The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-01-17
THE KANGAROO COURT.
A Peculiar Institution Among tho
Cowboys and in the Jails of Texas.

THE KANGAROO COURT.
A Peculiar Institution Among tho
Cowboys and in the Jails of Texas.
The kangaroo court is an institution
of the southwest 1t exists in nearly
every well-regulated Jail, and, says a
letter from Gonzales TO The Neto York
Sun, is not unfreGuently organized out
side of these institutions. When it
once gets victim in its clutches it is
generally barbarous and always merci-
less. When ten or twenty desperadoes,
cowboys, bummers, negroes, and hard
men are cooped up in one of these Tex
as jails, with nothing to do, they resort
: to the kangaroo court for diversion. A
meeting is held, at which the law is
laid down and the penalties prescribed
for its violation. Some of the rules
and regulations prepared by the in
mates of Texas jails for their own gov
ernment are sweeping and far-reaching
enough to answer for an entire terrific
ry. For every conceivable offense pos
sible of commission within the walls of
a prison, there is a penalty, and never
a very light one. The standard of NOR.
ality is sometimes distressingly high,
and sometimes it is dubious indeed.
Not long ago party of cowboys
came to town for the purpose of having
little fun, and in the course of their
rambles they came upon fellow from
Houston, a tough character, but one
not at all familiar with the ways of the
wild men of the plains. He drank and
caroused with them until late at night,
and, finally, on the instigation of a few
of his companions, he threw beer-keg
through store-front The echo of the
crashing glass had hardly died out be-
fore he found himself prisoner, with
his arms pinioned behind him and an
armed guard surrounding him. He
was marched out of town for some
miles to a desolate spot, where the en-
tire party camped until daybreak.
The light showed the prisoner that
most of his friends of the previous
night were with him still, but there
were half dozen other men, who ap-
peared to be officers of some descrip-
ton, whom he had not seen before.
He was duly arraigned, not only for
the window-breaking, but for dozen
other offenses, murder and arson being
among the number, and, notwithstand-
ing his protests of innocence, the court
proceeded to try him on each of the in
dictments in their order. For the win
dow-breaking he was sentenced to
twenty lashes, for arson to ten years
Imprisonment, for murder to be hanged
by the neck until he was dead, for as
sault with intent to kill to be impris-
oned at hard labor for twenty years,
for horse-stealing to be hanged, for de-
serting from the army to be shot, and
SO on. The proceedings were conduct
ed with the utmost solemnity, and last
ed all day, the prisoners pretended
friends exerting themselves in his be-
half, but being unable to move the
court to mercy.
The next morning the kangaroo
Judge announced the order of exercises.
As the prisoner was an uncommonly
guilty person, he said, he would have
to even up his nn9ishment in some way,
would escape the just penalties for his
other crimes. Imprisonment would not
answer, for the length of his sentences
would give him good opportunity to
die of old age. 1t was tne judgment of
this court, therefore, that he should
first be Whipped, then ducked in the
river, then whipped again, then shot at
and crippled, but not killed, and then
hanged. This the court considered the
most merciful sentence it could impose
and at the same time do justice to out
ragged law. The man first remonstra-
ted, and then begged, but to no avail.
He was whipped and ducked, and
whipped again, and was being put in
place for the crippling act, when his
prosecutors got into quarrel among
themselves over the precedence in
winging him. The court had been
drinking freely during the day, and a
good many of the boys were quarrel
some. In the course of the light that
ensued the prisoner managed to es-
cape.
In the Mobeetie Jail the prisoners,
twelve or fifteen in number, had dur
ing the day the privilege of walking OF
sitting in the corridor. being locked in
their cells only at night. A big negro
named Caffrey was one day arraigned
for some breach of propriety, and tried
with great formality. The arguments
alone lasted nearly a week, and after
he was found guilty by the jury, who
played seven-up to settle the case, it
was shown by the prisoners counsel
that the jurymen had played with q
short deck of cards, and the court
thereupon gave him new trial. This
was more prntracted than the first, but
it finally resulted in conviction and q
sentence to life Imprisonment. Caffrey
was thereupon escorted to his cell and
the door was closed. Once or twice
when the turkeys unlocked the boys
in the morning the negro walked out
with the others, but they Immediately
ordered him back, unmindful of his
entreaties. After he had been kept in
solitary confinement for fortnight the
Jail officials had to interfere in his be-
half, and the court, with due solemnl-
ty, held session with the culprit pres
ent, reopened his case, and formally
granted him an unconditional pardon.