Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-06
CARROLLTON.

Change in the Code ggested-New Rail-
 road-Pickens on the Dispensary Law.
 Carrollton, Ala, Jan. 5.-(Special Cor respondence.) )-The judges in this state have called attention repeatedly to the statute which punishes the theft of horse, COW, goat, sheep or hog, whether IL be old or young, big or little, valuable or valueless, or any part of an outstand- Ing crop, whether it be five ears or five hunderd ears of corn, five pounds of cot ton or enough to turn out a bale of lint cotton, as felony in the penitentiary from one to ten years. A justice of the peace states that the code committee should see that section 57S9 of the code of 1886 Is changed in some respects so that the punishment is meted out in propor- lion to the enormity of the offense.
 Mir. l.. D. Godfrey and other solicitors in this circuit, have been adding counts in such indictments for receiving stolen property to prevent injustice being done In some cases.
 Some parties in this county state that the legislature should never adopt the new code until it is satisfied that the changes made are demanded by the best interests of the state. That the fee bill should be fixed so that constables, jus tices of the peace and other officers can get something for their services.
 Miss Ida Eddns, of Waco, Tex, is visiting her grandmother Mrs. M. F. COOK, or tnlS place and has many fflepdS in this county.
 MT. Morgan Langdon, of Reform, is to be married on Thursday to Miss Octavia Price, daughter of Dr. Price, late of Pickens county.
 MT A. G. Klenbach, the engineer in charge of the extension of the Mobile and Ohio railroad, is in Columbus. and the work through Pikens county will begin without delay.
 The people of Pickens county have
 
 ing taxes on bonds that were fastened on the tax payers by the influence of Gen. Forrest. He failed because he could not sell the bonds in the market. but his un- fortunate death enabled parties who held such negotiable pa per of the railroad as security for debts, that had been con fracted by the company, the bonds hay ing been hypothecated for them, thus giving the people an idea of the folly of putting out securities without condi- tiOn. The loan was popular while there was a prospect for the railroad, as was shown by the vote of the white people, Pickensville and Carrollton were solid for the road, there being only two votes against it in this precinct.
 It is all the dead past now, but Pickens will get her railroad and there is no one who will feel that the circumstances which forced Gen. Forrest to the wall could have been averted by human in- Renuity. The A. G. S. and L. and N. were pushed through in the same era. but the Selma, Mobile and Montgomery reached Akron, and the bottom fell out of all se- curities. both state and county. In many places along the proposed route to Memphis Tenn. there are evidences of the road bed that tell the story of an en- terprise of one of the most brilliant cavalry generals of the war, but the req sons why the last work of his life failed are often incorrectly stated The right of way may some day be of service in constructing a railroad from Akron to Columbus and Memphis.
 Some interest is felt in this county on the proposition to abolish by statute the rule of our highest tribunal requiring the counsel for the appellant to furnish the court with the transcript, an abstract showing the pleadings in the cause, the rulings of the lower court thereon, the issues on which the cause was tried. and also the facts on which the issues were determined, in as condensed form as practicable to fair and clear presenta- tion thereof It is proposed to abolish the rule because about 800 cases are car ried yearly to the court of last resort. on account of the expense of printing the abstract or having it typewriter.
 It is stated here that the rule is req eonable and that such an abstract that could be easily read should accompany every transcript on an appeal. other wise no judges who give out the cases for examination. to be reported on confer ence to full bench could render 800 opinions in one year. Without an ab- stract the justice will frequently have to read almost the entire transcript to form any idea of the purpose of the ap- peal. It is entirely new to him, and in many instances without an oral argu- ment the tribunal reviewing the action of the lower court can form no idea of the questions at issue without reading the pleadings and evidence. It is believed that if the rule is not upheld in some form that provisions will have to be made to tighten the labors of the supreme court of the state
 Many years ago a chief justice Of the supreme court of Alabama stated that an increase of the force of the bench gave new members to which transcripts might be referred for examination, but multiplied the difficulties of an agreement on a conference. which interfered with