The herald., 1898-11-02
d on by members of the city police depart

noticed by casual observer to be- in q
most chaotic condition and though the fire.
quent trouble arising from errors, incom
plete minutes and general laxity in methods
must have made the justice fully aware
that a day of reckoning was coming, he ap
peared totally Indifferent to the situation.
ROASTED BY THE GRAND JURY
| This condition of affairs prevailed at the
time the grand jury of the spring of 1897 was
impanelel. Their investigations were most
| searching and after session of many weeks
during which they vainly endeavored to find
head or tail to the accounts and records in
Justice Morrison's department, they filed
In Judge Smiths department of the gu
perior court the following Indictment:
We take vigorous exception to the
carelessness and negligence displayed
| by Justice Morrison in his judiciapa ad-
ministration, by which the ends of
justice have been defeated, and inno-
cent parties subjected to severe and
needless hardships. We enter our most
strenuous protest against such course
as a travesty of justice which all right
minded citizens must condemn.
OF course, the above paragraph is only q
small part of the entire report, covering, as
it did, the jury's findings in large number
of matters which they had made the sub.
jects of investigation. The report was filed
on April 20, and on April 81 the newspapers
of the city published it, but the arraignment
OF Morrison did not appear in what purport-
ed to be the entire text published. The
members of the grand jury discovered the
deficiency, called attention to it and on in.
vestigation it was ascertaind that the leaf
containing the paragraph in question had
been torn from the original manuscript and
had therefore never been at the disposal OF
the reporters. Judge Smith ordered du-
phcate filed and subsequently caused the
arrest OF the party suspected Of the theft of
the original.
In his trial it developed that a man named
Snowden, representing himself as friend
OF Justice Morrison, had asked all reporters
not to publish that portion of the report
which scored the police Judge, on the ground
that he (Morrison) was "a good fellow. one
OF the boys and friend of the press" The
reporters would not listen to such propo.
sition, and when the report was placed at
their disposal, Snowden having had pos
session Of it in the meantime, no allusion
to the censured justice was found in it.
The missing sheet eventually being replaced,
it was Immediately published, and the no
torlety resulting was ten times as great as
IL would nave been in the original instance.
BUNCO MEN FEEL SAFE
Such an arraignment from such source,
1t might be supposed, would have caused
the subject of it to be extremely cautious
thereafter. 1t probably did-for time. In
the latter part of 1897, remarkable series
OF charges against bunco men was pre-
ferred. Poker Davis and his gang held forth
with high hand and, though arrests were
frequent, immunity from punishment al
most invariably followed where the defend
ants case was steered through the maze OF
litigous proceeding by Attorney Shinn.
Their favorite method of escaping Justice
was to have majority of witnesses in their
favor, and no matter how cold -blooded a
robbery the testimony of the complainant
and his witnesses showed the defendants to
nave been guilty of, the preponderance Of
evidence was always in their favor and on
that point the cases were dismissed. The
operations of the gang therefore became ex.
tremely bold and the threat of a victim to
seek redress in the courts was met with
wild ha! ha! and the answer, GO ahead
and prosecute us if you think you can secure
a conviction"
Justice Morrison's tape game decision is
another notorious ruling in behalf of the
CRIMINAL element: Frank Burch was the
favored prisoner, he having been arrested for
gaming, the charge in detail being that he
dealt in fictitious stock quotations which he
drew from brass box and upon which his
customers bet their money. Burch's place
was located at 100 West Second street and
many of the victims of his manipulations
patronized the place in the belief that they
were buying margins on genuine stock quo
ttations. Instead of such being the case.
however, the quotations were manufactured
by Burch's accomplices and could be made
high or low in accordance with the opera
tors desires and the weight of the "play."
Burch's arrest caused the closing down of
all the bucket shops and similar games in the
city, but when Morrison's decision became
known they all opened up again at full
blast, we'll knowing they had the protection
of the law
Indeed, it would seem as though the Sic.
cessful outcome of the case were looked for
by Burch. for it was submitted to the court
on an agreed statement of facts, all the allie.
cations OF the prosecution being admitted.
excepting that which designated the conduct
Of such an institution as a crime. Justice
Morrison.s opinion was as follows
The defendant herein is being prose-
cuted under the gaming laws of the stae,
and is charged under section 800 of the
Penal Code. 1t is charged that the de-
fendant did willfully and unlawfully
deal, play, carry on, open and conduct
certain banking game known as the
tape game; said game being then and
there played with certain device, to-
wit: A paper strip called a tape con-
tanning certain letters and characters, a
box, containing paper slips, and black
board; for money, checks, credit and
other representatives of value. Said
section is as follows:
Every person who deals, plays or car
ries on, opens or causes to be opened,
or who conducts, either as owner or en-
ploye, whether for hire or not, any game
of faro, monte, roulette, lansquenet,
rouge ct noir, rondo, tan, fantan, stud
horse poker, seven and a half, twenty
one, hokey-pokey, or any banking or per-
centage game played with cards, dice or
any device for money, checks, credit
or other representatives of value, and
every person who plays or bets at any
of said prohibited games, is guilty of a
misdemeanor," etc.
The case is submitted on an agreed
statement of facts, and the question here
presented is distinctly whether the tran
sactions mentioned therein constitute a
public offense under said section. The
defendant S place of business was store
room used as an office, and 80 arranged
that his customers could see the quota
closing quotations of the mining stocks
the day previous. The defendant had
a brass box in his possession called a
stock exchange ticker; in one side of said
box was small aperture through which
the defendant pulled paper strip which
bore the market quotations of the mining
stocks offered for sale; all of said strip
was concealed in said box except that
portion pulled through the aperture in
said box by the defendant.
A person wishing to transact the busi-
ness then and there being carried on
would buy or sell options on stocks