Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-17
THE JANUARY CASE.

It is much talked about the streets that
the chances of young January for escaping
punishment are good. This is the way it
is reasoned, and legal opinions are quoted
as supporting the theory: The man stole
from sacks in which were commingled the
moneys of the Treasures of nine counties
Now, he did not take all the money Of any
one at any one time, so far as can be proved.
How then can he be indicted for taking the
specific money of any certain owner? This
same class Of people who are always busy
in seeking legal loopholes, hold that if the
young man is indicted for stealing the
sum belonging to any one county, he will
escape, as he CONSIDERABLY left sum of the
special deposits untouched, and that sum
win always be presented in answer to
any Indictment for specific money al
legged to have been stolen. But these
forget that when the Treasurers call
for their special deposits, there will be on
hand but enough to satisfy the claim of
one or two, and the deputy can certainly
be indicted for stealing the money not
forthcoming. But if it were all on hand
tomorrow, what difference would ii make?
The theft has been committed As the
San Francisco Report asks: Larry Conlon
was sent from San Francisco to the Folsom
Prison last week for twelve years for steal
ing Sc; January oonresses to a steal of
$4,000, will he be sent to prison at all ?"
One class Of technicaiists claim for Janu-
airy that he cannot be held as his act was
but breach of trust. Yet it will occur
to the layman that the deposits were not
made with young January, but with his
father. If ROW the act of the former can
be made out, by reason Of agency, to be
the act Of the latter, there may be some
crook or turn or twist in the law by which
what we now call theft viii be elevated to
the dignity of breach Of trust, and all
the fool newspapcr-men who have called a
spade a spade be inflicted for libel, and
possibly he made to occupy the cell the
youth vacates. Still another and more
dangerous class o. reasonerS, and who are
to be feared since the Courts give such
pleas 50 much countenancc, hold that Jan
uary is non compos ,nentis, because no sane
man known to be working for a small
salary would have been such a fool
as to scatter thousands loosely about among
gamblers and on race-course5, where the
world could see his folly and be spurred
up to inquire into the source Of his sud
den wealth. Really all the previous pleas
are absurd, and il Is unthinkable that the
law viii be made laughing stock by the
escape Of a criminal through any such
knot-holes. But the plea of mania Is so
far reaching, 50 generous, so embracing in
its charity, so protecting in its character,
and so full of doubts and fears, that when
an offender sets it up it is rash to lay
wagers that he will not succeed. We
would not add grains weight to the sor-
row Of the friends this man has disgraced,
nor syllable TO augment the woes of his
afflicted, but no sentimentaiity can be in
dulged in to shield such a wrong-doer
from the result Of his acts. To set Janu-
AIRY free on any transparent plea to write
him down innocent of crime in the face of
his own confession, and send him out
washed white by law, will be to make
farce of justice, to mock all civil regula-
tions, and to embitter a people still more
against the law, who have too often had
their confidence shaken in our system of
administering it.