Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-04-04
The Cincinnati IsIots.

IL 10 unluestlOnaOly laCJ beyond dispute
that the bloody scenes of the past week in the
streets of Cincinnati have illustrated only
too well the truth of the old saying about
Sowing the wind and reaping the whrl-
wind" The verdict of manslaughter in the
case of young Berner, the self-confessed per.
petrator of q peculiarly atrocious murder,
was only the eliminating event in a long line
of outrages against justice. For years the
administration of the law in Cincinnati has
been VIGOROUSLY loose and uncertain. With
in the memory of tho present generation
there have been cases almost by the score
where red-handed murderers, without even q
show of extenuation for their crimes, have
gone scot free for no other reason than that
corrupt partisan politics and corrupt munich
pal government have made it possible for I'M
principled criminal lawyers to throw dust in
the eyes of justice and empty the iails by
means of their shrewd cunning and bold ef-
frontery. 1t is openly said in Cincinnati that
Berner went to prison on a light sentence,
instead of going to the gallows, because his
father had $1,000 or $4,000 to spend on his
trial. The judge who tried him Indignantly
declared that the verdict was bought with
money through the cunning and adroitness
of lawyers known for their legal talent.
Something is rotten in q city where % MUIR
derers lie at one time in Jail and the decent
community outside feels an uneasy uncertain
ty as to whether any one of them will be
brought to justice.
Jury fixing had become almost a regular
tb;no, 10, h. II
tenness at the heart of things was such that
the very laws had been modelled to help the
criminal lawyers to set their clients free.
The statute regulating the impaneling of O
jury in criminal cases makes any man who
has read the evidence taken before the coro-
ner in a murder case ineligible to sit on the
jury that tries the murderer. All that tho
shyster lawyers who make a business of clear
ing criminals have to do to clear the way for a
fixed jury" is to mail copy of the evidence
to all the names on the regular panel. This
they do; and in the Berner case the whole
panel of 1900 jurors was exhausted before
an accommodating" and ignorant jury was
picked up by the arts well known to the men
who run" the criminal courts. What is
such law but travesty on justice, and
what does it signify, when carried to its full
analysis, except that for years the intelligent
responsible men of the community have
shirked their public duties and selfshly de-
voted themselves to their individual ends of
money-getting, personal ease and pleasure,
while political and municipal management,
the election of legislatures and public Off
oIp Il A.
been left to men who make politics q trade
and elect themselves to the Offices for what
they can get out of them.
Last Friday night the Cincinnati commun-
ity began to reap its crop of whirlwind which
had sprung up from its years of wind-sow-
ing. One cannot justify the doings of that
body of few hundred respectable working
men who rushed from the indignation meet
ing to the jail determined to take the admin
istration of justice into their own hands but
neither can one condemn the animal instinct
which makes some monarch of the forest
feeling himself caught inextricably in the
snare of the hunter. strike out desperately
in blind unreasoning effort at self-defence,
even to his own surer and swifter destruc-
sNh' AhO oOO lucu VIII leu lD6 HIJdCK on
the Jail Friday night knew there was great
wrong somewhere, and they set out as blind
ly as wild beast would do to set it right by
an act of pure brutal strength. By Saturday
night passion had subsidized and reason had
reasscrted itself in the minds of these men,
but in their places came forth mob of COM
munists who cared nothing for outraged JUS
tice, but who had an appetite whetted for
any act of pillage and destruction.
The events of the past week in Cincinnati
give startling intimation of deadly poison
which Is lurking in our American system, and
which must be met and counteracted if our
institutions are to stand the test of time. At
dreadful cost of furnished honor and hu-
man life the moral atmosphere of one COM
munity has been purified. 1t is safe to say
that for years to come, from this time forth,
there will be q decent administration of the
laws in Cincinnati, but to every thoughtful
far-seeing man there is none the less in these
events warning of the dangers which lie in
our way, and suggestion of the duties
which every conscientious citizen owes it to
himself as a man, and to the body polite of
which he is an integral part, to perform.