The evening times., 1899-10-17
MooNsHINERS GO TO JAIL.
Five of Them Sentenced to Ten
Years imprisonment.

Five of Them Sentenced to Ten
Years imprisonment.
ABINGDON, Va, Oct. 17.-Judge John
Paul. of the United States District Court,
yesterday imposed the extreme penalty
of the law on William Strouth, Thomas
Strouth, Charles Brown. Dick Dye, and
Charles Newberry, ten years imprison-
ment for the murder of Deputy Collector
George Ratliffe, a notably brave officer of
the United States Internal Revenue service.
Swords Creek, in Russell county, on the
border between Virginia and Kentucky, is
the most noted nest Of moonshiners in the
State and here Ratliffe was killed. He led
Collector Furgerson to the distillery Of
Henry Strouth, whom they promptly ar
rested, but during the destruction of the
still Strouth escaped into the thickets and
then began race between him and Fur
gerson and Ratliffe. If Strouth could first
reach the other stills in combination with
his, he could arouse and summon the
whole moonshiner fraternity.
In the race Strouth was the winner. and
when Furgerson and Ratliffe arrived at
William Strouths distillery, he was fired
on by a number of the brotherhood and
William Strouth, one of the. owners and
operators of the still, shot him with a
double-barrel shotgun at short range. In
pronouncing sentence Judge Paul spoke of
the inefficiency of the statute law of the
United States in the failure to provide
a punishment commensurate with the
crime of murder. He said;
That for such crime no higher pun
ishment can be inflicted under the Federal
statutes than Imprisonment for a limited
period, at hard labor. is a reproach to the
Federal Government.
1T is the only civilized government in
the world that sends forth its officers 10
execute its laws practically without pro-
lection. and when they are murdered in
obeying its mandates, provides no ade-
quate punishment for the crime The mar
shal of this district in attempting 10 ex-
ecute a warrant of arrest for a violation of
the postal laws, may be shot dead. and
the only penalty provided by the statutes
of the United States for the punishment of
/ the perpetrator of the crime is an insig-
nifcant fine and palry term of imprison-
ment under the statute for obstructing
process or assaulting an officer.
The Judge of this court, while pronounc-
! ing this sentence might by someone in this
audience be assassinated, and the only
charge that could be brought against the
murderer would be under the statute in
tended to prevent the obstruction of the
due administration of justice. The Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States is by law one Of the circuit judges
of this circuit. Were he holding the cir
cult court here, and some dissatisfied liti-
CANT take his life, the only punishment
that could be found under the United
States laws for the murder of the highest
judicial officer in the Government would
be an Insignificant fine or almost nominal
| Imprisonment in Jail, Or both. for lmped-
ing the court in the discharge of its du-
| ties"
In the last fifteen years perhaps twenty
men connected In various ways with the
enforcement of the internal revenue laws
have been killed in the line of their duty
in this district.