Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1883 — JUSTICE. [ARTICLE]

JUSTICE.

The Report of Attorney General Brewster. The annual report of the Attorney General opens with a statement of the business of the Supreme court. At the close of the October term, 1881, there remained undisposed of on the appellate docket 836 causes and on the original docket 5. The number of causes docketed at the October term, 1882, were 434, of which 422 were on the appellate and 12 on the original docket, making the total number of causes on the docket at that term 1,275, of which 1,258 were on the appellate and 17 on the original docket. Of this number 874 were not disposed of, and of these 868 were on the appellate and 6 on the original docket. The number of cases actually, brought under consideration was 284, of which 1W were argued orally and 97 submitted on printed arguments. Of the 390 cases on the appellate docket disposed of 185 were affirmed, 60 revised, 33 dismissed, 79 settled and dismissed under the ninth rule, 4 dismissed in vacation under the twenty-eighth rule, and in 8 questions certified to the court were answered. The total number of causes disposed of at the October in which the United States were Interested is 74. Since the last report 772 suits, claiming upward of $9,000,000, have been brought against the United States, of which ten, claiming $1,256,046.26, were brought on transmission by the heads of departments under the act of March 3, 1883. chapter 116. There have also been brought fifty-one suits, claiming $162,155.17 against the District of Columbia under the act of June 16, 1880, as extended by the act of March 3,1883, chapter 95 The aggregate amount of judgments rendered in favor of the United States in civil suits during the last year was $1,735,820.63, and the amount actually collected on these judgments was $1,128,890.48, while $53,957.33 was’obtalned during the year on judgments rendered in former years for the United States, and $299,349.36 was otherwise realized in civil suits. The aggregate amount of fines, forfeitures and penalties imposed during the year in criminal prosecutions was $300,678.76, and the amount of those fines, forfeitures and penalties collected during the year was $65,817.76,whi1e $11,981.42 was realized on fines, forfeitures and penalties imposed in former years. The Attorney General urges the propriety of the concentration ot convicts sentenced by United States courts in some one prison. The condition of the several penal institutions under Federal management Is reported to be in the main satisfactory.

Digging out tarantulas and their nests has become quite an industry in Santa Barbara, Cal. The insects are suffocated with gas, then stuffed, dried and fastened to a card. The retail price is 50 cents each, but many hundreds are sold wholesale for $3 or $4 per dozen.