The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-02
THE FACTS TELL THEIR OWN
STORY.

AS noted yesterday in these columns,
the nosition of the News and Observer
with respect to the refusal of Judge L.
r. Purnell to allow the State to give
bond pending appeal in the matter OF
the receivership of the Atlantic ana
North Carolina Railroad Com
pany was splendidly indicated by the
writ of supersedeas granted by Chief
Justice Fuller.
In view of the fact that his criticisms
i'm this regard formed large portion
of the utterances for which he was
held in contempt and is now imprison-
ed. it is peculiarly gratifying to the
editor to find himself in such gooo
company as that of the Chief Justice.
1t will be remembered that the writ
guage to place the management of the
Atlantic Road back into the hands OF
the State upon the giving of Justlhed
bond in the sum of $25, 1000, the opera
ton of the writ to continue as stay
of the receivership order until the
hearing of the questions involved by
the Circuit Court of Appeals. Al
though the writ is a practical intima-
ton of the Chief Justices opinion as to
the merits of the case and was blow
from Higher Up which Jared the
very foundation of the pretensions OF
the Receiver Out on Bail and his CO.
adiutors. the counsel for these gentry
did not seem to be at all dlSmayed by
the news that it had issued. In fact
they continued their old practice OF
going about with yelled illusions to
trump card in reserve and making IN
timations that way would be found
Nv which. through technicality, Judge
Purnell might avoid the performance
of the Clerkly duty of passing on the
sufficiency of the bond required
which duty was the entire authority
left him in the premises by the order
of the Chief Justice.
These threats and intimations were
considered to be but the last throw of
desperate spectators who were at
tempting to stay till the last possible
moment the inevitable "show down."
But yesterdays developments would
seem to indicate that the claims of
counsel which have been referred to
above were not entirely the mixture OF
"hot' and Liquid air that they were
supposed to be and that wireless
prophecy of things about to happen
Higher Up" is not yet entirely the
lost art that good men had fondly
imagined it to be.
In the Federal Court yesterday
morning Attorney General Gilmer, fol-
lowing the requirement of the writ,
was present and ready on behalf of the
State to give a justified bond, with
seven signers, in the sum of $4,000.
A reference to the names of the bonds
men rendered will show that they rep
resent an aggregate wealth far In ex-
cess of $1,0OO,O00. But in spite of the
tender of the bond. in spite of the pro-
fest of the State, upon the mere state
ment by Capt. Day that he wished to
be heard in opposition, Judge Purnell
postponed the hearing of the sufficien-
cy of the bond until this morning. al
though Capt Day did not outline, nor
did he even intimate, the grounds of
his opposition.
How different is this course from
that pursued Tuesday with regard
to a motion for a continuance by the
editor of this paper, when he appeared
to answer a charge calculated to de-
prive him both of his property and
his liberty.
In the one case the continuance is
granted at the mere suggestion of
counsel that he should wish to oppose
the sufficiency of a bond that was
signed by men known of common
knowledge to be worth twenty-five
times the amount of bond required by
the Chief Justice; and by such con-
tinuance property of a great State is
left in the hands of two men-one of
whom is now under indictment by a
North Carolina court for conspiracy
against the commonwealth.
In the other case an editor stood the
DAY before in the same court, whittier
he had been summoned peremptorily
with scarcely the time to consult with
counsel This was at 10 O'Clock in the
morning. Some of the charges against
him were vague and uncertain His
counsel asked for a continuance of a
day. The motion was denied instanter.
Counsel then asked that the rule of the
court be amended so that his client
might know specifically the matters
with which he was charged. That mo-
ton was denied and the attorney max
ing it cut off in the middle of a SEN
tence with the remark from the bench
designating his effort to procure his
client a knowledge of the charge
against him, an intimation by the at
torney that the court proposed to be