The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-12-10


considerable portion of my time
Is consumed in answering questions
relative to prosecutions under the
criminal statutes, and while some CT
the inquiries are apparently unlrn-
Tlortant. and sometimes even rldlcu-
lous, yet the parties seeking ln1orInA.
fion always deem them Of the utmost
Importance and the inquiries are made
In all seriousness.
For instance. a woman. whose nus
hand has left her and taken with him
one of the children, viii call me up
over the telephone after / have retired,
and in a very pathetic voice, ask 1t hef
husband cannot be arrested for steal
ing their child. and when I tell her
that he cannot be arrested, viii answer
ssVer I don't see why" A man, whose
wife has deserted him, will call, at my
offce and insist on prosecuting ms
1yife's father and mother for hafoor-
ing her at their home. and when IN :,
formed that there is no law to compei
= mans wife to live with him, will
reply: We'll, there ought TO be"
: A Case for the Chancery Court.
when q man and his wife separate.
the custody Of the children is a COM
mon source OF trouble. the general idea
being that the husband is entitled 70
the custody of the boys and the wife
of the girls, and we have both the
husband and wife constantly appealing
10 the Criminal court for the enforce
rnent of their supposed rights in this
respect, and when informed that
court OF cfancery alone has Jurfsd1c-
ton to determine the right OF CUSTODY
TO children. and that the court IN
awarding the custody is governed by
what is for the best interest Of the
child. and not by its sex, they go away
rnurTnurinR their disapproval of law
and courts in general.
On one occasion an exasperated
woman rushed into my Office, putting
and excited, and demanded TO Know II
a woman could not be stopped from
abusing her children, and when told
that we have no state law to cover
such an offense, she remarked: Wen,
if the law cannot attend to her, Will
A new settler writes from the coun-
try to know If a neighbor cannot be
eomuelIed to keep his stock up and
out of his field, and when informed
that We have no stock law in this
county and that the law requires he,
himself to have q sufficient fence TO
keep oast stock, he usually writes back
that he never heard of any such law
sn any other state and that our law
ought to be changed, whereupon re-
fer him to our senator and members
OF the legislature.
Board Bill Jumpers"
A poor widow, trying to make a
living keeping boarders. inquiries TO
know IL a man cannot be arrested and
compelled to pay his board bill, and /
often regret that men who will not pay
these poor women for their board and
lodging cannot be punished, but i'm
prisonment for debt was long since
abolished, and there is no remedy eX-
eept by suit in some other court.
Another common source of trouble
results from the stealing and killing of
dogs. A man PUSHES in to have some
one prosecuted for stealing his valu-
able hunting dog and is surprised to
learn that under the Florida law dog
is not considered property for the pur-
pose Of a criminal prosecution, unless
the owner gives the dog IN to the taH
assessor for taxation. In one case,
however. a dog worth about one hun
bred dollars was stolen from its owner,
but not having been given in for tax
alton, the thief could not be prosecuted
for stealing the dog. Fortunately the
dog wore a collar worth about one
dollar and this the thief was convicted
Of stealing, and to some extent was
punished for his wrong doing.
Resort to Criminal Court.
There is hardly a wrong committed
when the a,ggrieved party does not
want to resort to the criminal court,
as it seems to be more satisfying to a
fancied wrong to have the party ar
rested and placed in Jail, but in many
instances, where there is law to cover
the ofeense and the party is appre-
hended and committed to jail, the
prosecutor, after his anger has sub
sided becomes sorry, regrets the prose-
cution and endeavors to withdraw the
charge.
Amusing Incidents.
While as a rule the trial of cases in
court always has a solemn aspect, yet
occasionally some laughable incident
occurs to relieve the seriousness of the
situation.
In the trial of man charged with
the stealing of a mule, it developed
during the trial that the name of the
mule was Scott and that he belonged
to a man by the name of Loftin, which
Of course, made him a nameSake of
mine, and afforded the attorney for the
defendant an opportunity to have con-
siderable fun at my EXPENSE in his
argument to the jury.
Superstition Among the Negroes.
That the days of superstition among
the colored race have not yet passed
IS evidenced by the number of cases
We have in court arising out of frauds
practiced by the So called 'Hoodoo
doctors among the superstitious. In
the case of q hoodoo doctor charged
with obtaining money by false pre-
lenses and promises, the evidence
showed that the party defrauded had
been bound over to the criminal court
on the charge of assault and that the
hoodoo doctor had sold her certain
charms, which turned out to be, when
opened in the presence of the jury
small cotton bags containing leaves
powder of some kind, roots and herbs
under the pretense that by their use
in a certain manner she would be able
to work a spell over the prosecuting
attorney, the jury and the court sc
that she would be acquitted, but the
charm having failed TO accomplish the
desired result, she prosecuted him anC
had him placed behind the bars where
his charms were powerless to relieve
him.
Presenting Attorney Not Exempt.
Even the prosecuting attorneys is
not exempt from burglary, as was
shown last spring when my mothers
house where ! reside was burgiariZed
but when the negro came up for sen
tence he said me, "Befo' God boss, if
had know dat was your house, / show
never would done broke in dar, but il
you will get the judge to be light OF
me this time, ] promise you / never
will go in your house no mo-"
In prosecutions for assault with Z
knife, a very general excuse Offered
by the defendant for having a knife
IN his hand when the difficulty arose is
that he had lost a button off of his
trousers and was whiting a "Georgia
toll b.