Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1889 — How the Books Don't Sell. [ARTICLE]

How the Books Don't Sell.

The great Cronin trial has ended in the sentencing of three of the parties, O’Sullivan, Coughlin and Burke to imprisonment for life, one of them, Kunze, to three years’ imprisonment and in the acquittal of Beggs. To a great many, perhaps the majority of people, this sentence will appear too lenient; but so far as the three who have life sentences, at least, TheßepubLlCan is disposed to regard the penalty as sufficient. It is true that the murder of Cronin was a most atrocious and cold-blooded butchery, but at the same time we are disposed to believe that these men who have been on trial, although they actually committed the murder, are uot the most guilty parties to the crime. They were, in a greater or less degree, the dupes and tools of abler men, and were probably led by the designing chiefs of the triangle to really believe that Cronin was a British spy and a traitor to the Irish cause, whose death would be a service to Ireland. Of course such a belief upon their part would not by any means be a justification of their crime, but it may, at least, be considered an extenuating circumstance,’ in a very limited .. degree. '

The result of the Remley trial at Monticello, adds oue more to the countless instances of the failure of justice through the illogical practice of requiring a unanimous „ juiy., .in.Qidei\.to.fipd. <r a.ye,edict, and of th e unreasonable and j usticedefeating nature of the rules of evidence and court practice. Here was a case where a man, highly esteemed by all of his neighbors whose good opinions were worth having, an industrious, peacable and moral man, and a man of whom none could be found to express an unfavorable opinion of, but whose misfortune it was to live in close proximity to, and to become involved in a quarrel with three men, whose standing in the community is, apparently, in all respects, the reverse of what the other’s was.

The three men have repeatedly threatened dreadful violence and even death to the one man, and he, through repeated warnings of his friends, adopts the, to him, unfamiliar practice of carrying a weapon to defend his life. The man goes out on the public highway, towards the close of the day, for a legitimate purpose. He sees his three enemies in or near the road which he thought to pass, and takes a different route to avoid them. They see the man and knowing which way he is likely to return to his home, they lay in wait and intercept him. Two of them meet him first and make as though they would seize his horse. Knowing as he does of their malignity towards him, the man shows his revolver, commands them to let him alone, and he then rides by, trying to go home in

peace. A little further on the third of his three enemies rushes out upon him, with a drawn revolver, and with threats of death in words and acts. The man whose life is thus put in deadly and wanton peril, does what any man should do under like circumstances, and defends himself as best be can, but he is wounded in the encounter thus forced upon him, and is twice wounded as he tries to get away from the place. Wounded so greviously that he escapes death only by a hair’s breadth. The man who thus attempts and barely fails of a wilful murder, is put on trial; all the facts are clearly proven, by unshaken evidence, while what poor evidence there is upon the side of the accused man, is given by his two near relatives who are implicated in the crime and whose evidence is refuted by all the circumstances and utterly descredited by the sworn o pin ions of all their near neighbors whom the court would peimit to testify on that point; while not a single man is put upon the witness stand to say that he thinks them worthy of belief. The case is given to the jury and at first nearly all of them are in favor of vindicating outraged justice, but two or three of their number have their minds irrevocably fixed upon an acquittal of the prisoner, and their resolution finally prevails against the others’ sense of justice, and the verdict is not guilty. Such verdicts are a travesty upon justice and thri direct cause of a very large proportion of the crimes committed in this country to-day.

The township trustees have all made their first quarterly report to the County Superintendent in regard to the number of the new Indiana series of text books, received and sold by them. The report shows that, so far, a very small number of the books have gone into use in this county. The total number of books of all kinds, sold in the entire county, exclusive of the writing books, is only 183, and the money realized upon them, and turned over to the Superintendent is M 4-70. The total number of the books received in the county is 6160, and their value, at selling prices, $2,267.70. Less than two per cent, of the books ordered and received by the trustees have been sold. The townships in which the largest numbers of the hooks have been sold, are Carpenter 51, Jordan 33, Union 30. Of the 51 books sold in Carpenter, it may be stated that not more than two or three are in use in the schools of this county, but were sold to residents of White county, where the County Board of Education has enforced their general use. Rensselaer, Remington and Wheatfield report no books sold, at all, while Hanging Grove has sold only one, a first reader. trustee of Marion has sold five, but they were all bought by a resident of Rose Lawn, in Newton county. The writing books, supplied under the law, are taking better, as 676 have been sold, at a total amount of $33.80.