The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-01-23

were more men IN Cn16 WOTlu WIN
had lost their heads and gone mao
The particulars Of this Gaze have no
all disappeared from the public
mind, and it is hoped they will mo-
be forgotten, lest on q future occa
sion some orphaned lad might forget
what was his duty to his manhood
and to society. One Dukes had long
been keeping company with Mifs
Mutt, and they were to have been
married. The match was suddenly
broken off, and Dukes wrote to the
father of the girl tie cause for
breaking the contract. He wrote
that under the promise of
marriage the girl yielded her
virtue to him, and that
for months his association with
her had been criminal. In his mind
that was right and proper, but he
claimed to have discovered that she
also showed favOrs to others, several
of whom he named. Indeed, he
made it appear that the girl, who
enjoyed an enviable Repatriation in
the community, WIS little better
than a woman of the town. This
was the stuff that Dukes wrote to
Mutt. The poor girl, crushed, scan
dslized and broken-hearted, de.
nouneed Dukes accusations, both as
regarded himself and others, as the
vilest of SANDERS, and protested her
purity and morality. Evi-
IDENTIFY Dukes feared the vans
gesnce OF the father, for he
wrote inviting Mutt to meet him at
the hotel; the father unwisely COM
piled, in the hope of shielding the
reputation of his daughter and
avoiding most unpleasant family
scandal; no sooner had he entered
Dukes room than the latter shot
him dead, claiming that he acted in
self-defense, as Mutt attempted to
kill him. No jury of right-minded
men would have convicted the out
ragged father If he had slain the base
wretch on sight. Dukes trial came
on, and strange and inexplicable as
it may seem, the fellow was acquit-
ted. It hardly seems possible that
an American jury could be impau-
nelled that would turn such a
scoundrel loose. It was evil
dent to all that the Jurors
had been purchased by the
defense. So indignant were the
people that they burned the Jurors
in efigy, and drove them from the
town. Even now, after months
have elapsed, it is unsafe for the
corrupt iurymen to visit Unions
town, the house of the Nuts. After
all this, Dukes, who had et first fled
for safety, returned to the village,
and not only insulted AID defed the
unfortunate family of his victim,
and the public, hut on more than
one occasion defiantly glared and
viciously snee.ed at young Mutt.
Under the circumstances the latter
would have been insane and idiotic,
and unworthy the respect of his
family and of the commu-
nifty, if he had not done
his best to avenge his father and
sister, and rid the world of the vile
scoundrel who hsd brought such
bereavement, sorrow and shame to
his happy home. The law is wrong
wherein it compels the defendant in
q case like this to set up the plea of
insanity in order to save
his neck from the halter;
it is wrong in forcing a jury
to violate its oath in order to do JUS
tice. Technically the young man was
guilty OF murder, and a strict en-
forcement of the statute would have
hanged him !; morally he was guilty
of no crime against the country, but
on the contrary he did a commenda-
bic and praiseworthy deed, for which
society is under obligation to hin.
We are no advocate of the doc
trine which teaches the taking OF
the law into ones own hands, but if
there were in this world more Sin.
sane" sons and brothers like young
James Mutt, there would be fewer
Dukeses, land society be better eff.
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