The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-04-29
A QUESTION OF REWARD
Criminals Are Sometimes Apprehended
and Convicted on Offers of Money.

1t is only recently that Shreveport was
startled with crime which when made
known to the world aroused the greatest
resentment 1t was the murder of a
woman, lady, in her home, under con-
ditions which were horrifying. 1t was a
crime which at the time and for days
afterward carried fear, apprehension and
dismay in almost every home in the
corporate limits. And yet, excepting an
indignation by few which was a dis
credit, there has been no demonstration
of this damnable crime. 1t may be re-
called that not many months ago the
citizens of this city were worked UP to
the highest frenzy of indignation over
the cutting of the guy wires of the Cum
berland Telephone Connpany's pole on
| Texas and Common streets by a striker
named Herkles, who was caught red
handed in the act who was pursued and
captured by Special Policeman Hull
who did not use his handy and ready
pistol, although Herkles. was fleeing, and
according to the latest authority he,
Hull, would have been justified in kill
| ing deader than Hector the man attempt
ing to evade arrest. But fortunately
Herkles was not shot at or killed. In
deed, Hull demonstrated through his in
trepidity and his alertness that it is not
60 off Of tt,a Inv 70
shoot and kill to secure prisoner. Hull,
as there are others in the. service of the
law, would only use the handy and the
ready pistol in the actual defense of his
life, if in peril. AS is well known to
readers of newspapers. sHerkles was
taken to Jail, uninjured by Hull con-
victed after fair trial and is serving
time in the parish Jail. The demonstra-
ton by the people at the time of this
wire-cutting and the conviction of mis-
led young man, was responsive to the
spirit of the law, but singular as it may
seem, there has been no demonstration
to sustain the law, and since an innocent
man has been killed, the murder mys-
terry seems to have lapsed into what
Grover Cleveland would term innocuous
desuetude. As far as known, the legal
authorities have been waiting for some
thing to turn up, while the criminal, per-
haps in this city still, is enjoying all the
freedom and the blessings of life. And
Itruthfully and seriously considered, why
should he worry when the chances are
ten thousand to one that he may never
be detected?
In the past eighteen months there have
been several murders which were start.
ling with perplexities and which are
mysteries still, one of which is that
white man, in state of nature, with
arms and hands fastened with rope,
found drowned in the bayou, and more
recently the murder of two women, col
ored, one in Silver Lake, the other at
Mr.. Tobinsky's with Mrs Matthews as
the third, and fourth woman, white,
whose body was fisiled from Red river.
And with all these and others, deaths by
violence, not one of the murderers have
been apprehended. This is a serious con-
dition which should be realized by every
man in the community Who can tell
when some other woman or some other
man may be added to the victims whose
deaths appeal to the law and to justice
for redress, not vengeance, but the en-
foreement of the law, the melting of jus
tice, which is regarded, in sense, as a
protection TO the defenseless.@
But our subject is the reward through
which the arrest and conviction of GRIM
inals is secured, the money consideration
| which impels activity in seeking the
murderers who elude arrest 1t has been
| stated in public print that the Governor
| of Louisiana had or would offer a re-
ward of $3.50 in the Matthews case,
which may have been published in the
official journal of the State, and which
has escaped our attention, but if such
reward has been offered it is time
that it was being published in the official
journal of the State as well as the local
press, and it is also time for the police
jury to consider favorably the recon-
mendation o. the grand jury by offering
liberal reward, to which this city,
through its council. should add its full
quota to the State and the pa-ochial re-
wards. This is suggested for the reason
that Sthe legal authorities are evidently
at sea, il not in state of. 'innocuous
desuetude," and money consideration
may. stimulate activity all along the line
1t is certainly a discredit to think thai
of the crimes committed, murders dia
boiieal, perpetrated in several instance.
almost within the shadow of the tempt,
lof justice, that not one of the murderer.
1 a