Show e A SKETCH OF RECENT PRO THE trin public mind has been considerably exer exercised i alsed f for or some time over the proceedings which have been taken to p purge this city of some of its social evils different views have been entertained as to the and the means adopted to effect that object in order to arrive at correct conclusions clu ciu it is necessary that the facts should be clearly understood these have been extensively developed and brought to the surface surface during the prosecution 0 e uton 0 of f B 1 Y hampton for tor alleged fe e d husir Ou sIr piracy a ey they may be ascertained a in ed from th the following olo 1 wing in the attack upon the plural family relations of the latter day saints the announcement was made in open court by the prosecuting attorney that the edmunds law under which the assault was made was not aimed at the common sexual vices of the age but that etwas it was intended specially to apply to unlawful cohabitation in the marriage relation in the habit and repute of marriage or in other words to mormon gases cases alone the cout cou t sustained this view of the case and further stated in explanation that sexual crimes were supposed to be punished by the local laws and to be under police regulations the character of the crusade was thus openly avowed and it was made certain that the law supposed to apply to all persons who in t the h e language ot of its third section cohabit t with more 0 re than one woman 11 was on only y to be a applied lied to mormon case cases s that F is it it was to be brought dow down n with all its force upon men who believed they were doing right but not tc ton tot touch in the slightest manner men who knew they wera were doing wrong although the former class co cohabited habited with more than one wife under strict religious regulations while the latter cohabited cohabit edwith with as many women as they pleased without any regulations whatever this was looked upon by many maby people as a j lug jug ug handle handie sort of justice it was thought that the law should be impartial in its intent and impartial in its operations and seeing that the federal courts are devoted to the per ae cution of polygamist s it was thought thattie that the local courts should take the hint of the federal judges and prosecute the offenders against law ana and and chas city but the question was how howls is proof against those criminals to be obtained yke yge the natural answer was by te lie means of detectives it baswell was well weil known that certain men were in the habit of visiting houses of ill fame that among them werd some of the federal officials some of the picked selected as suitable to indict and ana convict mormons cormons Mor mons for polygamy doiy DOly gamy and some of the moral reformers who were loudmouthed loud mouthed in lir urging ing the crusade for the protection of home and the family they were watched going into and coming out of noted haunts of infamy in this city and on its outskirts but the positive proofs of their guilt which it was well known would be necessary in such cases were difficult to obtain former experience in which federal courts had ruled against the municipal officers in vigorous attempts to suppress houses devoted to shameful vice warned those who entered on this work what they might expect to encounter aco wco unter the he keepers of the noted established palaces of sin knew that their guilt earned bread was buttered best by guarding their patrons there was no nope hope of assistance from them it was only by the means that were adopted conclusive evidence could be obtained arrangements were entered into with women who were willing mug lug for a monetary consideration to furnish the appointments point ments by which detection could DP e made complete gentlemen who had bad some means to spare supplied the money mr nir hampton engaged as principal in ahe the work others aided him as witnesses in the houses which those women engaged for tor their filthy business access was had at all hours by such persons as mr hampton and his aids coose chose to be present in secret when vile men rell roll sorted to those places fod tov lewdness wv the evidence was thus obtained v the disclosures that have been made of scenes enacted in those places in which howling anti polygamists and pious persecutors lot the bior mormons cormons Mor Alor mons ibous have taken prominent part are tame in comparison to others that might be made the bestiality degradation and foul obscenity of some sowe of the godless wretches who cloak their festering cor rup lion llon under a garbot garb of res respectability ct ability and seek to divert attention Z by y virulent verbal attacks on the mormons cormons Mor mons are too shocking and disgusting to detail or even hint at in a public journal eyewitnesses eye witnesses whose word cannot be impeached baube can cau be produced to proe rove roie all an and much more than we have eave nere referred to some of those witnesses are not afraid to testify in n court of what they have havo seen and heard the proofs are co complete molete As soon as an inkling of the possible ba se exposure of these things was obtained the whole genille Gen tiie lile 01 fraternity was in a furore the idea that the male participant in the crime ot of prostitution tit ution should be punished was preposterous post t erous enous and alarming proceedings a agal against n st the f emale female criminals were all right not only the beasts w who h 0 had been caught in their infamy were aroused but others who knew of their own iniquity at places to which the police had no access were in a frenzy of fear something had to be done to suppress this terrorizing nemesis money was subscribed to defeat the prosecution cution of the criminals some of the guilty ones found business away I 1 rond froin the city for a season when U US S deputy marshal oscar C van VaD vandercook dercook was arrested under a city ordinance that had done occasional service against male as well as female prostitutes for ten years a mighty effort was put forta to prevent the evidence from being presented the smirched smirch ed deputy was taken from the police court by a habeas cor corpus pios pits the ordinance was pronounced invalid by the federal court then he was arrested under statute this was tested in the same court but was oo 00 strong to be treated in the same way then an appeal from the habeas corpus decision was taken direct to the supreme court of the united states that this federal official might mi ht defeat justice and the boast was made that wore before the case could be heard beard the man who was the means of his prosecution would have served out a term of imprisonment for detecting him film in his crime I 1 it was hoped then that the prosecutions would cease the lec lechers lechars tiers liers began to breathe more freely but assistant united states district attorney lewis and united states commissioner miss loner ioner Pearson with some others were tried in the justices court and found guity on testimony that was nol noc and could not be dis buted appeals were talento taken to the DI district strict court there prosecuting attorney varian publicly refused to prosecute the convicted violators ot of law and decency were set free and proceedings were instituted against mr mchampton hampton for engaging with WILLI the fallen women to caten eaten the lecherous men the two women who had engaged la the vile business and who had left the city after being paid for their detective work by which a long list of whoremongers whore was made up were sought t for as witnesses hot not against their com companions paulous in wickedness but against the man who had detected them the women were arrested and brought all the way from denver they were impressed with the idea that they were to be prosecuted and that it was hamptons Ham fault that they were brought into anio trouble one of them after being taken before Commis commissioner stoner mckay and placed under bonds again left tile the city and the bondsmen are are liable for tor 1500 1600 the other was kept in I 1 n prison till mr air hamptons Ham trial he was indicted for conspiracy the evidence against him was the testimony of that wretched woman to the effect that she had opened a house with ith money that te ie provided to corroborate this two grand jurymen juryman testified that mr hampton admitted betori the grand jury that he had furnished her money tor for that purpose se the conspiracy charged consisted of the alleged arrangement ran gement with the woman for the hiring and opening of the house to entrap men into crime abundant testimony was brought to prove that hr lir hampton made no such arrangement about the house but simply agreed to give the woman money for each person detected in crime at her house but a jury selected by marshal ireland landi landl pur purposely po ely and intentionally according cord dg t to 0 his Is own testimony under oath from a class of the community that is is hostile to mr hampton and his faith none being taken from the class to which he belongs had bad been paneled em to try thi case most of thau thac jurors ad miLLed that th they ey had formed an opinion upon it before the trial the rrose Prose etting attorney who would not prosecute the men proven guilty in the lower court of a gross and fla fia flagrant nant rant crime emptied the vials of vituperation of chic i lie he lid hid bild lild a full fill stock upon the head of mr hampton and the defendant was convicted of conspiracy sp iracy on the evidence which it is said he gave himself when explaining the whole c ase case frank franl frankly ly to the grani grand haryot jury that testimony he swears he did id not give and the witnesses only claim to relate their impressions of what he said two other grand j jurymen arylen testifying to a different impression now what has mr air hampton done according to all the evidence raked up on his trial he has worked with energy for a worthy end that is the prosecution of vile wretches who corrupt the social atmosphere who pretend virtue and practice vice who persecute good men and women and prostitute themselves who assail the mormons cormons Mor mons as criminals and are steeped to the eyes in crime who cry out lor for marital purity and wallow in the cesspools ces spools of 0 sexual corruption if mr hampton adopted questionable means to accomplish this object what others pray we were reopen open to him for the burp purpose to accuse him of partnership in the bu business of runn running inca inza a vile house bouse because be he en engaged aged to pay the women for detective work is simply a dastardly excuse to brihm him under the lashof lashot lash iash of the law ills his real offense in the eyes of his persecutors Is the th detection of the male le chers those who have aided him either by money or as witnesses of the crimes committed have endeavored to do a service to the public their motive was good they should have been sustained by the officers of the law and by the courts if their methods are condemned by the guilty and the friends of the guilty that does not affect the motive an and d purpose of the dete detec ellve elive ive lve work which they have accomplished complis hed if they have failed to bring the guilty to justice whose tault fault is it not theirs the fault lies with the federal prosecuting of officer fleer if their methods can be rightfully r condemned that will not make the blackness of the detected lechers lechars white if mr hampton ampton II is technically whick ruilt guilt guilty of any offense against the law which we by no means admit that does not prove rove the creatures convicted in the justices court innocent the public will look upon the whole prosecution for conspiracy as a conspiracy itself to set sit the guilty free and to mar make ce the innocent suffer sunner the bluster and rant of the prosecuting attorney against the men who have leen been in exposing the sexual criminals will not justify his refusal to conduct the cases appealed from the lower court it was clearly his duty to pi the men who i resorted to houses of ill fame for lor lewdness even if mr hampton was really guilty of conspiring to entrap them then the public should take note of this fact no jv juvenile enile enlie innocent has yeti yet been accused of frequenting those abodes of sin which have been under surveillance the parties caught are not guileless creatures led astray they are known offenders the object was not to draw the unsophisticated into sin but to prove he guilt of double dyed debauchees debau chees the th work was one oue oneff of suppression not creation this lioves proves the allegations of the prosecuting officer against mr hampton untrue he has detected crime not promoted it and if he had bad been sustained in his work by the federal court and officers the crime of prostitution in this city would very soon have been reduced to its lowest limits led lee the responsibility for the prevalence or of common sexual crimes rest where it belongs the edmunds law does not aim to suppress them the federal officials do not appear to want them suppressed judge zane has charged a grand jury twice to proceed against vile houses those who keep them and those who visit them for lewdness so far so good but hut who will detect the guilty gui ltv who will furnish information who will attempt to proceed in that direction with the kindol encouragement which has been given to it in the third district court As to the cases detected they should be prosecuted as far as the local courts can proceed the work has only begun the laborers therein should go on they should not be deterred by the obstacles placed in their wa wax way by tiem those who ought t to have aided them neither should they care for the ungenerous nerous comments of pretended friends the work was dirty it is true but it was necessary and was not made dirty oy by the detectives but by those whom they detected let the work be completed so faras far as it cabbe qan can be done and let the world see how much the officials here who make war upon poleg polygamy uny are interested 1 I in the cause of morality and virtue and in the protection of the american home |