The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-10
BLAME SEWELL.
Say Slow Legislature is Due
to His Scheme for Bien-
NAL Sessions.
JONATHAN GOBLE THINKS HE'S SMART
Tells How He Fooled the
Smart Men From South
Jersey.
JONATHAN GOBLE THINKS HE'S SMART
Ispecial to ..rbe Jersey city News."l


In session and rot a single law enacted
is a record of which the present Legisla-
ture has no reason to be proud. For a
highly virtuous Legislature, which was
to show the wicked Democrats a
short, businesslike session should be,
there seems to be something wrong. NOT
within the last ten years at least has
there been such a do-nothing Legislature
in New Jersey, and there are wicked
Democrats who say that General Seweil
is responsible for all this delay ana mac
ton. These say that the General mas
not abandoned his scheme for plenhial
sessions and having failed in all ms
other tactics, he is trying new ones TINS
year. 1t is said that these brief sessions
will be kept up for a few weeks more
and then the Legislature will adjourn
without enacting more than a few laws
This will be exploited all over the state
to show that there is very little for the
Legislature really to do, and every Two
years would be often enough to meet
for the real business which the Legisla-
ture has to dc. Whether there IS any
thing in this or not, the suspicion pc
m stronger each day that the present
dilatory tactics are by design,
A~ssemblyman James Hall of Jersey CITY
has introduced a little bill into the AS
sembly which, should it become a law,
will win for him the admiration OF All
s.the sports In this vicinity. A nasty
glance such as most people would give
at the bill would lead to the impression
that it was intended to prevent prize
fighting in the State, but a second iand
better look at it shows that its real object
Is rather to permit that kind of amuse-
ment. Mr.. Hall, however, has made no
attempt to conceal the real object OF the
hill and he cannot be accused of any de-
ception in the matter. The bill is prac-
ticaily the Horton act of New York under
which the recent big fights have been held
The bill provides:-"Any person who,
within this State, engages In, l~nstigates'
aids, encourages or does any act to fur
Their a contention or fight without
weapon between two or more persons, or
a fight commonly called a ring or prize
fight, either within or without the state,
or who engages In a public or private
sparring exhibition with or without
gloves within the State at which an ad-
mission fee is charged or received, either
directly or indirectly, or who sends or
publishes a challenge or acceptance OF a
challenge for such a contention, exnipl-
ton or fight, or trains or assists any per-
son in training or preparing for such a
contention, exhibition or fight. is guilty
of a misdemeanor; provided, however,
that sparring exhibitions with gloves OF
not less than five ounces each in weight,
may be held by a domestic incorporated
athletic association in a building leased
by it for athletic purposes only for at
least one year, or a building owned or oc-
cupied by such association"
Any one acquainted with such matters
know that the so-called five ounce gloves
are hardly softer than the bare fists. being
little better than an ordinary kid glove
with the fingers cut out. With their use
prize fights may be just as bloody and
brutal as they were in the old days Of
bare knuckles and a Knockout blow can
be administered just as deftly and effect
lively as of yore. This has been demon
strated on more than one occasion in New
York since the Horton bill became a law
There is one man in this city who is
getting a great deal of amusement out of
the agony of the Newark manufacturers
over the discovery that the Turnpike peo-
pie had smuggled a bill through the Leg
~islature some ten years ago extending for
fifty years their right to charge toll. This
man is Jonathan Goble of Ocean county
who served four years in the Assembly,
retiring at the close of the session Of 'S9.
He was noted more for his voice than
anything else. 1t was a deep penetrating
voice, evidently acquired along the ocean
and bay swept shores of his county. and
rro for SIC auynar the SnhriOIat of HF0Q
Horn Goble." Mr.. Goble claims to have
struggled the bill through and takes much
pride into himself for the manner in
which he, a "hayseeder," pulled the wool
over the eyes of the statesmen of Hudson,
Essex and the northern end of the State.
Mr.. Goble is now a Deputy Keeper IN
the State Prison and when seen there by
a reporter to whom he blowed freely of
his great achievement.
sDo I remember the circumstances at
tending the enactment of that law echo
ed Mr.. Goble. "Of course I do for we
shayseeders' seldom do anything that we
are not thoroughly familiar with. /
knew the object of the law and so did
Governor Green when he signed it. and ]
presume all the 'hayseeders' in the House
were thoroughly familiar with it In
fact. no one appears to have been in ig-
norance of its purport except your brainy
statesmen in Essex and Hudson, the local
tiles most affected.
by Jove,' continued Mr.. Goble. walk
ing up and down the corridor, "if I were
one of the brainy twenty-five that repre-
scented your counties when that bill be
came a law, I would be ashamed at thi:
late day to admit that a 'hayseeder' from
the wilds. of Ocean had succeeded IL
throwing dust in my eyes when a measure
now known to be of such vital importanc'
to my constituents was under considera
ton.
Just look at the talented array from
Hudson that didn't know my little bill
was loaded-Senator Edwards, the tribun
Of the people, and Assemblyman Hud
speth. our Speaker at the time-Heppen
heimer. Feeney. Norton, Brown, Farrell
OsNeilI. Donnelly, F-agin-another cham
MON of the people-and Francois. The
see the gentlemen from Essex who ma
dust in their eyes on that memorable occa
~sion-Senator Martin, an expert on Ia
adjustment. and McDermit, MCGOWAN
Riker. Gill, Schmelz, Price, kaiiscf
Wiedenmayer, a brewer, whose wagon
paid toll on the road daily; Bigelow an
Trier. manufacturers, whose individual In
terests were also at stake.
..In explaining my little bill / told ther