The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25
JUSTICE OUT OF GEAR
MANY INDICTMENTS AND FEW CON-
 vICTIoNs IN NEW YORK.
Curious old Municipal Custom stu Continues---New York Now Looks to Country for
 Financial Aid.

New York, Oct. -(Special.)--That the workings of grand jurors are not altogether grand In this city at least is exciting a good many New Workers in spite of the closeness of election day with It's supposedly all pervadins interest.
 The discussion of this matter bids fair to furnish some startling discoS- cries for while no one Is demanding the abolishment of the grand jury sys- tenn. there 10 a growing feeling that there Is need for a change. It has been asserted for some time that in- dictments were too frequently re- turned. a statement which seem to be borne out by figures appearing in Ap- pleton's Magazine.
 According to those the time which can be given to any particular case by the grand jury averages only six minutes. The conclusion drawn is that justice here Is too much of the rapid fire style. and the figures in the Apple ton article seem to corroborate this.
 In the last eight years according to 1t the total number of indictments re- turned was s3,732 and the total dis. posed of 32,731. But convictions on these indictments which went to trial amounted to only twenty-four per
  other words three our of every four indictments returned by the grand jury resulted in nothing except expense to the State and to- the indicted person. As a result there has been A howl for New York is always ready to howl
 Suggestions to protect the man "who isn't proven guilty" range from that which proposes to place grand jury -A Affu r>F convictions. to the other extreme which lays the small number of convictions under indictments returned at the door of the prosecuting officers. Of course there Is a complicated kind of politics underlying the whole matter. so complicated that no one knows what 1t is.
 In the meantime the average New Yorker has some. very astonishing fig- ures to analyse and with only one l conviction out of every four indict- ments by the grand Jury Father Knick- erbocker is thinking Of adopting as | his municipal song The Grand Jury Will Get You If You Doh't Watch Out"
 What ls probably the oldest and most curious municipal custom in the country still exists in New York after more than 24o years--that of lighting the entrance to residences of the city's ] mayors with large lamps.
 In no other city in the United States is this done. At present of course the custom is not one of utility, but simply a sort of honor and distinc- | tion.
 The precise origin of this curious custom is something of c mystery. but it Is believed to be a survival of the Dutch occupation. At that time the burgomaster was the chief man of the town and carried a lantern from the l town meeting house--since tho meet | ings then occurred at night-to hfs home, where 1t was hung on the tor fence rail and left burning until morn ing. Its light served as a guide tc those who wished to make a complaint l or give a warning of trouble. It Is fairly certain that this custom has survived since iS6e. at least. fol | at a sale of antiquities one of thu articles disposed of was described II the catalogue as ga lamp said to havi
 been used to iIlumlne the front O the house of Mayor Cornelius Steen
 wyck in Maiden Lane and to haY' becn uBod for tine same purpose 6!
 three of his successors" This woult seem to indicate that only the heus,