AN UNDAUNTED JUDGE.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1093, 29 July 1873, Page 3

AN UNDAUNTED JUDGE.

The thieves, burglars, and rowdies of New York are excessively annoyed with Recorder Haeketfr, of that city, on account of two or three severe sentences he has lately passed on some of their friends, and have addressed to him the following kind remonstrance : " Mr Hackett---Sir—this is to notify you that if you give any more of your cruel long sentences to prisoners, such as twenty years or fifteen years for very trivial offences, or for ordinary offences of burglary, &c, your career will be cut short in a manner you least expect. The slung shot, the knife, or poison will be brought into requisition to rid the world of a monster of cruelty like you, who has unjustly sentenced many a better man than yourself to gloomy dungeons tor excessive periods more than their crime deserved, just to satisfy the public and gain a reputation for yourself for fancy sentences. There has been lately a party of us organized who are sworn under solemn oaths to take your life (or that of some member of your family, if we cannot get at you easily), if any more sentences is given by you that we consider unjust or excessive. Tou live in a fine house, you enjoy yourself well, and little dream what torments you condemn your fellow man to, many of them being driven into crime by sheer poverty and hunger. This will be avenged, so beware if you do not moderate yourself. Tou have a damnable name for cruelty- you are an agent of tyranny, so beware. Sic semper tyrannus. We have your house watched, and when you least expect the ' avengers' they will have you where they want you, either you or some member of your family. So help us G-od.—Cracksmen." This pleasant warning was received by the recorder by post on the 22nd ultimo, but does not seem to have disturbed his equanimity much—although it is stated that it has made his wife rather anxious. " I am," he observed two days later, to the reporter of the New York Herald who interviewed him, " one of the ugliest men -you ever met, and I do what I say I will do always." The recorder then drew from his pocket by an almost imperceptible motion of his arm " a very ornate gold-mounted revolver," which he informed the reporter he always carried with him, adding that he had handled firearms from his boyhood, and he doubted whether any man living could " draw " faster or fire more unerringly than himself. He had frequently, h e said, " shot a three-cent piece off the head of a distinguished journalist" in his (the journalist's) own parlor, and could shoot a pin from a man's fingers at any time with a revolver. Altogether, he seems to be admirably fitted for the position he at present holds as a judge in New York.