The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-30
TWO KINDS OF JAIL BREAKERS

Grattan Dalton, highwayman and muir
derer; John Beck, hoTse-thief, and w. B.
Smith, burglar, escaped on Monday evening
from the county Jail at Yisalia and made
their way to parts unknown. Heavy re-
wards have been "ffered for their recapture,
and it is 10 be hoped that the gangs of anna
teur detectives who are securing the southern
country on supposed trails will succeed in
laying hands on them. They deserve the
! doom they were about to meet, and if, in
resisting capture. they should forfeit their
lives, society would not go into mourning.
And yet they are only one variety of a
class which is large. What are Buckley and
his gang, and the persons who are trying TO
defeat the object of the Grand Jury, but
constructive jail breakers? They do not
operate with jmmies, or crOwbars, or mas
ter keys, or steel saws. The tools which
they employ are money aud smart legal
lodges, which are handled for them by ex-
pert attorneys and Judges. Dalton crawled
through a hole in his cell door; the boodIers
are trying to crawl through n hole in the
law. Dalton had confederate who Crept
through basement WINDOW; the boodlerS
have a small army OF eonfederateS who are
creeping through chnks and erannies to
effect a general jail delivery Of their accom-
plices. Here the parallel ceases. Dalton is
in hiding, and if he is caught it will go hard
with him. The city jail breakers cherish
too profound a scOrn for the law to hide.
Why should any man, on technically,
refuse to go before the Grand Jury and tell
the truth of what lie knows? An honest
man, who is innocent of crime. has nothing
TO fear from Grand Jury Investigations. 1t
is one of tue first duties Of citizen TO as
sist the departments Of justice in finding
out the truth there is no reason why any
one should eyade that duty, unless he thinks
he would criminate himself. Suppose all
that ChHte's attorney claims was conceded;
that Judge Wallace erred in appointing All
elisor, and that the Grand Jury's organlza-
ton is defective; is that any reason why an
honest citizen should refuse to furnish the
jury with such information as he possesses
to enable it to discharge its duty? a knave,
WHO knows that if the facts are unearthed
he will run some risk of States prison, will
naturally try to keep the facts from trans
piring, and to throw all possible obstacles
in the way Of the jury. Thus. plain people
naturally infer that the reca!citrant wit
nesses must be knayes, and that those who
aid and abet them must belong to the same
class. Ii they we're not they would not
waste time in raising rettifoggipg objections
| to the jury, but would go before it in a
manly way and tell what they know.
The exultation which prevails in certain
| quarters at the new City Han over the ex-
| pressions let fall by Judge Murphy on Sat-
urday may prove premature. That Judge
| has not yet said his last word. 1t is possible
| that at the last moment he may side with
| the public against the booders. But if he
! does not the battle is not lost. There are
ways of bringing knayes TO justice which
which have not yet been tried. When a
whole community is reused. as this commu-
nifty now is, legal articles never avail to
screen the guilty. Tweed thought he had
entrenched himself beyond the possibility
| of successful assault from the people he
was pIundering. He had the ablest lawyer
in New York in his pay-David Dudley
| Field He owned two Judges-Barnard and
| CardoZO-who were ready TO issue any Or
| ders or sign any writs OF injunction and
prohibition which he desired. He controlled
| the machinery by which juries were packed.
lie had command Of unlimited funds. And
yet day came when he and all his coufed-
crates were driven into exile; his lawyer
was nearly thrown over the bar, and his two
Judges were impeached and expelled from
the bench. What has happened once may
happen again. The people OF San Fran
cisco are as much in earnest as the people Of
| New York were in Tweed's time, and they
| will brush out of their path any one who
stands in their way. There is no one strong
enough ~ stand up against the people when
| they are embarked in crusade against
bribery and corruption.