The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-07-09


like everything else in this world, is
comparative. What refined society
would condemn as loose and immoral
might serve as ethical examples among
the ignorant, and the perfection of de-
pertinent in the slums would be boor-
ish and unacceptable among we'll
bred people. The character of the
great majority of humanity is of the
Indifferent order-neither good or bad,
whose notions of moral niceties are
not sufficiently developed to entitle
them to merit the badge of high
respectability, nor yet so loose as to be
numbered among the depraved.
The weightiest evidence that can be
produced to advance the ends of the
prosecution is bad reputation. In
Importance, it takes precedence over
the cause in hearing itself. II it can.
not be proved, every device that scan
dal, trickery, exaggeration or innuendo
can summon is welded to construe
every trivial fault and needless utter
ance as expressions of debased ma
ture. The quiet dignity surrounding
the administration of justice is favora-
BILE to the smirching of character.
Everybody feels virtuous and law
abiding in courtroom; and the aver
age visitor is there to see some ones
reputation ruined, and leaves disap-
pointed if his expectations are not
realized. So constituted is human ma
ture that while we loudly condemn in
Others the same follies we ourselves
habitually practice and excuse with
the pharisaical plea of dissimilarity of
circumstances, yet, with the presump-
tion of vanity, we refuse to permit our
neighbor to don the same charitable
cloak. Put prisoner on the witness
stand, before crowded room and con-
scious of the fact that his statement
will be viewed as tissue of lies con-
cOcted to bolster up his falling for
tunes, and in nine cases out of ten he
strengthens the hand of the prosecu-
tiOn. The answers to cleverly worded
questions asked in the confusion in
separable from his position, are garbled
and made to appear as damaging ad-
missions of his moral capacity for
wrong. His every expression, utter
ance, gesture and habit of bearing is
noted and, by the use of skillful circum-
locution, converted into the traits of
vice and criminality. A trained law
yer has but little difficulty in becloud-
ing the judgment of the average juror
with insinuating generalities rejecting
on the character of the accused, and
in the effort to analyze extraneous ar.
guments, the real cause of action is
lost sight of by the jury and a verdict
returned on the basis of general prin-
ciples' Probably it is no exaggera.
tion to claim that twenty-five per cent
of the prisoners in American peniten.
tiaries are immured on account of de-
fective character, and not crime. The
Barbara Aub perjury case, in New
York some months ago, strikingly il
Illustrates the ease with which a man OF
loose habits or morals can be mali
ciously deprived of liberty. The law, ir
its haste to ascertain the value of char
acter, has tendency to confound il
with influence and thus form an esti
mate from unknown qualities. Char
acter is what we really are and rests or
the judgment of others, influence is de
rived from wealth, position or socia
standing, and the methods used to &C
r quire it are not always compatible will
the commands of the decalogue or pro
motive of the best interests of the com
munity in which it was attained. Thi
mixing of the real with the unrea
, places the stamp of truth on the fals'
, and gives it unmerited consideration
, by a fictitious legal value.
The sacredness of individual libert,
1 and the rights inalienable to it, de
l mands by the spirit of it's inviolabilit,
l that crime, and crime only, be tn
j, halter that checks it's free agency, an,
that gravity shall measure the penalt.
: without mere eccentricities of charac