The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-06-04

NOW tnat the monroe county grand
jury has expressed its inability to dis.
cover tangible evidence connecting my
known citizen with the lynching Of the
negro Purysar, it will doubtless be said
that the inhabitants Of S%troudsburg
have decided that the effort to run down
this deplorabls breach OF law and order
shall go no further. We are confident,
however, that such an assertion would
do them o gross injustice. The quail.
fcations of good citizenship are the
same in Monroe county that they are
in any other, The obligation to re-.
spect and obey the law is as strong in
its application to that community as it
is in its application to any other com.
munity. anywhere. The best interests
of that commu nifty are to be promoted
along lines of order and decorum just
as uuerringlv as are the interests OF
any other locality or group of citizens.
1t would be a wanton libel. we have no
doubt, to infer that because a grand
jury proposes to shirI its responsibility
and officially bear witness to it's own
obstinacy and dereliction, that kind Of
grand jury service is generally ap,
proved by the reputable citizenship
from whose neighborhood such grand
jurors are drawn.
Hasty and unreflsctive persons may
deduce from this lamentable instance
of jury ineiiciency that l%ynching is
condoned under aggravated circum-
stances, by the c%oncensus Of opinion in
Monroe county, But do they pause to
calculate what such a deduction i'm
pliesP Do they realize fully that the
sanctioning of lawlessness in one in.
stance, however provoking may have
been the particular circumstances of
that case, is logically nothing else than
an invitation to lawlessness at all
times2 If the regular courts of Monroe
county be not adequate to the proper
administration of justice in a case of
exceptional Nervousness, involving
cold-blooded assassination growing out
of unrelieved avarice, which is the pro-
position affirmed in effect. if not in
words, ny the lawless slayers of the
negro Purysar, who Of those engaged
in that iltful episode will dare after
ward trust minor cases to its adjudica.
tion2 That which is inadequate to
momentous responsibilities is surely
not to be trusted in connection with
subsidiary ones; and we reach by re
~lentless logic the unhappy conclusion
of sweeping distr ust Of the law, from
which Iawlessness in all forms is a
natural and indeed on inevitable out.
growth.
We are moved to DO thus elaborate
in this particular direction by reason
OF sundry intimstions that even the
good citizens of %Stroudsburg were 80.
cretly glad when Puryear was lynched;
and have not since had time to alter
that emotion. From such a belief as
this we deliberately recoil. 1t amounts
to o wholesale indictment Of the inhab-
itants of a reputable and prosperous
neighborhood, as anarchists and revo-
lutionists, in the tenor. it not in the
effect, of their opinions. We have rea-
son to know that such is not tho truth;
that it is, indeed, SO far from tGo truth
as to bs a deliberate slando:, brutal.
cruel and wholly undeserved. Respect
for the law. confidence in the laws
agents and supreme allegiance to the
wise foundations Of u present social
system are cardinal and immutable
sentiments in Monroe. These sentA
ments may not have found proper rep.
r%esentation in the grand jury; but
they exist and they are bound yet to
become dominant. even in jury rooms.