The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-19
a TERRIBLE JUDGE.
He Has Sentenced 162 Murderers to
be Hanged.

a TERRIBLE JUDGE.
He Has Sentenced 162 Murderers to
be Hanged.
From the Chicago Tribune
FORT SMITH, ARK. March 9.-Fort Smith
is considerably agitated over the effort that
IS being made in congress to remove the
United States District Court at this place
into the Indian territory. Several meetings
have been held, resulting in nearly every
business man and the entire legal fraternity
of the city signing a remonstrance against
the proposed removal. This will be sent to
Washington, together with personal letters
to Congressman, urging the retention of the
court of Fort Smith. The remonstrance is
prompted by purely mercenary motives, for
the removal Of the court means a big finan-
cial loss to the business interests of the CITY,
it having been the principal source of reve-
nue. Tor many years. Every year upward
of S5OO,O is paid out in the salaries to
court officers and fees to jurors and wit
nesses, and an almost equal amount is dis
tributed among the lawyers by criminals
who are brought before the court for trial.
This money, or most of it. is spent in Fort
Smith, and this is why the people of the
town so seriously object to the court being
moved away
The court itself is one of the most noted
10 the world, chiefly because of the large
number of criminal cases that stain its dock
cts. Not less than 1900 criminals are
brought before it for trial every year and
an average of fifty of them are charged
with murder. Judge Parker, who has pre-
sided over the court for fifteen years has
during that time, disposed of SAT murder
cases. He has pronounced the death SEN
teuce on 100 convicted murder
ers, II of whom were hanged
just outside his court room, the others be.
iug pardoned by the President or receiving
Communication of sentence. There promises
to be an unusually large number of hang.
ings this year. There has already been one
and there are to be six hanged in a bunch
April 10, sentence having been pronounced
few weeks ago at the close of the last
term. There are now in the federal prison
forty-seven prisoners awaiting trial for
murder, and deputies are on their way here
with fifteen or twenty more.
The court has almost exclusive jurisdic-
ton over the Indian territory, and is the
only terror that the desperadoes of that
crime infested country know. Take it
away and crime would run rampant. As it
is, forty mounted deputy marshals are kept
busy the year round making arrests, and
the court grindS without cessation from one
years end to the other. The docket is
never cleared. One term runs into the
next, and sessions are often held
until midnight There are no va
cations Most of the trails are for criminal
offences, ranging all the way from sellin q
liquor to murder, and the punishment is
severe, For merely taking a bottle of
whisky into the territory men are sent to
prison for three months. A horse thief gen.
orally gets ten years in the penitentiary,
aud hanging is almost Invariably the yer :
dict in the case of a convicted murderer
Rape is punished by death. Judge Parker,
IL
and not at all the stern maglstrl te one
might expect. says that severe punishment
is absolutely neceSSary&[ in order to
hold the criminals of the Indain
country in check, and as so many escape
through lack of evidence, he almost inva-
riablv, in case of conviction, pronounces
the extreme sentence allowed by law. At
the time he was assigned to the court muir
ders in the territory averaged nearly one a
day, and in order to check them he began
his first term by pronouncing the death
sentence on every convicted murderer that
came before him. At the close of the year
he had sentenced fifteen men to be hanged
and had sent about POO to the penitentiary
many of them for life. The desperadoes
became terror-stTicken, and some of them,
rather than come before him for trial, killed
themselves.
The room in which Judge Parker holds
his court is located in the barracks of old
| Fort Smith, which was abandoned as a mil
itary post in 1878. The fort had quite his
! tory. 1t was established in 1920, and was
the scene of numerous thrilling engage
ments with Indians At the beginning of
the late war the Federal troops were driven
out by the confederates but the fort was re-
captured in 1862 and was held until finally
evacuated by the government 10 years
ago The barracks, or court house as il is
now called, is surrounded by a high
| stone wall, now in a state of decay, but
the battered portfolios tell the story Of
many hard-fought battles. The western
the Indian territory and one can stand
upon it and throw a stone into the nation Of
either the Chactaw or Cherokee tribe. Ad-
joining the court house is the federal prison,
a massive structure Of brick and iron that is
at all times crowded to OVERT wing with
criminals 1t now contains 1S6 prisoners,
some of whom are among the
most noted desperadoes of the
Indian country. Most Of them
are whites, the average being seven whites
and two negroes 70 one Indian. This is
partly accounted for by the fact that an
Indian who commits a crime against an
other Indian is tried before a court in his
own country, the United States court here
only having jurisdiction over Indians who
commit crimes against white men or ne
groes. Judge Parker says, however, that
the Indians are generally pretty good citi-
zens. AID crime in Indian territory won
be comparatively unknown if the white
renegades were driven out.
BEEcHAM's Pulls cure bilious and ner-
vous ills.
trrx,.sOt my Tho Doctor Pogare deri,o .ts