OCR Text |
Show A Little Matter Of Contempt THE Good Book tells us that the love between Jonathan and David was closer than the love between brothers. What is the matter with Judge Lewis of the criminal division of the district court? We thought his love for the Herald-Republican not only exceeded brotherly love, but that it was a love passing the love of woman. In times past His Honor has gone out of his way to make revenue rev-enue for the Herald-Republican at the expense of less ambitious journals. While sitting as "a judge he has also taken on some of the attributes of an attorney, and has had his favorite clients. We do not think he got any money for his services, but he is such a broad and genial gentleman that It was enough for him to know that the Herald-Republican Herald-Republican was grateful. So jovial was he over it that, to oblige that sheet, ho went out of his way and put a strained construction on law, which developed nothing except that he was either eith-er gangrene by prejudice or that somewhere in his cranium, a part of the gray matter was in a trance. But a few days ago a confessed murderer was arraigned in his court, and the Smoot paper, with Its usual enterprise, pulled out of the musty tomes of forgotten documents a confession made by this same murderer and published It, published it, too, just when the attorneys were selecting a jury to try Riley to see whether he was really guilty of what he confessed or not. It is near the vacation season for some of the judges. Naturally Nat-urally with that confession staring the public in the face, those who read it and who were called as jurors had made up their minds on the case and were incompetent to sit on the aforesaid murderer, mur-derer, and soften his way down to that day when, if the law does not miscarry, he will never aftei be a dangerous citizen in any community. The difficulty was so great in selecting a jury that, when that confession was published, the judge, so it is said, fearing that the delay would infringe on his vacation, grew violently angry, even at his friend the Hera,ld-Republican, and with a good deal of dramatic effect declared that that enlight-oned enlight-oned journal should be hailed into court to give a reason why it should not be punished for contempt. con-tempt. That grieved all who know Judge Lewis well, because they dislike to Bee him aroused, knowing how desperate and dangerous a quiet man like him mighj; be under intense excitement; they trembled for the Herald-Republican even those who do not Jove it, were fearful of consequences, conse-quences, fearful lest the Judge might forget that extreme punishment is forbidden by the i . Happily a jury was at last obtained and tuo judge wa,s seemingly pacified, because the attorneys at-torneys had exhausted most of their strength in getting the jury and had little left on which to 'H try the prisoner. H But now the other criminal, Thome, the part- jH ner of Riley, has been arraigned and the Herald- 'H Republican, forgetful of all its obligations to the learned judge, has published the confession of .H Thome. At this writing it is impossible to know H just what thoughts are raging in the brain of the learned judge; it is just possible that he cannot H express himself, that he feels as though the lim- H it had been passed and is too incoherent to ex- press his own feelings. We grieve for him; when H a judge has important trials to preside over, why ' should he himself be tried by the machinations of 'H depraved reporters on a high class journal? Wo M have no cause to sympathize with Judge Lewis, H but in the natural generosity of our hearts we M cannot help it; we cannot help but feel it, and M to think that it is a long road that has no turn, H and that chickens, whether they be bantam or H Shanghai's will come home to roost. We sympa- H thize with Judge Lewis because of his evident 'H weakness in the matter of reading human nature. M When he picked up th Herald-Republican and H decided that not even a petty larceny five dollar H summons should be advertised in anything else M except that paper, or its co-worker, the News, M because in his judgment that paper was without M guile, and that the ink on its types was a little M purer ink than on any other types, we had a sus- M picion even then that the day would come when M some luckless reporter on that paper, or some misguided city editor, would unconsciously make ' tfie judge trouble, and we were reminded of the M story of the woman who called her husband an M old fool, and all the remark he could make was M to admit the fact and in the proof of it to cite H how he married. H We hope this trial of Mr. Thorne will be dis- H posed of in due season and the judge will be H given his annual vacation. We hope so for two H reasons: whatever change the vacation may make . H in the judge must be for the better, and in the H meantime the cause of justice will not suffer by H his absence. Indeed should the leave of absence H granted the learned judge be made permanent, H still we think the cause of justice would not ser- H iously suffer, because of that absence. There is H not much in all this except to remind the judge H himself that when a learned judge bends down H from tho bench to engago in a petty larceny at- tempt to benefit a friend, at the expense of some- H one else that he does not love, he does not harm 'H the particular object of his emnity which he aims H at, half as much as he does his own reputation H as a jurist, an incorruptible judge and a gentle- H man. fH |