Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-12-20
SHAME!

The Kansas City Sunday Times pub
fishes an article from its Topeka cores
pondent which does gross injustice to
Judge Pratt, of this Judicial district, is
a SANDER on the better class of people in
Ellis county, and violation of the laws
of nature on general principles. 1t is
probable that the Times correspondent
has been misinformed. He probably
would not have dared to make such
lot of misstatemehts knowingly. The
paper certainly cannot afford to make
business of giving publicity and sanction
TO sueh perVersions of the truth. But to
the point: That Topeka correspondent
saps, at length, in substance, that the
press and prominent citizens of Ellis
county assert that Gentleman had sold
no whisky since last spring; that he
was prosecuted because he was opposed
to the ring, while no saloon men were
prosecuted, that Goubleman was conVic-
ted on seven counts, and sentenced by
Judge Pratt to an Imprisonment of sixty
DAYS on the first, second and third counts
making elk tt4onths in the county Jail,
and 5000 on each count, or 81 400 in all
together with the costs; that the six
months imprisonment pays out on three
counts or six hundred dollars; that the
fourteen hundred dollars sentence is Sc
we're and the prosecution partisan; that
- L,
had the temerity to oppose the ring;
that other saloon keepers were let off
with slight fine, and that the jury was
packed.
Now to the facts; The press, with
the sole exception of the Hays Advance,
The special champion of the law-defying
whisky eleHaent in Ellis county, did not
say that Goubleman had sold no whis-
ky since last spring. There would
have been no sense in such lying. The
evidence in court showed that he had
kept his saloon open up to few days
before court convened, and he then
closed it in order to avoid arrest and
arrangement for the crime. AS for
what prominent citizens may have said
in this direction, it is quite lmmaterial.
The Times is gravely informed that
Goubleman was prosecuted because he
did not belong to the political ring.
What is liable to be taken as irrefutable
proof of this proposition is the accom-
panying statement that no men who
belonged to the ring were prosecuted.
But this proof is groundless. An earn
est effort was made to bring to trial
every saloon keeper in the county.
Spaulding, Lewis and Corlan, of Ellis,
were prosecuted successfully, and fined
one hundred dollars each. They, as
we understand it, belonged to the
''ring." That is, they supported the
regularly-nominated county ticket last
fall.
Gentleman was convicted on ten, In
stead of seven counts. His fine Is in
liquidation of the other. seven counts, or
two hundred dollars per count. The in
formers of the Times correspondent, il
not the correspondent himself, knew
that GOublemSn was convicted at the
spring term of the Ellis county district
court for selling whisky, and that
Judge Pratt then gave him the mini
mum line of one hundred dollars.
Those infcrmers knew that, such being
the case, the judge had the right to fine
him as high as i've hundred dollars on
each count, but that the records of his
own court, in the light of the law.
barred hin. from making a lower fine
than two hundred dollars on each
count. Let it be further known that
Judge Pratt never has imposed in any
liquor case a fine beyond the mini
mum. The foul examinations of enc
mics at law and order are pulling
down upon very many whisky affiict-
ed communities in Kansas the hands
Justice. Aros1se Kansans to the un-
Outstanding that there is contest be-
tween law and anarchy, and no sane
man can doubt the result. This CON
test Is now in violent operation in
Kansas. We have shown that
,sioubleman's sentence was not Sc
.sss