The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-15
JUDGE STOPPED II
TWO THUNDERBOLT CITIZENS
WERE TO DE PUT TO WORK.
AND ON THE STREETS, TOO.
KIDwELL AND ROBERTSON REFUS-
ED TO PAY STREET TAX.

They Claimed That the Imposition
of the street Tax Was Ultra Wires
and Declined to Pay It-Mayor Nell
son Fined Them 81 Each, With an
Alternative Sentence of Ten Days
ON the streets-They Were to Have
Been Put to Work at O'Clock,
Had Not the Programme Been In
Deputy With Judge seabrook's
Order.
Two citizens of the town of Warsaw,
commonly known as Thunderbolt,
were saved from being put to work
upon the streets yesterday through the
intervention Of Judge Seabrook. He
restrained the town authorities from
carrying out an ultimatum they had
pronounced.
1t was only by quick work that the
ignominy and injustice the good citi-
zens persist in believing the town au-
thorities intended to wreak upon them.
were prevented. The ultimatum ex-
pired by limitation at o'clock in the
afternoon, and it was 2:20 o'clock when
the petition for injunction and other
relief was filed in the clerks office. A
restraining order had already been Sc
cured from Judge Seabrook, and armed
with this and copies of the petition,
Deputy Sheriff E. w. O'Connor was
sent post haste to Thunderbolt. He
served Mayor L. w. Nelson and Clerk
of Council E. M. Toomer with copies
of the petition and order at $3.50 o'clock.
The petitioners in the case are w. NJ.
Kidwell and Chris Robertson. They
were the unfortunates doomed to the
payment of a fine, which they declar-
ed they would not pay, or to ten days
service on the streets. The trouble is
that they refused to pay a street tax
which the town has levied. The pc
tition in their behalf was filed by
Beckett & Beckett. 1t recites that on
July 13, the Mayor and Aldermen of
Warsaw passed an ordinance, provid-
ing that each male resident of the
town should pay an annual street tax
of 81 or serve ten days at hard labor
on the streets. The law was to have
become operative Oct. 1.
The petitioners contend that such an
ordinance is ultra wires, entirely be-
yond and above the corporate powers
of Warsaw. They determined that they
would neither pay the tax nor serve
ten days on the streets.
On Oct. they were notified to pay
the tax on or before Oct Z, and they
declined. Then they were notified to
appear at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of
Oct. II, before the Mayors Court to
answer the chage of defaulting in pay
ment of the street tax.
They appeared, and Mayor Nelson,
after hearing the cases, sentenced each
to pay a fine of 81 or serve ten days
on the streets. The sentence was to be
enforced if the fines were not paid by
o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The petitioners protested that this
was a violation of the constitution OF
tn estate and especially of those pro-
visions that declare that mo person
shall be deprived of life, liberty or
property except by due process of
law" and that There shall be no i'm
prisonment for debt" They wanted
the Mayor and Aldermen of the town
of Warsaw, their servants. agents and
employees and all the machinery for the
administration of law as it is under
stood in that neck of the woods, en-
joined from interfering with their lib
critics, making them pay the fines they
claim have been illegally imposed or
forcing them to do work on the streets.
They got the order and Mayor Nelson
was restrained from carrying out the
terms of the ultimatum. Furthermore
they are directed to show cause before
Judge Seabrook on next Saturday why
a temporary injunction should not be
granted.