The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1894-10-11
association and seeks to defy the scrip.

association and seeks to defy the scrip.
ture edlct of three score years and ten.
But ammo domini will tell. Some OF
these days he will drop to pieces as sud-
denly as the one-hoss shay and there
will be nothing left but a long pile OF
dust Let him die in the harness, but
let us give him more help so that he
can die easy. Let every man vote for
the amendment.
1t is curious that an old man never
gets so tired of work as to be willing to
quit. Habits are like chains, and he is
not happy when they are broken. He
becomes so resigned to them that he
won't resign. My friend, Bill Fort, was
one day looking at Judge Warren when
he was old and feeble, and said to me,
thoughtfully, "Major, that grand old
man ought to lie down and die, for ]
think that he is tired. Resign he can't.
They never do that. And just think
how much pleasure he would give by
dying. 1t would make SO much room
for them. Jackson would take his place
as chief justice, ana some circuit Judge
lawyer would get tho circuit judges
place and some other lawyer would got
that lawyers practice, and so on. | won
der if it over occurred to the old man
how much good he could do by dying?"
There is another thing that should
ha dnDa for tho n fppitV nf that
no civil case that involved less than
500 should be allowed consideration
by it. Five hundred dollars is tho limit
in the Federal Courts-cases under 500
are generally carried up by young
lawyers out of spite or spleen or con-
ceit. 1t is not the client, but the lawyer.
Away back before the war when Judge
Wright was on the bench he refused to
hear any case on certiorari from JUS
tice court The jurisdiction of that
court was then limited to $50 and the
| Judge declared it was too small a sum
to make large fuss about, and he pro-
mulgated the Latin maxim: ".Ser curdt
dc mintmis non" do not know, but L
guess that one-fourth of all the cases
carried to the Supreme Court involve
| less than 500 each. The cost of taking
the cases up and the additional fee to
his lawyer would be at least S25, and II
a man can't afford to lose that and his
case, too, he had better keep his little
case out of the Supreme Court.
But there are more things for the
Legislature to not do than TO do. Some
of the Populists leaders are trying to
bait the negroes with free schoolbookS,
and, of course, this will catch some of
the whites, who are as bad off as the
negroes for free things. This scheme
is paternalism run mad, and will add
another half million annually to the
public debt. Don't do it. And there
will be some who will want to pension
everybody. Don't do that. 1t is an in
justice to the dead to begin now, thirty
years after the war, to pension the living.
When man dies, the law in its charity
gives to the widow years support, but
declares that the condition of the estate
must be considered. If it is badly in
debt, the allowance must be small in
proportion. And so let us consider tho
condition of the State as we'll as that of
the tax payers. We are paying now
nearly half a million for pensions, and
we cannot afford to pay any more. 1t
is all for political buncombe, anyhow.
II these burdens keep on coming, the
taxpayers will return their property at
half its former value, and many of them
are doing it now, and the taxes have
more to do with it than the silver ques-
ton. 1t is an easy thing to vote away
the peoples money for all sorts Of
things, but don't do it. Wait until the
hard times are over. 1t troubles me by
night thinking how I can pay my taxes
this fall and | am only one of thousands
who are in the same fix. Lawmakers,
friends to humanity, if you can't reduce
our burdens, don't make them heavier
don't, BILL ARP.