The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-17
THE PARSONS CASE.

The Marshal Parsons prosecution has
come to an end and the defendant has been
discharged. Pending the examination The
HERALD has refrained from commenting on
the case. the matter being one for the
courts and not for the newspapers to de-
eide. When the chief justice ordered the
judicial inquiry, we thought he did right
and said SO. We think so still The &C
cusation against the marshal had reached
the ear Of Judge ZANE through a different
and more responsible channel than the
columns of a reckless and vindictive news
paper. 1t went to his honor in the form of
an official communication from the gov
ernment's attorney, in which the
latter declared that both he and the
governor, who had also investigated the
case, were convinced of the marshal's guilt.
Then the chief justice directed the institu-
ton of the proceedings which have just been
brought to close. The course was some
what irregular, but we say that under the
| peculiar circumstances the judge was justi-
fed in what he did
But what can be said of the governor and
the United States attorney What excuse
can these gentlemen offer for urging this
prosecution! What was it that had con-
WINGED them of the guilt of the marshal OF
the crimes of which he stood charged?
These officials have been given
! the opportunity to spread in court
ali they know, ali they had been
I told. No bar was raised against any
facts, and it is only reasonable
TO assume that nothing was held
back: when all that the prosecution could
fetch out through its great power and the
generous latitude permitted, the case against
the marshal was about the thinnest one
that was ever developed in a court of JUS
tice, and everybody wondered why the
prosecution had been brought: wondered
what intelligent officials found in the i'm
probable stories of women of shady repu-
tatien that satisfied their minds that the
marshal was guilty and that his guilt could
be established in a court of justice.
in the light of all the testimony, PEG
pie are astonished almost astounded.
not that the case has been dismissed but
that the proceeding was Instituted 1t is
only necessary to remark that if convic-
ton were probable or even possible on the
testimony introduced by the prosecution.
no evidence being offered by the defense,
then the character of no man would be
safe, and the prison doors could be made to
open to the purest and best men in the
community at the command of any disrep
utable creature who might take it into her
head to swear away mems regulations and
liberty.
THE HERALD doesn't think the case is
one calling for congratulations for Marshal
PARSONS. The investigation showed that he
was never in the slightest danger of being
hurt and this being true he has escaped no
peril. The case, however, calls for the
censure of those who are responsible for
inficting upon the unprotected public the
terrible filth which has been poured out
day by day in Commissioner PRATr's
court nausetaing the people and putting
to the blush every decent, sensitive woman
whose eye saw the nasty stuff which the
papers have been compelled to publish.
THE HERALD hopes there will never be in
stituted such another case. and it insists
that if there shall be another it be heard
behind closed doors, that people may be
spared the dirt and vulgarity.