The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1914-03-05
Circuit Court.

and the Judge was greeted with that
usual cordial y which is accorded him
by his host of friends and admirers in
Garrard county, and his unusually able
and strenuous instructions to the grand
jury but served to enhance that good
opinion in the minds of the law abiding
citizens of the county. The charge was
an unusually strong one, dwelling upon
the various crimes, and placing parti-
cular stress upon the fact that the
grand jury should give due heed to the
public sentiment, the sentiment of the
law abiding citizens of the county.
which is ever for the upholding of the
law and the furnishing of criminals;
particularly should this sentiment be
regarded in the matter of the graver
crimes, such as homicide. He said that
there was tendency in the minds of a
great many people to severely condemn
the lesser evils, such as crap shooting,
the illicit sale of liquor, chicken steal
ing ETC., while the graver offenses,
such as homicide, perjury etc, were Of
tentimes condoned. He said that the
finished criminal usually assembled the
ladder of crime gradually, beginning
with the lesser crime, which if allowed
to go unpublished, would serve to en-
holden him, and his next offense would
be of a graver nature, until the ultimate
outcome would be the taking of human
life. Where as, if the initial crime
were promptly and severely punished,
1T might serve to end the criminal
career of the prisoner and have a
tendency to make useful citizen of
him in future. He urged the body of
whom these remarks were addressed to
ferret out the smaller offenses and
thereby perhaps save some future body
from having to look into crimes of a
more serious nature.
The Judge placed stress upon the
rapidly growing evil of cigarette smok-
ing among the youth of the country; he
quoted instances and statistics in sup
port of his remarks, which served to
show that the records of many of the
minor penal institutions, such as the
schools of reform and houses of cor
rection, showed that great majority
of the young criminals who were sent
to them were confirmed cigarette
smokers. and that in their opinion the
smoking of these 'coffin nails were
their initial steps in crime.
Judge Hardin also gave rigid instruc-
ton as to the sale of cocaine, morphine,
opium, and such drugs as were cal
culated to lower the moral standard of
those who were addicted to their use,
and pointed to the fact that the sale of
these drugs was rapidly growing evil,
and urged that the grand jury inquire
diligently in to whether or not they
were being sold illicitly in Garrard
county.
Another matter that came in for a
rigid instruction from His Honor was
the giving away of the secrets of the
grand jury chamber; the seeking of the
shifting of responsibility from the
shoulders of one to the other, this
practice he condemned as the basest of
traitorism, pointing to the penalty for
such offense, and urging that what
transpired in the grand jury room
might be kept inviolate in the breasts
of the members of that body.
The Instructions of Judge Hardin i'm
pressed forcibly upon the minds of his
hearers the fact that he was making a
deep study of criminology. a one i'm
portant feature of the work with which
he has to do, and that he was studying
crime with view of lessening as we'll
as furnishing it, and that his studies in
cluded the lesser as we'll as the graver
crimes, resulting in the conclusion that
crime was progressive in its character.
and that by seeking to check it in it's
incipiency, its minor stages, that a
great many of the greater crimes could
be avoided.
Judge Emmett Puryear was on hand
promptly, ready to look after the in
terests of the Commonwealth, as was
Green Clay Walker, the recently elect
ed County Attorney, who in his deal
ings with the offenders before this, his
initial court, showed an aptitude that
would have done credit to one who had
seen years of experience in the pro-
secution of criminals. Old reliable.
"Keg" Mason was smiling behind the
clerks desk, with Miss Sue Shelby
Mason as his efficient deputy. Sheriff
Curt A. Robinson introduced Messrs.
Tommie Ballard, Davis Sutton and
Miller Davis as his deputies, while
Uncle David Ross was "at home" to
his many friends in his old position as
jailer.
The Juries empaneled are as fol-
lows:-
Grand Jury.
w. NJ. McKechnie, W. X. Tudor.
Milton Dean. S. II. Estes.
K. c. Boain, Walton Mos.
II. B Cox, John a.. BroaGdus.
W. R. Kelly, ). p liam.
L. Z Suidge, A. b. Brown.
Foreman.