The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-08
THE VICE OF A GENTLEMAN.
THOUGH 1T MAY BE SUCH, CAMP
LING MUST BE PUT DOWN.


neSses Are Hard TO Get-He
Charges the Grand Jury to Investi-
gate the Alleged Arrests Eos
Debt by Officers of the Court.
Crimes From Carrying Concealed
Weapons.
Judge Robert Falligant held a crowded
court room in wrapt attention for nearly
an hour yesterday morning with one of
the most forceful charges to the grand
jury that has been heard from the bench
of the superior court of Chatham county.
The excessive number of murders COM
mitted in the community recently; the
sensational charges made by the March
term grand jury against court officers for
arresting the poor for debt; the alleged
prevalence of the hyra-headed vice of
gambling; the much needed protection of
the Sunday laws-aH Of these evil tenden-
cies Of the times conspired to present d
theme which made it easy for the versa
tile and eloquent jurist to deal out such
admonitions to the grand jury as to clear
ly outline its special duties and pave the
way for its work.
The judges charge, bearing as Il did
WIN sum lOICC upon the morality Ile
community, would have sounded we'll
from any pulpit, and might have proved a
sermon of great results had it been heard
by all who lay claim to citizenship.
The judge reviewed the history of Chat
ham courts, how for more than a century
grand juries have gathered to take the
solemn oath of duty, and how by their
guidance they have uplifted the morals
or men and planted the interests of the
county upon a lofty plane of law and or
der. He cited the names of distinguished
Jurists of Savannah whose ability and
power has been felt throughout the coun-
try. He appealed to Jurors to feel that
the mantle Of these great apostles of law
and justice is now resting upon them, and
with such a reference to the grave respon-
sibility of their duties the court proceed
ed to outline some of the special tasks
that shall be taken up.
Here in the nineteenth century, and the
latter part of the nineteenth century at
that said Judge Falligant, I'VE are con-
fronted with the alleged arrest of poor
people for debt by officers of the minor
courts of justice. If there be one place
beneath the sun which shines above us
all, where such an outrage should never
be Haunted before the gaze of much
abused public-a liberty-loving people
surely that place is the city of Savannah,
where Oglethorpe, who unwrenched the
doors of English prisons and liberated the
poor culprits whose only crime was pow
erty, planted the colony that has reared
up one of the grandest pillars of statehood
in this great union of states. If there be
one place on earth where such an out
rage as the arrest of a freeborn citizen
for debt should not be tolerated, surely
that place is Savannah, the cradle of the
great state of Georgia, settled in the out
set by men who fed from their mother
try rafif ms
tous method of persecution"
Speaking of the alleged prevalence of
gambling, Judge Fallgant declared that
the grand jury should give its close at
tention to the ferreting out of such viola
lions of law, if such prevail. Gambling is
the most formidable of vices, for the rea-
son that 1t is the most difficult to be kept
down by the courts of justice. I'VE may
kill the viper that entwines itself about
the youth of our community to-day, and
we Waken tomorrow to find that it has
sprung up in another place. The great
difficulty with the courts is that witnesses
cannot be found We hear that there are
gambling places here and there about the
city, and that Mr. So-and-So is being rob-
bed, but when we ask for the names of
Mr.. So-and-So, the reply is a shake of the
head and a shrug of the shoulder, and the
exclamation: oh, but they are gentlemen,
and l cannot give their names
4
a gentleman" continued Judge Falligant,
but, it is, at the same time a vice that
makes gentlemen scarce in a community.
1t is a vice that is so enchanting to the
young that they are completely enslaved
by it before they are old enough to throw
II off, and a vice so merciless as to fetter
the feeble, trembling form of the aged
man whose hairs are white with the frost
of years, and whose stumbling feet are
within close range of the brink of the
grave. But this is not the worst that may
be said of gambling. 1t is vice that too
often turks behind the pages of the BUSH
ness mans ledger, and sends young men
and old, trusted employees upon whose
shoulders and whose honor rest the hopes
of our business interests. off to the tails
and penitentiaries as felons and default
ers."
Referring to the extraordinary amount
of lawlessness in certain localities of the
city and county recently Judge Falligant
said: Gentlemen of the jury, this carry
ing of concealed weapons is a violation
of the laws that should receive your care
full attention. Look around you and see
the crimes that have been heralded in the
newspapers lately as occurring right here
in our community-crimes which would
put to shame some of the lurid deeds in
the wild frontiers of the west. Study the
cases in question and you will see that
they are precipitated by the carrying of
pistols, and other death-dealing imple-
ments in violation of law. The man, who
has pistol in his pocket. and too much
whisky in his stomach, Is the greatest en-
envy OF law that l know of, for il is that
man who commits the gravest of crimes
Under the heat of an unholy passion and
the spell OF anger, jealousy, hate and all
the emotions which give birth to disgrace,
how easy 1t is for him with the pistol at
his fingers reach TO take the life OF his
fellow man and demand of the court to
take his own I'm shame and disgrace upon
the gallows. IL he had not the pistol at
the time the act would not have been
committed in many instances-in nearly
every instance-for when reason Is re-
stored after drunkenness and anger re-
lentfulnoss finds expression in humble
apologies while enemies unite and friends
find friendship fonder Thus these. the
most heinous of offenscs against law and
Justice, may be attributed In nearly every
instance 20 the carrying of weapons"
The judge spoke Of delays which fire.
quonty are had In trials, and said that
while Il Is true the work of the courts IL
slow sometimes, the public should not rail
at such hardness TO the extent Of rising