Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-07-29
Judge Lynch and the Lawyers.

Ex-Gov. Hogg of Texas bitterly de-
nouncas the lynchings thai too fre-
+ quently invade the domains of the law.
/ He Is right. OF course; but there Is a
! sparkle OF truth n that that Brann's
EcouocIttsl advances as TO the cause of
/ the frequent exercise of mob law.
| Nearly every reader of the REGIsTER
will recognize the too familiar picture
placed before him in the following
/ though we dissent from the editors
bIack-cap sentence pronounced against
| the attorneys:
I'VE Will say that Smith meets Jones
on the streets of Tyler, by gross insult
/ provokcs an assault. then shoots his
assailant dead. He employs as coGn-
! sci Messrs J. S. Hogg and J. NJ. Dun
can, both of whom are now tearing
! their lingerie to tatters because Of the
activity of Judge Lynch. These dis
tinguished attorneys promptly set up
| the plea of seIf-defense. The county
| is raled with a fne-tooth comb to Sc
cure a dozen fat-headed aphides who
| have formed no opinion about the case
simply because not blessed with 1.-The
grand thaumaturgic faculty OF
thought" A week is expended secur-
ing this museum of mental misfts, and
! another in badgering and brow-beat-
| Ing witnesses, who become so confused
| that they would contradict themselves
in attempting to state their names,
ages and occupations. The jury is
overawed by Hogg's promposity, be-
| fuddled with Duncan's sophistry, and
impressed with the idea that the dead
man was a dangerous character who
was seeking to slay defendant instead
d gratuitous insult. Then it Is locked
up-having but a shadowy conception
of lawyer-made law and utterly unable
to analyze attorney-distortede evidence.
What can you expect of such tribu-
nal? Has not the laundering OF petit
iuries passed into proverb? Do you
not know of a dozen men formally tried
and solemnly acquitted who should
have been hanged or put in the peni-
| tentiary? Can you not cite a score of
cases in which poor devils charged
with tritling offenses were given the
extremity of the law, while men guilty
of capital crimes received lighter SEN
tences? Do you not know that it is
more dangerous for beggar to steal a
mule than for plutocrat to kill man?
The Smith-Jones jury probably agree
to disagree simply because the miser-
able blockheads can not tell what the
devil the contention is all about; in
which case the pitifuI farce must be
played over again-at the expense of
the people. The next time the de-
fendant is convicted of manslaughter
and given two years in prison instead
of ten minutes on the gallows. On
some flimsy pretext q motion is made
! for new trial. Perchauce one of the
jurors went to sleep during a tedious
wrangle over the admission of unim-
portant evidence; or some one in the
crowd may have passed him bottle of
Prohibition bitters. The motion must
be argued. II it is overruled an ap-
peal is taken on some fool technicality.
More delay. Finally the case is re-
versed and remanded. Smith can now
be tried only for manslaughter. hav-
ing been formally acquitted of deliber-
ate murder. New trial; mistrial:
| change of venue; case continued from
term to term until important witnesses
die or disappear. The public loses in
terest in the case and forgets the dead
mans family. Smith has joined church
| aud is leading an exemplary life. The
public becomes sorry for the defendant
and when he is finally acquitted crowds
around to congratulate. And the name
and fame of Hogg and Duncan are ex-
plotted far and wide as .'great crimi-
nal lawyers'-men whose services 9TH
er vicious hoodlums may end inValu-
able. And the next time a murder oc-
ours under like conditions the people,
remembering the incompetence of the
courts. take the law into their own
hands. And the mistake they make
is in hanging the homicide instead of
stringing up Duncan and Hogg, whose
skill in protecting criminals en-
couraged him to commit the crime.
They are guilty before God; for had
Smith been hanged as he deserved the
second murder had not been commit
ted"