The Probation Feature Will Not Prevail in the Greased Rails Episode.
As a rumor was current in Norwood yesterday that the boys found guilty of greasing the rails of the Old Colony street railway on the night of July 3, were to be put upon probation, or, as some always say, practically let off without punishment, a statement of the real facts as given to us by the proper authorities should be presented.
There is an old saying that “the law is common sense.” This is only another way of saying that a sensible judge usually looks at a case with much the same feelings that the intelligent part of the community does. In the present case there were the same features to puzzle the moral reasoning of the average man or woman that would naturally puzzle the judgment of a court. Only with this difference, the general public, however intelligent, never seems to quite reach that clear conception of the majesty of the law which a good judge reaches. Hence in this case the really intelligent judgment of the community was the judgment of the minority. The majority which was highly indignant at first and demanded the condign punishment of the boys seems to have turned completely around when the unfortunate young men were brought before the leading criminal tribunal of the district, charged with crime. Pity for the unfortunate youths obscured every other feeling in the minds of such people. They have been constantly stating since the trial that probably nothing would be done with the boys. It was simply a piece of Fourth of July mischief and they would probably be put on probation and that would be an end of it all.
No such weathercock tactics appear to have been in the mind of the conscientious judge who tried the case. Last Wednesday evening as court was closing for the day he made some remarks on the matter, speaking for about ten minutes. It is said that anyone could have heard a pin drop in the court room. His address was solemn and significant a one as is usually heard from the bench on any occasion.
Judge Fessenden said in substance that the case had lain very near his heart ever since the trial. So deep was his indignation at the wrong committed that he feared he should deal harshly with the boys if he allowed his feelings to guide him and passed sentence in the mood he was in. The fact that it was the night before the Fourth nor the fact that the culprits were young and inexperienced and had no conception of the probable consequences of the act offered no justification for their action. A deed had been committed which had resulted in injury to human beings and had endangered human life. Fortunately, there was no manslaughter in the case. The boys and those interested in them should think of the dire consequences if the injured motorman or the injured passenger had been killed. He had full commiseration for the boys and for their parents, but he did not believe that persons guilty of so serious an offense should be let off lightly. It was not for the interests of the peace and welfare of the community that this should be done. The boys should remember that they had disgraced themselves, disgraced their parents, disgraced the good name of the town, and disgraced the state. In deferring the sentence until December he had been moved by several reasons. He did not wish the culprits to feel that by this postponement they had been placed on probation. He did not wish them to go back to Norwood and have other boys pat them on the back and say, “Oh, you got off easily.” But he had heard that the parents of some of the boys were not in the most affluent circumstances. He did not feel, with the cold winter coming on and the present high price of the necessaries of life, that he ought to ask some of these parents to suffer from the penalties he should inflict, nor did he wish the boys to go to the house of correction rud suffer the disgrace and the long term of imprisonment which non-payment of fines might entail.
Those who heard Judge Fessenden’s remarks are convinced that he intends to impose quite heavy fines in the cases of some of the six boys convicted of malicious mischief in greasing the rails and that he is giving their parents until December to provide for the fines he intends to impose.
Chief of Police Rhoads, Detective Edward Stone and the other authorities who have been at work to get at the facts in this case feel assured that the results of their labor will be for the good of the community and the traveling public.
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)