having iron walls, iron roofs, and iron
floors. At times in summer there have
been confined In these ten cells more
than thirty prisoners, with their slop
buckets. Men arrested on suspicion of
crime and men detained as witnesses
are kept in this cage, as well as men
and boys serving thirty-dsy sentences.
There are no separate apartments pro-
vided for women or children, and there
is no women's prison in the county.
Two men, at least, have been confned
In this cage for nearly a year past
awaiting trial. The only exercise ever
permitted the prisoners is a promenade
In the four-foot space between their cell
doors and the iron rods forming the
sides of the cage, excepting that once a
day they empty their Stops In the Jail
yard. After a months confinement in
the cage a prisoner Is pale, weak, and
thin. Lawyers have obtained the dis
charge of prisoners from the Gags on
account of broken health.
Cheyenne has no p~oor-house. A nom
resident pauper applying for assistance
Is put on a railroad train and sent to
some town in Colorado or Nebraska.
A lawyers estim Lte of the statutes
which represent the code of laws of
Wyoming is that not a few of them, by
reason of obscure and contradictory
language and carelessly worded amend
ments, are meaningless; others, having
been adopted In bulk from the laws of
Dakota by the first legislative assembly
of Wyoming, have 40 application in
Wyoming; Others seem to have been
formed to serve as loopholes for permit
ting the escape Of the transgressors of
moral law; Others are acts plainly in
conflict with the laws of the United
States, and intended to protect capital
lists and corporations as against poor
settlers. One statute provides for the
licensing of gambling houses; another
requires a sheriff, or in certain cases a
constable, to select at will a number of
citizens to act as jurors, enabling the
officer to put on a jury such men as will
decide a case as he wishes, or men who,
having common interests, wish to en-
ploy the law to further their private
ends. Another makes the person who
engages a contractor to build a house
liable for the payment of debts incurred
by the contractor in building it, either
for material or labor. Another pro.
vldes for the punishment of any one
who cuts a wire fence, and under it a
homesteader has within the last year
been successfully prosecuted for cutting
his way from his home to Cheyenne
through a fence erected on the public
lands by a company which had no more
right to fence in the land than to a
monopoly of the air.
The customs and laws governing a
political canvass and election in Wyo.
ming are calculated in almost every re-
spect to invite fraud and defeat the will
of the people. The primary elections
never, as has been mentioned, at
tended by omen flrcical. Prior
to the election of the delegate to con-
gress and of members of the legislature
and county officers in 1892 one party
held primary elections in the three
wards Of Cheyenne on the same even
ing. At two of the ward meetings not
n in thirty of the voters of the party
were present, the men stood about
smoking, without removing their hats
or ~overcoats; no nominations were
made, but tickets bearing the names Of
men secretly chosen by opposing cliques
in caucus were distributed. No dis
cussion of principles, party tactics, or
probable candidates took place. The
ballots for delegates were tossed into a
hat, two, three, and four men voting
at the same time. Repeating might
have been done easily, voting several
tickets at once was possible, and no one
was stopped from voting because of
non-residence in the ward or non-mem-
bership in the party. The meetings
were adjourned in less than half an
hour after the opening. The third ward
meeting was for several hours the scene
of unseemly wrangles and unchecked
fraudulent voting and ballot-box stuff
nng. A primary election of the oppos-
ing party was held at the city hall. 1t
was attended by less than one-twentieth
of the voters of the party in the city.
A committee of twelve was appointed
to select delegates to the territorial
convention. The committeeman Sc
lected them selves.
At the general election in Cheyenne
on November Z, 1882, 2 300 votes were
deposited at two policing places-900 at
tile FIRST precinct polls and 800 at the
second. There had been no reRistra-
ton OF voters. A voter WAS simply re-
quired to call out his or her name as
the poll clerk took the ballot offered,
and the name was then for the first
time written in a book of registry.
Repeating was therefore done merely
on a change of name. Emigrants pass
ing through the city voted. Foreign
ers we're not asked for their naturaliza-
ton papers. A party of thirty-odd