The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-03-07
Random Notes.

h Random Notes.
TT County Auditor Mcfarland is findin
the duties of his Office 80 arduous tha
b he asked the finance committee if tn
r county would stand for an assistan
'. to aid him. Whether the work of tn
Office has increased so materially sine
= the present Auditor took hold is no
!, told but it seems to be the style now t
. have assistants in all departments
4 lstenographers, typewriters and othe
help, that there does not seem to be any
reason why the Auditors Office should
be sighted. By all means provide every
method whereby the county's work may
be expedited. Extra expense is mino
consideration.
1t would be just as well, perhaps, il
the board Of freeholders had some fore
sight in their transactions 1t might save
trouble and expense. At the January
meeting the subject of bridges was
brought.up and it was decided to build
several structures and bids were adver-
tised for. The directoL at that meeting,
cautioned the members about going
ahead too strongly, and told them the
bridge account was likely to be drawn on
for more than it would stand But that
did not make any difference, and plans
were drawn, money expended for adver-
Using, bidders from a distance came
with their estimates and certified checks
as guarantee of good faith, and after
all the requirements had been filled the
board suddenly decided that it would
not be able to build the bridges adver-
tised to be put up, with one exception.
If this matter had been given careful at
tention at the January meeting, the last
action would not have been necessary.
Billy Sunday is waking Baltimore up
in his usual vigorous style. During the
time he has been an evangelist Billy
has gathered in over $4Oc, 900 in cold
cash, to say nothing of the many valu-
able presents he has received. When he
left Trenton group Of men in Mount
Holly were discussing the man and his
acts and one of them said: Suppose
Sunday was approached by some of the
citizens of the cities he has visited and
was told that he might do some more
good if he would return for short visit,
at the same time being told that it
would not be possible to raise him more
money and being asked to bear the ex-
pense on his own account, what would
the reply be?'' The answer seems to
have been given to committee from
Trenton who went to Baltimore and re-
quested the evangelist to give that city
which had contributed $32, 1853 for his
work-one day soon. Whether the re-
quest was that he pay his own expenses
is not known, but the answer was that
$50 many previous engagements had
been booked that it was impossible to
give favorable answer at that time"
This question was asked by man
who was spectator at court, on Thurs
day: "When defendant pleads guilty
what is the use of taking testimony be
fore imposing sentence" 70 those who
are at court at every session and who
follow the proceedings the wisdom of
taking testimony referred to is clearly
shown. The evidence is not for the pur-
pose of determining the guilt or inno-
cence Of defendant but to aid in fixing
the penalty to be imposed, and there
have been many instances where, if the
plea of guilty had been accepted without
getting into the real facts, an injustice
might have ensued owing to the severity |
of the sentence. Judge Lippincott goes
on the principle that every case before
him must be shown in its true light be-
fore he will punish defendant and
there have been several times when
severe punishment might have been
melted out on the simple plea of guilty, |
but where the sentence has been greatly |
modified after the charge has been1
thoroughly sifted. AS an instance OF
the wisdom of hearing case fully there
was the charge of carrying a concealed
deadly weapon preferred against color
ed man. He signed waiver of indict-
ment and pleaded guilty. He was
allowed to make statement and before |
he had finished it was shown that he
had a revolver in his possession when he
boarded trolley car in Camden, bound |
for Riverton. Hadthe matter stopped on
the plea of the man ne was deserving of
punishment, but the evidence left such
a doubt as to his guilt that the court
allowed him to 60. The facts in this
case led to the impression that the
wrong man was arrested. The trolley |
car conductor took the pistol from the
prisoner. This was done when the con-
ductor was asking for the mans fare.
AS this matter is attended to soon after
the car starts from Camden it looks as if
the man who had the concealed
weapon" was the conductor and that the
man who was arrested for the offence
was not guilty in Burlington county,
but if he was to be held at all he should
have been arrested in Camden county.
There is much zeal displayed in making
arrests and getting waivers of indictment
but when the cases are sifted out the
wonder is why the matters were ever
given the time and attention that were
expended on them.