The herald., 1897-03-28
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Every udIllttt NiiioSC obo eV''AA -ett>>
nearly every railway station which
helps form part and parcel of this DEM
ocratically governed land of liberty
4 loving people, has its magistrate. He
+ is generally called a justice of the peace.
/ Hand in hand with this representative
of the Judiciary trots an executive arm
of our government as she is suburbanly
administered. He is the constable, this
nyrmidon of the pumpkin Justice, with
his superior, have it in their power to
| deprive many liberty-lover of his af-
fections object and the enumeration of
the hundreds of honest workmen who
have been placed behind prison bars
simply to satisfy the avariciousness of
justices and constables, would indeed
be task for thoroughly patient and
persevering statistician.
The citizen of Los Angeles, did he in
terest himself, would not have to look
far for instances which would amply
demonstrate the truth of this state
ment; he would find dozens of parallels
to this case.
Tuesday a week since, three young
men who during the past five months
have been barely earning living here
in Los Angeles, started for Tulare.
They had been corresponding with
friend there and had been invited by him
to come north and go to work on the
ranch where he was employed. They
had no money to pay railroad fares and,
being desirous of bettering their con-
dition, made up their minds to reach
Tulare as best they could, which meant
a deal of walking with an occasional
train ride when the crew permitted it.
The three left Los Angeles late in the
afternoon, and that night reached Bul-
bank. Walking further in the heavy
rain was out of the question. so they
resolved to take their chances on the
blind baggage" of the north-bound
train.
BY this means they succeeded in
reaching Mojave at which junction
their progress was arrested by their ap-
prehension at the hands of the desert
towns constabulary. The three were
compelled to pass the balance of the
night in an eight by ten vermin infested
fered all night from the biting cold and
chilling winds that entered freely
through the many chinks in the roughly
constructed dungeon
Next morning they We're brought be-
fore an ex-bartender who had dis
continued filing up beakers to sit in
Judgment upon his fellow man. This
worthy discharged two of the three, be-
sides three other Travellers who had
been arrested at the same time, and for
the same misdoing. Upon the young.
man still held in custody he pronounced
a sentence of ten days in the county
Jail at Bakersfield. The poor fellow is
now sitting in a cold and draughty cell
meditating upon what next fate has
in store for him.
The charge against him, and of which
al ict 4
torily found him guilty, was vagrancy.
AT his trial the young man exhibited
papers that not only We're proof of the
story he told, but were good evidence
of his character and worth. Any mind
not surcharged with greed for the dol
lars that this unholy traffic in human
flesh brings would have said to this
man: Go your way rejoicing" Not
So though, with this minister of that all
too-blind goddess.
The demurrer, to the effect that there
must have been a reason for this act of
the Mojave authorities, has been ante
ipated, and this is the reply: Yes. there
was cause. Not that riding a train is
breach of the peace that -merited the
punishment inflicted in this case; not
because of any request on the part of the
railroad people. but because justices and
constables the state over depend upon
such pirating for their bread Surely
the five who Were held only over night
were fully as guilty of an offense as was
the young fellow now in Jail. One of the
six had to suffer because the taking of
that one to Bakersfield meant a little
more money in the pockets of the con-
stable who accompanied him. Had the
entire six been sentenced to imprison-
ment, Kern county supervisors would
have probably objected, and it is just
such objections that the justice and his
accomplices study to avoid.
Justice? Poohi The thing is anything
but just. 1t amounts to this: The citi-
Zens of the various counties are annual
ly paying out their hard-earned cash in
the shape of taxes, part of which goes for
legitimate purposes, and a goodly por-
tion of which drips into the fattening
paunches of people like the erstwhile
saloonist already referred to. The peo-
pie then, by tolefating such an outrage
as the one committed upon the young
man, become accessories before the fact
and their crime is coming home to them
too for in the tramp who daily .forag ges
upon their stores is discovered some
young man. who, by reason of repeated
reverses. has become careless and is con-
tent to live the life of an outcast
Sociologists are a unit in decalring
that the Jail is prime factor in the ma
turing of the plant of trampism. In this
Bakersfield Jail this young man will
learn of the possibility of living without
toll. His mind, by reason of his sur
roundings, will be apt to receive and Ie-
tain high -colored impressions. and the
younger the subject the harder the ex-
perienced mendicant will try to induce
him to follow the beggar's calling.
Should this discouraged young man sue
cumb to the tempter's wles, his fall will
mark the incubation of another profess
sional tramp. and Bakersfield's is not
the only nest in the fowl yard.
Apropos Of this gruesome subject of
jails and being Jailed, have you ever
heard tell of the kangaroo court. an in
stitution countenanced by the officials
of a large number Of well regulated pris-
ons? The court is conducted by the in
mates Of the house of detention for the
purpose of maintaining order and dis
ciplire and as means of supplying
themselves with their necessities, such
as tobacco which is almost universally
used by every male unfortunate enough
From among their number the prisoners
choose a judge and sheriff, these be-
coming the court officials. Every Jail
in which a court is permitted to hold ses-
sion is provided with set of rules which
run about like these:
!. All persons upon entering this Jail
shall be tried by this court and fined ac-
cording to the judgment of the same.
?. All persons must respect and obey
the Jail officials.
g. All persons upon entering this Jail
shall be searched by the Sheriff Of the