The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-18
IE CoMMoNEST FELONY.
COMMITTED DAILY IN ALMOST
EVERY COURT IN THE LAND.

jury, If 1t Proves Nothing Else
Various Incentives to This Crime.
From the Philadelphia Bulletin.
Disregard for the sanctIty and obliga-
ton of oaths is so common in our courts
of justice that hardly day passes when
the judges of the quarter sessions do not
note some instance of what they know to
be perjury. The Bibles on the witness
stands are polluted by the lips of null
titude of perjurers in the course of every
term. Some judges believe that the evil
is a growing one. Judge Ludlow once
said that the longer he remained on the
bench the more he saw of the difficulty
of enforcing respect for an OATH In
deed, it is certain that for every person
convicted of the deliberate perjury which
is a crime, and which is susceptible of
legal proof, there are. hundred who es-
cape because of the trouble of proving
the offense to The satisfaction of the law
Not few cross examiners conduct their
examinations on the assumption that no
witness ever tells the exact truth if he
can avoid it, and the assumption is be,iev-
ed TO hold good in one out of every three
instances.
There are many witnesses, too, who
swear falsely without Intending it. mex
actness of memory, confused ideas as to
the meaning of the words or the tlmdity
into which the DULLES and brow-beaters
OF the bar throw them will often account
for conflicting testimony when apparent
ly perjury had entered it somewhere.
When the Prince of Wales was young
and 'perjured himself like gentleman"
In the Mordaunt case, he gave to one
species of deliberate perjury something
of the semblance of honor. 1t is now, as
it has long been, the fashion to regard
with contempt any man who goes into
court and swears against the chastity
of woman whose favor he has enjoyed.
In such cases perjury is looked upon
as venial, if not, indeed, creditable, and is
rarely punished.
The Beecher-Titon case was probably
one of the greatest exhibitions of perjury
that has ever occupied the attention of the
American people In a court of justice. Such
a mass of unreconcilable testimony under
the solemnity of an oath has seldom been
sent to a jury. That trial had many inc
furious effects on the public mind but
none, perhaps, was so serious as the dis
regard of truth on the part Of persons who,
1t might have been supposed, could not
bring themselves to the act of perjury.
Religion, character and confidence in We
racity all suffered cruel blows as the long
procession of liars and moral lepers pass
ed in review. The country was divided,
as the jury was in picking out the perju-
rers. Yet many of those who believed
that Mr.. Beecher had per1ured himself
contended that, aside from any penal con-
sequences which might have resulted to
h Cg1E L. l.
Tilton at all hazards Whoever the per-
jurers were, there is no room for doubt
that the perjury which was committed
ana the half-approving or flippant manner
in which it was treated set an example
for an immense amount of false swearing
in American courts in after years
There is also another form of perjury
which is tolerated or encouraged outside
of courts-the lying that prevails in cases
for damages. The courts of PHILADELPHIA
have been overrun with it in the past ten
years. The corporations of the city or the
state against which there may exist a
popular prejudice, as we'll as the city gov
eminent Itself, have been the victims of it
time and again. The passenger railway
ana railroad companies, especially the
traction companies, have been mulcted of
several millions of dollars, largely because
the evidence of perjurers, who think that
rlch man or corporation is fair game
whenever 1t is possible to cook up against
either, on any plausible pretext. a suit for
damages. The grossest exaggeration. the
meanest receptions, the most bare-faced
OF downright lying, all bostered UP by
some miserable shyster who is to have a
big percentage of the fruits of perjury
are unblushingly resorted to in such cases
ana easily impose upon the minds of the
jury. A few months ago Judge Wiltbank.
just after he went on the BENCH declaim-
ed vigorously against the perjury which
ne had witnessed in a case for damages
against the CITY, but l have not heard that
any one has been punished. Perhaps the
Judge had not yet been seasoned to II like
his older colleagues
The majority of oaths are taken NV
swearing on the Bible. and the trought
must occur whether, if it were NOT for
the solemnity and impressiveness and The
sense of fear which may be supposed 10
accompany them, perjury might not he
more extensive. The injunction to "l,ies
the book carries with it the apprehension
of future punishment more yividlv 70
thousands of minds than the process of
affirmation by uplifting the hand. Rut tho
use of the Bible in administering naths
to witnesses is often perfunctory, mccain
ical and hurried in the juable of vlnrd,
that fall from the lips of the conrt clerIr
Then. too, the copy of the sacred vol1Iroa
is as likely as not to be so dirty or ,lilons-
dated thet it becomes an offense to press
1t to ones lips or even to touch il Tn
some of the public offices and the ma vic
trate courts it cannot be touched withoIt
risk of personal defilement. Thus the re-
ligious character of a Biblical oath is
weakened, and not a few jursts believed
that nothing would be lost if it were dis
pensed with altogether, while there would
be a distinct sanitary gain It used IN he
chiefly the Quakers and persons who. he'd
no faith in the Bible that used the nrI,.i@
lege of affirmation, but thousands of mar
and women now affirm simply because
they cannot bring themselves to handle
the filthy, greasy book on which the ss-
cred formula is administered in our tenn
pies of justice.
Nearly seventy years ago William Nor
gan was accused by the Masons in Wesr-
ern New York of bearing false witness and