The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-08-06
Compliments for Jersey Justice.

ind the expense to the State is never one
the expense of even ordinary
murder trials in New York The four
Paterson fellows who killed the Boss
,hieter girl last winter were tried in a
punch and the trial lasted less than
n New York the four criminals would
lave been tried separately beyond a
loubt, and equally beyond doubt-be-
cause couple of them belonged to
wealthy and influential families their
;rials would have dragged along for years.
Within less than seven days after they
were hauled before the New Jersey court
the four were getting their hair cut in the
Trenton prison and nicking off the days
IN their twenty and thirty year sentences
Barker, the man who shot the Arlington
minister for alleged over attention to his
wife, was on his way lover the road" to
Trenton within ten days after his trial
began, and the trial itself lasted only four
days. The judge sternly declined to admit
any evidence other than that directly
bearing upon the shooting. Had the case
been tried in New York it would in all
have gone on for month or
so, and the red ink editions of the fellows
would have famed with salacious testi-
mony blazoned forth in big type. Quips
outlets, evasions, technicalities, frivolous
objections on the part of counsel-these
things don't go in any Jersey court what
soever The men on the bench there seem
to accept much more of the spirit and
obvious intention than the letter of the
law, with what beneficial results the clean
condition of the courts and the widespread
respects for Jersey justice plainly Indicate
But the judges of Jersey hold that they
have other work aside from simply sitting
in judgment on cases that are brought be-
tore them. They believe that they are on
the bench for the purpose of enforcing the
law as they find them on the statute books,
and they act on this belief.
Witness, for example, the present state
of Long Branch. There is no more gamb-
ling in Long Branch to-day than there is
in the settlement of the Dunkards. For
the first time in the history of that seaside
resort public gambling has ben absolutely
wiped out All of the ornate, superbly
appointed clubs -including John Days
Pennsylvania Club, the most famous of
them all-are tightly bolted, and rank
weeds grow in their yards where choice
flowers bloomed only last year. You can
play bean bag or jacks or mumblettypeg
for points in Long Branch now, but you
can't gamble-not if Judge Fort knows
it.
Judge Fort is the man who closed up
the Long Branch gambling plants. He
is on the Supreme Bench of New Jersey.
When he donned the ermine he took a
good, long look over the Jersey statutes,
and he found spread thereon law pro-
hibiting gambling of any and all sorts
forever within the confines of the State.
He went to the Governor of the State last
winter and asked to have little addition
al power conferred upon him for pur-
pose he had in mind, and the Governor
and the Legislature granted him the pow
er he asked. Then the Judge moved on
the Long Branch works.
He found, of course, that Long Branch
didn't want its gigantic public gambling
done away with; that the populace de-
pended upon the visitations of the big
gambling folks for the major portion of its
summer income: that the business people
were strenuously in favor of the perpetual
ton of the clubs, and that the Mayor
and the police had already ranged them
selves against him in his announced in
tention to put The Long Branch gamblers
out of business.
The Judge summoned Grand Jury for
the special purpose of dealing with the
Long Branch gambling business and the
talk that he directed at that Grand Jury
made fine reading.
1.-THE law against gambling" he said in
essence, is on the books. / didn't put it
there But it's there. Consequently,
there is going to be no further public
gambling in the State of New Jersey.
Long Branch is called the Monte Carlo of
America. 1t shall not be so called at the
close of this year.
That was all The whole matter closed
with Judge Forts instructions to his Grand
Jury. The proprietors of the clubs sent
'feelers" to the Judge after the manner
in such cases made and provided, but their
emissaries returned to the gamblers COM
planning of an exceeding great frost ac-
companied by chilblains. The rich pro-
prietors of the ''clubs mot few of them
millionaires-raged and snorted in pri-
vate, and the Long Branch populace
fumed, and the Mayor resigned, and the
police sulked. But the big gamblers
bought padlocks for their doors and tackled
them on. They knew that Judge Fort
had taken up his residence ashort distance
a wholesome respect for that man of law
and determination. The Long Branchites
who need the money have complained
time and again to the Judge that the re-
sort is sagging woefully since the exodus
of the big gambling house proprietors.
The Judge doesn't reply to them LET
FER sag" but he unquestionably thinks it.
He tells the committees of professionals
against his course that gambling money is
not the right kind of specie upon which
the permanent prosperity of any sort of a
should be based and he pre-
diets that when the nation at large becomes
convinced that Long Branch is no longer
one vast hive of gamblers the place will
take jump in the favor of conservative,
law abiding folks that will sur
prise all hands and he is probably right.
Meanwhile some of the Long Branchites
are soaring their young ones with the
name Of Fort, and to listen to their end
Of it you might fancy that Judge Fort is
Jeffreys of the bloody assizes reincarnated.
Now, here was bit of Jersey suas-
ion." The gamblers were simply notified
to lock up, and they locked. They per-
ceived that the Judge on their trail
meant sure enough business. That old
gag, ''The United States and New Jer-
,ey," ought to be erased and forgotten.
There is nothing the matter with Jersey.
State News.