Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-11-10
Aancaste1 sntelligenefr.
MONDAY EVENING NOV. 10. 1894,
aE,emp,ary /, OF what!

- ENemVHHTy W V"@s
E ludee Patterson, OF Lancaster ooSnty
oourt, has set an example for disposing OF
- tramp nuisance, If 1t is not interfered
4ilh By some decision OF the supreme court.
~ 8 recent term he sentenced vagrant,
Who was convicted Of being tramp, TO
term Of three years. solitary confinement
- the county prison. The tramp nuisance
r. one OF the most serious and threatening
- I'll rural districts, and residents OF the
country will hail with delight any method
81 relief, A few sentences such as Judge
PnSterson imposed will speedily rid Lam
osnter county of the puisanoe, ana the
example, Is good one to follow IN other
oommunities.-P
Our Philadelphia contemporary does
not oyer.state the facts in the case in
which it commends Judge Patterson's
conduct as so exemplary. At the Au.
eust term of quarter sessions court in
this city William Smith, Joseph Fisher,
Charles Frank, Joseph Kirchner and
Fred Miller, were tried for being tramps I;
Il was shown that they had made their
headquarters in Miller's woods, near
Lititz, and subsisted on what they
begged from the farmers. Word was
ssnt to this city, a raid was planned, and
the men were caught seated by fire In
the woods. This was the entirety OF
their crime. They were sentenced by
Judge Patterson, each, to undergo an i'm
prisonment ut separate and solitary con
finement, at hard labor, for three years.
The court said it made this sentence
severe because our farmers have been
greatly annoyed by tramps."
at the same term Of court another
tramp, convicted of committing an
assault and battery, with intent to
commit high crime on little girl,
twelve years old, was sentenced to "a fine
OF 500 costs and an imprisonment Of
three years in the Eastern penitenviary.
A local bully, who had shot at railroad
conductor, to kill, was sentenced a few
weeks later his bullet passed within a
half inch of his victims heart, instead
of through it only because Of the
rufiian's unsteady aim. He was
sentenced to twenty days in jail. An
other fellow convicted of beating his wife
his mother-in-law and sister-in.law, wa!
sentenced, for the three offenses, in the
aggregate to pay s2s fine and fifteen day:
in Jail.
1t is such exhibitions of judicial mfr
nifty and injustice that make tramp:
and breed contempt Of law and resens
ment at the administration Of justice, in
the minds of men disposed to be lawless
The character of tramp" is one o.
very recent development in our socia
order. He has come with that vaunted
prosperity of which so much has beer
neutrality-suspicious. organs and orator.
during the last three months. He il
amenable, like any other person, to tn
penal laws and when he commit!
rape, robbery or malicious trespsss, i
indictable for the particular offense
But, to please the farmers" and max
fees fer aldermen, a special statute ha
been enacted, under which almost an
yagrant can be taken from the highwa
to the county Jail. Imprisonment for
brief and reasonable time may in SON
cases be for the good of society and til
Itiltl VI llt lldtbp, bue shiSO ySoAo III -
for such offenSes as were charged an
proved upon the men sentenced by Judg
Patterson was an outrageous exhibitio
of judicial tyranny. Contrasted wit
other sentences at the same court TO
tenfold grosser crimes, it is exemplar
only in its injustice. We doubt If 1t hf
been paralleled anywhere or at any tim
in this country.
Judge Patterson once before mad
himself famous by decree that wa
without precedent from Westminstt
to California" except one made b
Y Scroggs and another by carpet-ba
court of North Carolina. His senten(
of these poor friendless trsmps bids ia
to make another illustrious example,
The supreme court" " is not likely
disturb it the jailed and penniless d.
PENDANTS have no remedy there but
there ever was occasion to demonstra'
what a board of pardons is for in Penl
sylvania it is this exemplary" case I
Judge Patterson.