The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-03-12

to Quash an Indictment because |
ola NIisspelied word--The Justice whose !
chief Aim Is to Put the "Kerbosh" on
Crime Whenever 1t shows Its Ugly Front.
Life has been a lamentable failure to the
man who has not prowled around the pre-
cinct judicial gristmill on grinding days
and seen iniquity "stomped on" and jus
tice crowned queen of the May.
But If you would see the justice court in
its wild, "unpestered" state 90 into the
jungles of east Texas, where it roams at
will and subsists ON funny young men
who get accused of disturbing peace
which in all likelihood never existed In
such places the justice Of the peace gener-
ally runs his Office in connection with n
all stock of family groceries, and the
sessions of the court are held in the rear
end of the mercantile esta blishment, where
the presiding genius can keep his eye on
the front door, SO that he may not miss
cash sale If opportunity offers. And the
opportunity sometimes presents itself on
such occasions, and "his honor" asks the
lawyers md the jury to excuse him while
he increases the gross receipts of the cash
drawer. IL also happens sometimes that
the j. p. espies some one in the courtroom
who is in arrears for supplies and lays a
paperweight on legal proceedings while
he attempts to induce the delinquent to
square the account. This sometimes re-
suits in bad blood between debtor and
/ creditor, angry words, aXhandles and bar
rel slaves and the ground torn up, in which
"his honor sometimes comes out of the
/ conflict on all tours, with head on him
! like "A hpporotsmus. Then an adjourn
] igs fIa n ha a. az
/ is carried over to the next term of court.
attended the sitting of one of these
courts once and saw it hatch out small
| brood of unvarnished justice. A young
man had disturbed the peace and tri6ed
with the dignity of the state in the one
and the same transaction, and justice
| whetted its hayknife and howled for re-
venge. "The COURT had drawn up the
! Indictment at the instance of nervous
gentleman, who claimed that subdivi-
| sion of the peace located in his immediate
vicinity had been disturbed by the young
man hereinbefore referred to. In draw
] ing up the Indictment "his honor mad
! detected somewhat from Hoyle and or
| biography and spelled peace piece.
| When court was opened, counsel for defen-
| dant attempted to quash the complaint on
| the ground of its literary and legal imper-
| fectiCn and made quite an exhaustive ar
! gumcut to that end. After counsel had
closed his argument" the court" sustained
the indictment in substantially the fol-
lowing language:
"While admitting that in the drafting
of the indictment an embarrassing degree
of uufamiliarity with the standard AIT
thorities on diction is evident from the
spelling of the word peace, at the same
- st ,a nf ha h. t
this inaccuracy does not vitiate the indict-
ment, for we cannot enter upon the dan
gerous precedent of predicating the ad-
minstratiou of justice upon a certain de-
gree of familiarity with the textbooks.
Justice was full grown and had corns
on her toes before knowledge had ceased
to wrestle with the collie. She stood guar
dian over the liberties of man while knowl-
edge was in the kindergarten and small
clothes, and now to make her subservient
to this precocious young 'un were like the
head paying homage to the tail. If coun-
sci will bear with the court, we will state
that we are here to administer job lot of
rectangular justice and not for the pur-
pose of discussing the literary merit OF
the complaint wherein n superfiuity OF
II seems TO have obtained and in which
the drought appears to have struck the "a
crop.
Admitting that, when scrutinized by
the scholarly eye, peace conveys to the
mind n different meaning to that of piece,
it has no age over it when conveyed to
the understanding phonetically Hence,
should witness on the stand testify to
the fact that the defendant had disturbed
the peace, the import of the word would
be determined by tho sense in which it
t1,s. f,f
reasoning would obtain as applied to the
written instrument.
Therefore the court holds that the
complaint, while little wobbly in its legs
as regards literary makeup, is abundantly
sufficient for all practical purposes, and
this is not n court in which abstract
theory will ever be invited to seat up
next TO the stove and practical demonstra-
ton allowed to gnaw n file in the back
hall. We take it for granted that justice
would get along as well and sleep as
soundly should n conviction be secured foI
disturbing the piece as though the same
verdict had been obtained for Disturbing
the peace. The fine would be TO hard
to pay for the person SO convicted, thcrI.
tured peace would recover its normal t:;,
ton us early, and the revenue accrl .a
the county by reason of the fine CO.
would build as many bridge,
houses or jails. The chief end and aiii
the justice court is to put the kerbC5G
crime wherever it shows its ugly from,
and not to attempt to compete in orth0
graphical finish with the bill of fare at
first rate restaurant in drawing up bills
of indictment. Scholarly attainment il
all well and good but the crucial momen
sometimes arrives when justice presses
her lily white hands to her stomach ant
yearns to be satisfied.
"We do not desire to be understood a
favoring the conviction of party for OH
offense when charged with another. For
bid that we should desire u man hum
when he should only have the seat of hi
pants kicked into tatters and his plug o
tobacco taken away from him. Neithe
do we favor the release of n party when i
is evident that he is guilty simply becaus
the indictment whereby he is brought be
fore the courts would fail to provoke mp
plause from literary society. So, with
supreme desire to do the square thing be
tween legal form on the one hand an
box toed justice on the other, the court
will be forced to sustain the sufliciency c
the indictment and leave the rest to tn
jury and its God. J."
Then the trial was entered into and aft
er the evidence was taken and "a pyro
technic display of oratory tou"'ed off b
the counsel on either side of y case, tn
jury found the defendant gull, ! and fine
him S. and trimmings for disturbing tn
"piece. "-Galveston News.
Tie Man Out of Work.
To those overtaken by adversely my az