The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-05-05
COURT ROASTS
CUPID AD TAKERS
Judge Lands, in Giving Woman
Bridewell Term, Flags Ger
tain Newspapers.
FREED LATER ON $3.50 BOND
witnesses Are Procession of Mental
Derelicts who Had Been Vic
timized," Says Court

United States Judge X. M. Lands, in
a remarkable sentence delivered today,
in which he condemned Marion Grey,
the young affinity agent who conduct
ed the "Searchlight Club in Elgin, to
one year in the house of correction,
excoriated such newspapers in differ
ent parts of the country as accept ma
trimonial personals The court
spoke for nearly an hour and was fire.
quently interrupted in his remarks by
Attorney Grant Newell for the de-
tense, who interposed objections to ,
some of the courts rulings.
The judge declared that if it were
not for certain newspapers taking ma /
trimonial advertisements the scheme |,
could not have succeeded and he add /
ed:
"A newspaper man who takes the
money for these advertisements knows
that for a paltry rs cents he is becom-
ing the agent of crime.
And" he continued IF | were the
district attorney of the northern dis
trict of Illinois, I would call the at
tention of the attorney general of this
great country to this and ascertain
whether under his official oath he
should not set in motion the ma
chinery of his great Office to shut them
(the newspapers) out of the mails)"
Judge Lands also declared that for
the most part the people swindled by
matrimonial agencies were interiors
both mentally and physically and that
the witnesses who testified that they
had answered the advertisements in
the newspapers had made in the court
room a procession of mental dere-
licts"
He declared that this made the mat
ter worse and that the laws of the
United States should be enforced for
their protection as well as for the
| banker and the leaders of the bar
REVIEWS PROGRESS OF CASE.
Judge Lands said further:
In this case there has been a YER
dict of guilty motion for new trial
which has been overruled and a mo-
ton for a stay of sentence which has
also been overruled. The matter now
comes to the duty of the court to en-
ter a final order.
THE postoffice is not to be burdened
with matter used to defraud the peo-
pie of the United States. Few people
who read these advertisements insert
ed in newspapers to the effect that "a
wealthy business man or a wealthy
widow is seeking a matrimonial ALI
ance, know that they are inserted by
an agency and not by an indivi-
! dual"
REFERS TO THE NEWSPAPERS.
At this point Judge Lands referred
to newspapers which accepted such al
vertisements and continuing in this
strain said:
"One would almost think that it
would take more than IS cents to in
duce newspaper man to commit this
crime. 1t is good that all of them
don't take the money. The penal law
in this connection does not hit the
newspaper man. He gets out by
showing that he is only an agent and
has not conceived any scheme to de-
fraud"
TAKES A SLAP AT lad" AGENCIES
At this point the court stopped long
enough to take a slap at agencies
which place such advertisements.
There is an alleged advertising
scheme in this town conducted by a
so-called business man who spread
these advertisements throughout the
country" he said, land the evidence
that this concern and these newspapers
received from $1,000 to $500 from
the fraudulent receipts of this defend
ant"
The advertisements so placed set
forth that lady of wealth wanted 10
be married.
The evidence shows that there wa.
no lady of wealth who ever asked this
defendant to advertise for her.
rs that the proof, your honor"
? interrupted Mr. Newell at this point.
That's the proof" returned the
= Judge, and it was demonstrated like
z a mathematical proposition. Now the
real proof is that the court for severa
weeks has offered this defendant the
powers of the court, backed by thu
treasury of the United States, to pay
all expenses to find one wealthy wo
man who did so, And she did no
} find one. That shows that she
e couldn't"