THE KANGAROO COURT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1714, 19 June 1884, Page 2

THE KANGAROO COURT.

The Kangaroo Court is an institution of the south-west. It exists in nearly every well regulated jail, and is not infrequently, organised outside these institutions, Not long ago a party of cowboys came to town for purpose of' having a little fun, anjd in the course of their rambles they came across a fellow from Houstan/a tough character, but one not at all familiar with the ways of the wild man of the ' plains. He drank and caroused with them until late in the night, and, finally, on the instigation of a few of his companions, he threw a beer ke ff through a store front. The echo of ' the crashing glass had hardly died out before he found 1 himself a prisoner, with his arms pinioned behind him, and an armed guard surrounding him. He was marched out of town for some miles to a desolute spot, where the entire party camped uiitil daybreak. The light showed the prisoner that most of his friends of . the previous night were with him still, but there . were half-a-dozen other men, who appeared to be officers of some' description, whom he had not seen before. He was duly arrainged, not only for the window-breaking, but for a dozen other offences, murder and arson being of the number; and notwithstanding his protests of innocence, the court proceeded to try him on each of the indictments in their ordeir; For the window-breaking he was sentenced to twenty lashes, for arson to ten years' imprisonment, for murder to be hanged by the neck until he was dead, for assault with iatent to kill to be imprisoned at hard labor for twenty years, for horse-stealing to be hanged, for deserting from the army to be shot, and so on, The proceedings were conducted with the utmost solemnity, and lasted all day, the prisoner's pretended friends exerting themselves in his behalf, but being unable to movo the Court lo mere/. The next morning the Kangaroo judge announced the order of exercises, As the prisoner was an uncommonly guilty person, he said, he would have to even up his punishment some way. If he was hanged pr shot at once he would escape the just penalties for his other crimes, ! .Imprisonment'would not answer, for the length of his sentences would, give him a good ' opportunity to die of old age,. It was the judgment of the court, therefore, that he should first be whipped, theJP*" ducked in the river, then whipped again, then shot at and crippled, but not killed, and then hanged,' This the Court 1 considered the most merciful sentence it'could impose, and at the same time do justice to outraged law. The man first remonstrated, and then begged, but to no avail. He was whipped and ducked, and whipped again, and was being "put in place for the crippling act, when his prosecutors got into a quarrel among themselves over the precedence in wringing .him. The court had been drinking during the day, and a good many of the hoys were quarrelsome. In the course of the fight which ensued the prisoner managed to escape.—ln the Mobeetie gaol the prisoners, twelve or fifteen in number, has, during the day the privilege of walking or sitting in the corridor, being locked in'the cells only at night. A big negro named Caffrey was one day arrainged for some breach of propriety and tried with great formality. The arrangements alone lasted nearly a week, and after he was' found guilty by jury, who played seven up to settle the case, it was shown by the prisoner's counsel that the jurymen had played with a short deck of sards, and the Court thereupon gave him a,new trial, This wag more protracted than the'first, but.it finally resulted .in conviction and /a sentence to life imprisonment. Caffrey was thereupon escorted to his call, and the door was closed. Once or. twice when the turnkey unlocked the/boys in the morning the negro walked out with the others, but they immediately, ordered hi'm back, unmindful of his entreaties, After he had been thus : kept in solitary . confinement for a fortnight, the jail authorities had Ijo interfere' in his behalf, and .the Court'-'withl diie solemnity, held, a .session with the 'culprit present, 're-opening his case, and formally granted him an uncondibieual pardon.—Qonzales (Texa«) Letter. "