The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-07

were so remarkably unfortunate as to
be convicted, owing to the zeal of a
young lawyer bent on making his name
and fortune and winning the District
Attorneyship.
Ask John Stevens, of Newark, " the
mysterious money bag, who mysteri-
ously appeared in court recently under
his mysterious de plume. Under
an assumed name, he pleads guilty to
the crime of an assault on a little girl
of twelve years of age, He was fined
$1,000, which he paid with joy. In
stead of a cell in Sing Sing, he now
dwells in the bosom of his family, in
his elegant home in this city, while the
INITIATED public stare at that mysteri-
GUS court record, so m~ysteriously made,
and wonder who "JOhn Stevens, of
| Newark" is anyhow.
Ask ex-Sherif James Flack, that
arch-conspirator and criminal, and
brilliant Tammany lighU. Even this
consummate scoundrel has obtained "a
stay of proceedings" and justice halts
upon her wrong way. 1t is always a
wrong way for justice, when she en-
counters a Tammany brave.
Ask James Parker, the notorious ex-
Alderman re-arrested the other day on
a charge of violating the internal rev.
enue laws. In the fall of 1889, this
ruffian was the keeper of a rum hole in
Twenty-fourth street, and member of
the Tammany Executive Committee.
He committed a brutal and desperate
assault on a little man by the name of
Heman, who had the misfortune of be-
longing to a different faction. The
poor fellow was horribly mangled, and
lay in the hospital for six months. He
was disabled for life. Largely through
the exertiOns of a newspaper, this
brute, who had tried to kick his help
less victim to death after he lay manned
and bleeding at his feet, was brought
to trial May 10Th, 1890. He was guilty
of a crime for which the penalty is not
less than five years or more than ten
years imprisonment: But he was con-
victed of assault In the third, the low
est possible degree. For this he could
have been sent to prison for one year.
The judge graciously put it down at
four months. He, of course, took an
appeal, got "a stay of proceedings"
and the proceedings still stay! At
this day, A. D., 1891, he is basking in
the freedom of metropolitan life, while
his victim hobbies around making the
best of what little life was spared him.
Such is the everyday story of the
execution of criminal law in New York.
Not only do wealthy criminals escape,
and men who belong to influential or
CARNATIONS snap their fingers at courts,
judges and juries, but worse still with
us, the criminals themselves claim
their share of the public Offices and are
capturing the judicial functions of the
State. You have in the Mayors Office
of this metropolis a man who naively
confessed before a legislative commit
tee the crime of having appropriated
thousands of dollars in illegal fees, in
violation of the laws of the Sovereign
State he has worn as an officer to up
hold and serve.
This man elevates to the position of
judge a man who for years has been a
notorious violator of the laws of the
State, and those particular laws upon
which he as judge is called upon most
frequently to act.
What would be condition today,
but for the vigilance of the metropoli-
tan newspapers, God only knows. The
eagle eye of the press is about the only
power nowadays that the criminal,
with money or influential friends, really
fears, unless he is so ignorant or clumsy
that he chooses some low method of
crime such as burglary or shoplifting.
1t was a newspaper that presented
the Doodle Aldermen for bribery. A
newspaper unearthed the Flack scandal
and the corruption of the Sheriff's
Office. A newspaper exposed the in
fanny of "John Stevens of Newark, -"
and gave the villain the only punish
ment he has received. A newspaper
was the chief prosecutor Of Barker, the
brute we have just described.
But alas this organized criminal ele-
ment in New York has found at least
one valiant champion among the
newspapers. The influence of this
newspaper, and papers of similar cast
in other cities, are among the most
dangerous and utterly devilish forces
in modern civilization. In an editorial,
March oath, the New York Sun, in the