The National tribune., 1903-07-23
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By JOHN A. SPRING.

| the crime. however, was rather meagel
and contradictory. Among. the witnesses
summoned before us were two com.
missioned Army officers. who had danced
| on the night in question in that unSavOry
resort. 1t was very evident that they
| were far from relishing their position as
| witnesses. We found true bill against
said Handsome Charley" but the subse-
quent trial jury failed to agree upon a
verdict in his case.
TUCSON POLICE COURT.
While in Tucson l found time to visit
the Police Court, held by Justice of the
Peace, on several occasions. l went there
partly because any court of justice in
those days was 4 new venture" in Ari-
zona, and partly because l had been in
formed that the Tucson Judge was abso-
lutely sui generis," n composite of sever
ity. humor, nonsense and some law. /
was myself very much astonished that an
| invariabie rule in that court in any civil
case seemed to be that the party best sup
piled with this worlds goods, and hence
best able to pay, would be made to pay
the costs, no matter what the other part
OF the decision WAS. Right or wrong. the
fortunate possessor of funds had to shell
out"
The town was at that time very badly
governed; outlaws abounded, and did about
as they pleased, until The merchants and
men of property determined to bring about
reform. They decided TO elect Judge
who would deal severely with the scala
wags who were running the town and cor
aforementioned man. named Charley
Meyer. to be Judge. lie was a very good
druggist, but knew nothing about law But
he was perfectly honest. and that was the
principal qualification the citizens desired
Accordingly Charley set up law dis
pensary and dealt out justice and medi-
cines with equal grace. In his court could
be seen library of calf-bound books. con-
sistiDg chiefly of the Materia Medica and
Somebody on Fractural Bones He en-
gagged as an officer of the court who was
afraid of nothing and nObody-one Jim
my Douglass" who carried in his leg Il
bullet that he had picked up at Gettys-
and with n peculiar limp
The first thing that Charley" did was
to establish chain-gang. and sentence to
various terms in its service every offender
that was brought before him. The "shy-
Ster' lawyers that had run" the town be-
fore Charley's incumbency protested
against this as Il violation of the Consti-
tuition of the United States; but they pro-
tested, if not in silence: at least in vain
In TACT to protest was useless. The pro-
cess OF the Judge was rather summary,
but the result was very gratifying to the
good citizens of Tucson. The wild. rough
characters who had rrled the town, were
now now engaged III cleaning its streets, and
tucson was seeing an era of prosperity
that it had not known since its founda-
ton. Bat if the business men were
pleased. the lawyers We're propOrtionately
disguised. The Court refused to recognize
them, and their business was gone.
FRONTIER METHODS.
One day, however, one of them plucked
up courage enough to go before the Court
in behalf of his client and demand n trial
by jury. The Court was about to SEN
tence the prisoner to term in the chain
gang, when the lawyer interposed 4 de-
murer. My CLIENT he said, objects to
being tried by this Court, on the ground of
prejudice, and demands to be tried by
jury"
by shury:" said Charley. "Wat is
dot shury!"
"He demands" said the lawyer. "to be
tried by his peers"
.Oh, he does, does he?" said Charley
"Vell, / sentence him to two weeks in the
shain-gang, and l sendence you to one
week. Now how you like dot trial by
shury?"
And into the chain-gang they both went,
and served out their terms.
One day man named Wolf was
brought before the court for cheating some
Indians out of So. He was shrewd, and he
knew all the tricks of the law. Charley
felt that in this case the Materia Medica
was not sufficient authority, and so lie ad-
journed the Court to get an opportunity to
consult some books on the law, or to OBJ
tain advice from somebody with a knowl-
edge of it. As he declared tine case post
poned and the Court adjourned, however,
he turned to the prisoner and said: "Volf,
it is the unanimous opinion of dis commu-