DUTY AND POWER OF THE CITIZEN 189 



third of the United States, and especially on the 

 so-called "frontier," it is a common occurrence for 

 a sympathetic jury of neighbors and friends to 

 acquit a red-handed violator of the game-law by 

 saying: "Not guilty! He needed the meat." 



Sometimes a judge on the bench calmly elects to 

 turn loose without punishment a man who should 

 pay the full penalty for his misdeeds and his con- 

 tempt of the law. The latest and most disappoint- 

 ing case occurred in Key West, Florida. Three 

 men were caught in the act of raiding the protected 

 egret rookery at Alligator Bay, on the west coast of 

 Florida. By the expenditure of great efforts and 

 much public funds, the offenders were finally taken 

 to Key West, a distance of about one hundred 

 miles. It is stated that the judge before whom they 

 should have been tried kindly advised that the 

 accused men be set free. Recognizing the utter 

 futility of bringing the men to trial, the game 

 wardens and the prosecuting attorney had no 

 recourse but to abandon the case. The men were 

 set free; and now it is reported that they have 

 announced their intention to "clean out" that 

 rookery in the coming nesting season. 



Any community which tolerates contempt for law, 

 and law-defying judges, is in a degenerate state, 

 bordering on barbarism; and in the United States 

 there are literally thousands of such communities! 

 The thoroughness with which one lawless individual 

 who goes unwhipped by justice can create contempt 



