The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-29
CASES OF INTEREST

LEGALITY OF BURLALS.-Can man be punished for failing to provide
 Christian burial for his deceased in
 fant child? In the recent case of Sea ton Ts. Commonwealth, 149 Southwest
 ern Reporter, 871, defendant was con v1cted on such a charge, and appeals
 to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. A child of defendants having died, he
 set about to bury it. Taking some
 pieces of rough board, he made a rude
 box to serve as a coffin. Although he
 have made a better and more present
 able box, he said that he did not pro-
 pose using his good lumber for this
 purpose This box was taken to 9
 point in a wood lot, and a grave was
 dug by two neigtibors about two feet
 deep. Defendant brought the corpse
 from the house in a small paper box
 to where the grave was being dug
 placed it upon the ground, and assist
 ed in digging the grave. When com
 pleted, the paper box with the corpse
 in 1t was placed in the wooden box and
 lowered. The grave was then filled
 to a level with the surrounding ground
 defendant assisting by tralmping the
 dirt as it was being put back into
 the grave. No services of any kind
 were held at the grave. Do these
 facts constitute a crime? The court
 dant to select the place where his
 child should be buried, and he violat-
 ed no law or duty in selecting a spot
 in the woods, rather than in a ceme-
 bery. There is no rule of law defining
 how a corpse shall be dressed for bur-
 iaI, or the character of coffin or cas-
 ket in which it should be incIosed-
 Or the material out of which the boz
 in which the coffin is to be placed shall
 be made. or the depth of the grave:
 nor is it an offense not to notify rel
 a,tives and friends that they may be
 present at the interment, for they have
 no legal right to be present. There
 Is no law imposing upon those having
 in charge the burial of the dead any
 duty to have the interment aceompan-
 jed with religious ceremony: The
 court concludes with the following: ''It
 was no doubt the extreme niserly and
 niggardly disposition manifested by
 appellant that aroused the indignation
 Of his neighbors, causing the Indict- ment and ultimately induced the ju- ry to assess the fine against him. which 1t did. While. by the facts in
 the record, appellant is shown to be 9 man utterly lacking in parental in Stincts, he has kept himself within the pale of the law. At the conclu-
 should have directed a verdict in his favor
 LEGAL REFsORM.-It is not an ex- aggeration to say that this is an age of unprecedented public criticism of the law The legal profession is un- which seems to arise from all quar- ters of our nation. Law being a h1- man institution it must necessarily 1 change as society changes. The law l " l admit this Why should it impede it's 1 progress? It Is a condition arising | plained by the Criminal Court of Ap- | peals of Oklahoma: Judges and law yers have been educated in and are | accustomed to anttquated system of | procedure, and have been taught to | look with reverence upon old legal the | ories, and are thereby unduIy biased | against any change in legal procedure. The result is that, even when the Leg islatur-es atteunpt to reform legal pro- cedure, many courts and lawyers are disposed to construe such legislation in the light of their preconceived ideas. < While this court re- spects the wisdom of the past, and can see much in it to admire and to fol- low, yet we also believe that the world should be ruled by the living, and not by the dead; that the law should keep even step with the march of civiIiza- the relation of it's members to each other. This count does not pro- pose to grope its way through the &C., cum ulated dust cObwebs, shadows, and darkness of the evening of the com rules of procedure, but 1t will be guided E by the increasing of reason, justice, common sense, and progress, Turner vs. State. 126 Paci- hc Reporter, 452. Apropos of this sub ject, the following by Hon. Charles Whiting of the Supreme Court of South Dakota is in point: '"That man is blind indeed who calls out for the laWS or our AIaInSTSt WnOg even hO1OS the fundamental laws of our land sa- cred, and not to be changed to meet changed conditions; such a one would cut his grain with the hand sickle, thresh it with fail, g, ind it in the hollow Of a rock, and still expect to i'll the hungry mouths of increasing mu1titudes.''
 FORTUNE TELLING.-A was convicted of vagrancy under the statute Rem & Bal. person who asks or receives any com pensation, gratuity or reward for prac- 1 Licing fortune telling, palmistry or *is vagrant" It appears that a police officer sre- 1uested accused to tell his fortune. He replied that he would figure it 0ut,'' which he proceeded to do in an at his conclusions to- the future mysteries in an approved scientific and according to scientific rules The officer then paid dollar for his information. Although accused earnestly contended that his vocation was casting horoscopes, drafting a map of the heavens at the time of ones birth, and the interpretation of :, by tracing the movements of the planets to ascertain their reIa- tive positions at given date, the resulting therefrom and their Influences upon life, the Supreme Court z 0f Washington was unable to swallow he Sugg stion; holding that, under I the statute, fortune telling for com l .he means rnplOyed, and also that it l was no defense that defendant was a I -egularly ordained minister in the Ma | .iona1 Astrological Society and that l