The Frontier.
nJMJHIBn EVERY THURSDAY RY
THE FRONTIER PRINTING COMPANY
KINO * CHONIN. Editohs.
OUR COUNTY COURT.
It bu ever been tbe policy ot thin
paper to refrain from criticinin< Hit
court* of our country. We bave alwaya
maintained that our Judiciary la an hon
e«t and Impartial one, believing that to
lose faith In the court* was to loae
faith In the stability of our institution*
and our government. While we have
often diuented from the opinion* of
lome of our Judges, we bave never yet
openly accuied ajurlit of being dlshon
eit In a decision. W'e would not do
that. It *avor* too strongly of popu
lism, and populism In that respect I* not
a step removed from anarchy. And *o
We Hand In regard to Judge McCulchan
admitting to nominal ball men charged
with murder In the first degree. Some
of onr citizens, overcome with indigna
tion, charge the court with being cor
rupt, but we do not look at It in that
light. We give him credit with being
sincere, but at the same time we believe
he la misguided and wrong. He draws
hie Inspiration from populist sources and
polishes his legal acumen with the brick
dust of vandalism. But at the same
time we say we do not question hi* hon
esty, but ascribe hta error to his political
environment and uncultured partisan
MauusivB. a un% lie cumiiiuiu j grievous
error In admitting to ball Elliott, Mulli
han and Harrii, charged with the murder
of Barrett Scott, there le no question In
our mind. The constitution safe that
murder shall not be bailable where the
“proof la evident or the presumption
great." In thil case the three men
mentioned were positively Identified as
participants in the crime. They were
sworn to by three witnesses. Not a
word was Introduced by them in rebut
tal. Then was not the proof evident?
Was not the presumption great T The
testimony upon which the county judge
gave his opinion would hang those three
men higher than Qilderoy's kite. They
stood self-convicted. And then the idea
of a 18,000 bondl Why, in that very
court when Dell Alkln was arrested
for complicity in the Scott defalcation
a bond of 818,000 was required. When
Scott was arrested for defaulting he was
required to give a bond of 870,000. Is
human life, then, held by a pop court to
be worth less than a few paltry dollars?
We-say the decision of the judge is
Without parallel or precedent. The very
Officer who should exert himself to
eecure the conviotlon of criminals has
lent himself an instrument to their
acquittal. He has taken it upon himself
to dispute the uncontradicted evidence
•of reliable witnesses. He must have
tlone this, for otherwise he never could
have arrived at the conclusion that the
proof was not evident or the presump
tion not great.
Thb Frontiih does not desire to pre
judioe the case of the prisoners at
bar. They are entitled to the benefit
of all doubt, and must be taken as inno
cent until proven guilty. We have no
doubt hut that they will be on hand for
trial, but that Is not the question; as
men charged with the commission of
this crime they have the rights guaran
teed them by the constitution and no
more. Upon the evidence introduced
before County Judge McCutchan, bail is
not one of those rights.
VIGILANTES VS. LAW.
The murder of Barrett Scott has celled
to mind more forcibly then ever before,
perhaps, the danger of men organizing
for the purpoee of enforcing lawt not
upon the etatute book*, and inflicting
penalliea not preicribed therein.
Vigilance committees, while organized
in the name of the law, are lawless and
create a more dangerous element than
they are meant to suppress. They are
a menace to society and good govern
ment. While a committee whose sole
purpose and practice would be to appre
hend criminals and turn them over to
officers of the law would harm no one,
•yet it is notorious that none of them stop
there. They go further. They consti
tute themselves a court, judge and jury—
have an ex-parte hearing and convict
their victim without giving him his day
in court. The punishment in this county
is unusually severe. Nothing but a
human life can atone for the least in frac
tion of the vigilantes’ code.
The well-meaning man who lends his
presence and counsel to one of these
organisations is laboring under a mis
taken idea of law and justice. When
he takes their iron-clad oath and sub
scribes to their constitution and by-laws
he steps upon a lower plane of civiliza
tion. He is retrogressive.
It is well known that these organise
lions are n liavcn for characters who
should he the first to receive punish
ment. They arc forced to Join for their
personal safety, and once in they dictate
the policy of the organization and bring
opprobrium upon the heads of the Inno
cent a* well as the guilty. They pro
ceed immediately to turn the guns of
their society against personal enemies
aod murder men In the name of the law
When one of their men is arrested by
an officer of thu legal law for some
offense committed while acting vigi
lant, the society is naturally arrayed on
his side and found exerting itself to
thwart the administration of justice in
the courts. This Is a natural sequence
and therein lies one of the greatest evils
of the practice. It at once arrays the
vigilantes against the rest of society;
against the people who depend upon the
laws ot the country for their protection.
If this practice is continued It must
Inevitably lead to anarchy and chaos.
People who do not join the vigilantes
will be compelled to band together for
protection, and then will come incen
diarism, riot, rapine and bloodshed.
Tiib Frontier does not believe that
a regular vigilance committee murdered
Ilarrett Scott, hilt It knows that the mere
being of an organization of that char
acter lets down the bars to any man or
men who wish to do violence. It 1b
well known that the society will be
blamed for every deed that Is committed.
All honest, law-abiding citizens of our
county should hasten to sever connec
tions with vigilance committees—If con
nections they may have—for their day
of usefulness is long past. The laws of
our state are all right aud they should he
enforcod.
This Is the view Tub Frontier takes
of this question and all sentiment here
tofore expressed not consistent herewith
Is hereby repealed, and as an emergency
exists this act shall take effect and be In
force from this time on.
▲RE WE UNDULY PARTISAN?
The Plainvlew News takes this paper
severely to task for intimating that the
pops are responsible for the death of
Barrett Scott, and says that we are
“intensely purtisan.” The poet Pope
ouce wrote that a man could reason but
from what be knew, and accepting that
as true, it would be out of place to
expect much reason from the News, for,
from its article we are convinced that it
doesn’t know much. We, however, ad
mire the fine quality of nerve it displays
In attempting to give Tnn Frontier
pointers upon the condition of affairs
now existing in this county. The News
Is not qualified to educate this paper
upon matters pertaining to Holt county
politics and populism. We were here
before the pop party was botn, and since
it came into existence have attentively
observed its course and are therefore
competent to speak intelligently of its
record. When we sa/ that the pops are
responsible for the murder of one of our
citizens—without meaning to reflect
upon those not cognizant that the crime
was about to be committed—we mean
just what we say. As an evidence of
the correctness of our assertion we point
to the fact that the men who were once
prominent in persecuting Scott while
alive, are now more prominent, if pos
sible, in defending his murderers, fur
nishing bail bonds, etc. The pops them
selves have made the Scott tragedy a
political issue. They have done this by
their actions if not by open assertion.
Instead of exertiug themselves to bring
outlawry to justice they have publicly
shown sympathy for the villains and
secretly connived with them for their
acquittal. The sympathy for these fel
lows is abundaut among their political
associates. It is in the air and the court
room atmosphere was permeated with
it. It could be felt in the titter that rus
uuu among a certain class or the
audience when the attorney for the
defense took occasion to make light of
the uncontradicted testimony of one of
the witnesses for the prosecution. Wheu
the News says that “ the populists in
Holt county are as law abiding as any
body and will labor just as unceasingly
to bring the slayers of Scott to justice,”
it makes a statement that is tragic, in a
sense, and ludicrous in erery letter. For
the benefit of this very smart editor of
Plalnview we give below a little conver
sation that took place last summer
between a couple of the rural leaders of
populism in this county. The conver
sation, as far as it goes, is verbatim.
The names of the men are wltheld for
the present but can be furnished if occas
ion should ever require. Tub Fron
tier is able to produce this evidence of
anarchy because it heard the statements
made and quietly wrote them down
while ‘the statesmen with shoe-brush
hair little dreamed that there was a
“chiel amang them takin’ notes." Uere
is what they said:
First Pop—We ought to have dyna
mite, that’s what we ought to have, and
blow ’em up. The trouble is there is
not enough men in Holt county that has
the backbone to take them out and hang
them.
Second Pop—Yes there is, there is
enough in our precinct.
First Pop—Well, why don’t they get
together.
Second Pop—All they want is a leader.
First Pop—Our courts is a farce and a
mock on decency and honesty. The
bringing of that Bartow down here, and
see the way he worked on that Scott
case, and Kinkaid just the same thing,
and they will keep on until the people
won't stand it, and will get together and
hang and kill about fifty. The govern
uient i» just (lie came. The American
people are a long suffering people but
they will keep on until the people will
raise lip.
The Frontier does not wish to be
understood as Haying that every popu
list in Holt county is imbued with the
above sentiment, or that It has been
grafted into their platform, but we do
wish to be understood as meaning that
the sentiment prevails to an alarming
extent. It prevailed to au extent suftl
cient to cause the murder of Barrett
Scott. Uaymarket in its palmiest days
was not a circumstance to the populist
hotbed of old Holt. Is it much wonder
that Tiir Frontier Is “intensely par
tisan?"
Kvrn a casual mention of the Scott
case has the effect of throwing the
majority of the populists into spasms.
The party must accept the consequences.
Through unwise and incendiary utter
ances they have built up a public senti
ment of which the lynching of Scott in
but a sequence.—Neligli Leader,
Wm. Bowrn, in last week’s Tribune,
very truthfully remarks that "all one
has to do is to bo on the other side from
Uam and he is a liar, a thief and a hyp
ocrite and ought to be hung.” This
opinion is consistent with a thorough
knowledge of the Jew’s record, lie
imagines that a man who differs from
him politically has no right to live, and
some of them don't.
Holt county's relief commission has
proven itself a blessing to many a poor
family this winter, but it will find that
its hardest work is yet to come. Bpring
will find our poorer class of farmers
without feed for their horBes or seed for
their land, of money with which to buy
the sabie. Time should be taken by the
forelock in this matter and arrange
ments made in plenty of time.
Tub Lrdoeh does not claim that the
murder of Barrett Scott is chargeable to
the populist party of this county. In
order to vindicate their own honor it is
their duty to push the prosecution of the
perpetrators of the crime till the last one
is ferreted out and punished. They have
the county government in their own
hands and the responsibility of this mat
ter rests upon their own shoulders. Their
duty is plain and it remains to be seen
how well they will discharge it. The
eyes of the whole state are turned upon
Holt county. If this county expects to
have any standing iu the state, if it ex
pects to have any immigration hereafter,
if property is expected to have any value,
this foul blot must be wiped out.—Stuart
Ledger.
It is brought to the notice of Tub
Fkontieu, by letter from D. C. Harri
son, secretary of the relief
committee at Emporia, Nob., that there
is considerable destitution in that com
munity. Perhaps the public might gain
a better idea by reading Mr. Harrison’s
own words. He says: “One woman
buried here last Monday. Heath caused
by lack of proper food and nourishment.
Shocking that such things should hap
pen in Holt, but it is the gad truth.
Other deaths would have occurred be
fore this if we had waited on red tape.
There are families here who have had
nothing to eat since the holidays except
what was given them, and have had
nothing to burn but cow chips, except
wood given them by the neighbors.’’
This matter should receive prompt atten
tion from the Holt county relief com
mission, and an effort made to relieve
the distress in that community.
I NOW REALLY, DOESN’T
^ THIS STRIKE YOU AS A
iBig Burmin?
A BOY’S SUIT,
confuting; of n double breasted coat s
and short pants All Wool, mind you, t
tirst-class—good aud strong.
A PAIR OF EXTRA PANTS
to match tlio suit.
A PRETTY CAP
made of the same cloth as the coat j
and two pairs of pauts are made from,'
AND A PAIR OF SHOES,
of solid leather—neat, stylish, vet as I
strong as a brick. 1
ALL FOR
$5s00
We call them the
! HUB’S “HEAD-T0-F00T”
'BOY’S OUTFITS.
You'll call them the greatest bar
gain of your life when you see them
LET US SEND YOU ONE.
#5.75 will bring one, all charges
prepaid to any part of the TJ. or
we 11 send you one t\ O. I). with priv
ilege of examination before acceo
tance, if you'll send us fl.oo on ac
count to securo express charges.
* A VI PUIS OF CLOTH and 80- page
11 lust rated Catalogue FBEE on an
piiention.
!THE HUB,
N. W. Cor. State and Jackson St*. |
CHICAGO, ILL., |
America's Largest Retail Dealers in Hen's j
Clothing, Boys's Clothing, Furnishing floods, I
Hats, Shoes for both Sexes, and Ladies'
• Cloaks and Furs la the United States.
| The Huh has no Branch Stores anywhere. ]
O’NEI LL BUS1 NESS DIRECTORY
J£ It. DICKSON
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Reference First National Bank
O'NEILL, NEB.
C. SMOOT,
FASHIONABLE BARBER.
DEALER IN OIQARB, ETO.
jjn, J, p. GILL1GAN,
PHYSIC AN AND SURGEON.
Day and night calls promptly attended to.
Oflloe In Holt County Bank building.
O’NEILL, NEB. •
E.H
. BENEDICT,
LAWYER,
Oflloe In the Judge Roberta building, north
of O. O. Snyder's lumber yard,
0 NRILL, NEB.
w.
R, BUTLER,
ATTORNEY ATLAW.
Agent for Union Trust Go’s land In Holt
County.
Will practice In all the courts. Special at
tentlon given to foreclosures and collections
JJR. B. T. TRUEBLOOD
PHYSICIAN & SURGEON
Diseases of she Eye and Ear and fitting
glasses a specialty. Office hours 9 to 12 a. m.
and 2 to5p. rn.
Office first door west of Helnerikson's
Successors to
R. R. DICKSON A CO.
Abstracters of Titles.
Complete set of Abstract Books.
Terms reasonable, and absolute ac
curcy guaranteed, for which we have
given a 910,000 bond as required
under the law.
/.
Correspondence Soliced
O’NEILL, HOLT COUNTY NEB.
HOTEL
--]h VANS
Enlarged
Refurnished
Refitted
Only First-class Hotel
In the City.
W. T. EVANS, Prop.
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