Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-05-09
DISPLAYING Any ARMS

DISPLAYING ANY ARMS
and il was soon learned that quite
sprinkling of the Thursday mob, in
Guiding one of their leaders, were in
the crowd. and that they had come in
to surrender and make the best terms
they could At 1890 the sheriff placed
a picked posse of six men. composed
of NJ. ID. McGrath, Charles Heuck, Jr.,
| ID. ID. Ewing, james MiaZza, w. II.
Seavey and w. X. Wood, armed with
| Winchesters and revolvers, on duty in
! the courtroom just to the right of the
| Judges bench. and then the outside
| sentinels were ordered to admit tho
crowd, and the courtroom began to
rapidly fill
For some time Judge Chrisman, with
that easy grace for which he is noted,
and a composure that was superb,
stood near the entrance to the court
room and assisted the sheriff in di-
recting the crowd to seats. Some of
the men who last Thursday were
| thirsting for his blood entered with
| the crowd, and were the recipients of
this courtesy. When all available sit
ting and standing room had been filed,
Judge Chrisman called the audience to
order, and stated that Gov. Stone was
here in the interest of law and order,
and that before the court proceeded TO
regular business he would be intro
duced by Rev. \. A. LomaX and deliver
an address.
For lack of space The LEADER must
omit synopsis of Gov. Stones point
ed speech and Mr.. Lomax's eloquent
tribute to 1.-The iron Governor" and
pass on to the trial of the men whose
! ,,1 ID hnI ,NrNl,,nnI
all the trouble and excitement of the
preceding four days.
When Gov Stone had concluded,
JUDGE CHRISTIAN
assembled the bench and called the
White Cap cases. The defense was
represented by Hons. A. c. McNair, of
Brookhaven, Theo. Mcknight, of Sum
nit. and Edgar Ii. Ratcliff, of Liberty
District Attorney Hudson was assisted
in the prosecution by Judge Hiram
Cassidy, Hons. r. III. Thompson, q. f.
Brennan and Chas. Chrisman. The de-
| Tense first made motion for change
of venue, on the ground of undue pre-
judice against the accused, and the
difficulty of getting an impartial trial
under the present excited conditions.
This was promptly overruled by the
court, and then motion for contin-
uance was entered, on the ground that
a number of defendants material wit
nesses were not present. Over 200
witnesses had been summoned, prindi-
pally for the defense, and most OF these
! had answered to their names. Judge
Chrisman took the list of absentees,
and going down to where the prisoners
sat, called over the list and demanded
| e Il. b, ,;,.l
had summoned the missing witnesses,
al what taoy expected TO prove by
| them if present? The answers he had
taken down by the court reporter, and
when this had been done, and it was
seen on how flimsy foundation the
motion for a continuance rested, the
judge promptly overruled that also,
Noon recess was then announced and
court adjourned until , o'clock, the
audience little anticipating the sudden
| denOuement things were about to take.
When court reconvened the attor-
nsys for the defense came forward and
announced to the court that after full
time to consider that six of the nine
white cap prisoners placed upon trial
had decided to plead guilty and throw
| themselves upon the mercy of the
against the other three be nolle prose-
quied.
Dist. Attorney Hudson, who has new
er faltered in his efforts to bring these
and all other lawbreakers to justice,
stepped forward and said for the State
he was willing to accept this DISPOSE
| ton of the case.
Then followed a scene which has
never before been witnessed in Lin
coin county court room. The entire
audience was fairly taken off its feet
by the sudden turn affairs had taken.
Judge Chrisman had the six men who
desired to enter plea of guilty brought
before the bar and questioned each
one closely and pointedly. He said
that before he would consent to accept
the plea he must be assured that 1t
was made in perfect good faith and not
under stress of circumstances for fear
they could not obtain a fair trial and
even handed justice in his court. If
they wanted to be tried before a fair
and impartial jury of their countrymen
he would gladly afford them that priv
ilege and their plea Of guilty could be
withdrawn and the trial proceed by
jury. They all answered that they
were acting in perfect good faith. They
wished
TO PLEAD GUILTY
because they were guilty and threw
themselves on the mercy of the court,
and begged for mercy on account of
their dependent families.
The Judge answered that, under
these circumstances, he would proceed
to pass sentence. He said he realized
that the men were poor men, and that
all but one were men with wives and
children. The duty he was called upon
to perform was, indeed, "a painful one
to him, but the enforcement of the law
could not be made farce Of 1t was
also true that the men into whose
houses they had fired in the night
time, jeopardizing the lives of of them
selves and families, we're poor men.
The law was for the protection of the
poor as we'll as the rich, and the sur
prising thing to him was that poor men
would undertake to trample law under
foot and invite its penalties when they
and theirs must always be greater suf-
hn rich and