| Show BAD LAWS IN FORCE IT looks like getting back to the old puritanical period of new england to prosecute a woman for bling being ina a common scold yet that is what was done at jersey city N J the other day the defendant in the case was mrs mary brady she was indicted upon the complaint of a neighbor the witnesses who appeared before the grand jury all testified that mrs brady had a voluble and noisy tongue and by means of its intemperate and continuous use had disturbed the peace and quiet of the neighborhood and she was a public nuisance the trial was an interesting proceeding ce As would be supposed the court room was crowded the evidence for the prosecution was all direct and certain and there was a good god deal of it several of the defendants fend ants neighbors being called as witnesses it all bore strongly upon the unfortunate woman whose defense was rather weak and consisted mainly of a general denial by herself and her husband and one or two colored persons the jury were out only a few minutes and returned with a verdict of guilty she was remanded for sentence under the blue laws the punishment of this offense was a 9 certain number of dips with a contrivance known as the ducking stool it consisted of a long beam extending some distance over a 9 pond being supported near the centre by an upright to the outer end a chair was fastened and in this the cand candidate nate for im immersion m arsion was placed she was then lowered into the water as many times as the sentence called for this was considered beneficial in several ways it upheld the mai majesty 4 esty of the law was a terrible warning to others it cooled the victims distempered blood and provided her with an effective bath all in one operation with the advance of civilization all this is no more and in its stead we or at least the people of new jersey have created a law which changes the punishment to imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine in the discretion of the court in other ether words for using the weapon which nature gave her for her own benefit and other peoples discomfiture at times we cannot endure to be so unenlightened and uncivil as to go back to the penalty of a hundred years or more ago ao 00 we just inflict the same punishment j that we do in cases of burglar yi sheep stealing and the likel A queer sort of advancement rather in utah in all the territories and we believe in all the states out side of the northwest corner there is no such statute as the one referred to in new jersey if there were any such it would only be smiled 94 at the justice of the peace or other officer who would attempt to enforce it would became a laughing stock the better sentiment and feelings of man would not tolerate it any more than they would tolerate the duck ing stool itself we have a general j law in relation to disturbances of the peace the extreme penalty in any case being only one fourth of what the new jersey law provides and ours goes far enough litt it was intended to be broad enough to reach a class clam of cases which nearly amount to a specific offense of a higher class clam but do not and to be used against chronic offenders it is hardly ever eer used to frame an indict ment upon when there are of anses against it not being considered serious enough to justify the attention of a grand jury a justice of the peace can usually try such a case in a few minutes and if the defendant to is found guilty a fine of a few dollars dollan is imposed nothing more and all courts are supposed to relax the rule when the defendant is a woman more particularly if her offense is giving way to a natural infirmity delaware is also in the category of commonwealths whose criminal laws are not hot in all respects abreast 4 with the civilization and enlighten m ment nt of the age it retains the barbarous whipping post as a method of punishment for a certain 1 class clam of oi cases and no distinction to is allowed on account of sox sex to mako make a it as bad as possible the whipping to is done in public in a place where SO ab can see well the culprit is stripped and the lashes are laid on the bar bam back with a stalwart arm it is singular that sufficient pressure can not be exerted from all around tp effect a repeal of such barbarities |
