The Socorro chieftain., 1905-06-17
GRAND JURYS REPORT
Eighty Witnesses Were Examined,
Thirty-nine True Bills and Eleven
No Bills Were Found,
COUNTY OFFICES IN GOOD CONDITION.
But Special Attention Called TO Man.
ner of Handling scalps and Wild
Animal Bounty Fund.

The report of the grand Jury,
which finished its labors Thurs
day, is given below. Travelling
Auditor c. V. Stafford, who visited
Socorro officially last week. made a
report tothe county commissioners
which is embodied in the grand
jury's report but for lack of space
cannot be given until next week
Mr.. Saiford'S report contains some
rich. rare, and racy matter that
cannot fail to interest every
reader of the Chieftain.
In the District Court of the
Third Judicial District for Socor-
ro County.
To the Honorable Frank w.
Parker, Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of the Territory
of New Mexico, and Judge of the
Third Judicial District:
Your Grand Jury sworn and
empaneled on the 5th. day of
June, a. ID. 1905, to inquire into
all the offenSes committed within
the County of Socorro have the
following report to submit:
First: We have examined so
witnesses in our Grand Jury
Room, some of those we examined
in different cases, and fordifferent
oifenSes.
Second: BY the Investigation
of said witnesses we have To re-
port to your Honor 80 true bills for
different offenseS committed in
this county which we believe
that there are sufficient evidence
for conviction before the Trial
Jury. Also in cases in which
parties were bound over to await
the action of the Grand Jury, we
have refused to find II no true
bills, for the reason that we
believe that in those cases there
is not sufficient evidence to put
the county into expense for the
investigation of said cases before
the Trial Jury.
Third: Since the 5th day of
June, the day that we were quail
fed as members of said Grand
Jury, we have worked from day
to day, commencing at o o'clock
a. III. until y o'clock and then
from , o'clock p. M. until ex-
cepting Sunday.
Fourth: We have examined the
different County Offices. First we
examined the Office of School Su-
perintendent and from the Statis-
tics in his Office we find that there
are in Socorro County 1910
children enrolled of school age.
OF this number less than half or
2166, are enrolled scholars in at
tendance as school during the
past year. The average daily
attendance is 1924. The Superin-
tendent of Schools has made an
effort to get reports from the
different School Boards of parents
who failed or refused to send
there children to school, but from
the above figures and statements
of the Superintendent, il will be
seen that the Directors of Dis
trict Schools are very derelict in
their duties, and if the children
of this county are to be educated
a more vigorous enforcement of
the law seems necessary.
In the Office of the Probate
Clerk, we find the record books
in fairly good condition. We
desire however to call your atten-
tion to what seems to us a very
careless and unbusinesslikc man
ner in which the Wild Animals
Bounty Fund and the scalpS are
handled. II appears from informa-
tion furnished MS that said Scalps
are not stored under lock and key,
or under the custody of any
particular official, and there is
nothing done to prevent any
person from helping one self to
as many as they please and
presenting them to the Probate
Clerk for warrants over and over
again. In fact it appears that
this very thing has been done to
an alarming extent. The record
of warrants issued by the Probate
Clerk from January lst to March
9th, 1905, shows that warrants
have been issued against the Wild
Animal Bounty Fund to the
amount Sl302.00 While an
inventory of the scalps on hand
made two days later shows
scalps 20 the value of $512.000,