Judge A. H. Huston, has been selected to try a noted murder case in Oklahoma City. When an important case requires a strong Judge we are proud of the fact that he is to be found in Logan County. Judge Huston has rapidly acquired over the state the reputation to be fair and impartial, yet a strong Judge. Hon. D. M. Tibbitts has been chosen city attorney for Guthrie by the new Commission Government. He is a close student of the law, a graduate of grand old Ann Arbor and has had considerable experience in general practice. He has also most acceptably filled the office of United States Commissioner for this district. HUMOR. The Greatest not Exempt from Humorous, yet Painful Incidents. A suit was won for a Tennessee railroad corporation under rather peculiar circumstances. A prominent attorney had brought suit for a colored woman for damages caused by killing her husband. The lawyer for defendant felt a good deal of uneasiness for a time about the case, being convinced that the woman had a good case, and would recover a large verdict against his client. Finally he secured a bit of information, and having learned, in the course of a long practice at the bar, that a close mouth is capital in the law business, "lay low." Although he had many conversations with the plaintiff's attorney about the suit, he never hinted that he knew any other facts than those.known to party of the other part. After the plaintiff had given her testimony on direct examination and was turned over for cross questions the wily counsel for the defense asked her: "Hadn't you been married once or twice before you married the man for whose death you have brought this suit?" "Yes, sir; I done been married twice befoah dat," she replied. "What became of your first husband?" "I done got a vorce fum' im." What became of your second husband?" "I done got a' vorce fum him, suh. Dat,s whut comed o' him, de no' count low down nigger." "Where did you get that divorce?" Squiah Kirk done giv' hit to me, suh; dat's whah I got hit, an' if you doan' bleeve me you go an' look at de re-cord; dat's what you kin!" "You corkorashun skina of the poh." "Squiah Kirk" was colored justice a regular wag. She was suing for the loss of a lawful husband. The consternation of her attorney at this development may well be imagined. A Specimen of Composition.— To the Honrabul Co. Commissioners Jentlemen,-is in kneed of Debity County Attorney? Ana, Bad to, And I Ask it in the name of reason? And in the intrest of the State, and in justice to the law bideing Citizens of this hole country that surounds——, At times I cannt get any body to Presicute Even Felony Cases, as our Co, Atty is two buisy, or gon off some where elce and I have had to turn Crimnals Loose for want of Presicution, And God Knows I want to do my Dutie & see that the Lal is in forst, The County Att, Sais he has no power th appoint asistant But I notice the law says he has? So. Please attend to it & oblige Justice of the Peace The above from our Oklahoma learned J. P., is akin to the following just published in the Students Helper of Detroit: "Notis. Trespacers wil be persikuted the ful extent of 2 mungrel dogs who aint never bin overly soshibil tu strangrs and 1 dublel barl shot gun which aint loadid with soft pillors. dam if i aint gettin tired of helraisin on my farm." THE OKLAHOMA LAW JOURNAL EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY D. H. FERNANDES, GUTHRIE, Oklahoma. VOL. 10. May, 1912. No. 11 THE ANNALS OF THE MUSKOGEE BAR ASSOCIATION. By Hon. Z. T. Walrond. Mr. President and Gentlemen: The records of this Association were destroyed in the great fire of 1899. Any sketch of judicial affairs occuring more than a decade since will necessarily be imperfect. At the time of the organization of the United States Court at Muskogee so far as citizens of the United States were concerned, i. e., non-Indian citizens, Indian and Okiahoma Territories were regarded as places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Unitedd States and the Federal Courts of the surrounding districts took cognizance of only such offenses committed within the Territories as were defined in the Revised Statutes. For this purpose Oklahoma proper was placed in the Kansas district, Wichita Division. The Chickasaw country and the southern portion of the Choctaw country in the East ern District of Texas, Paris Division, and tee residue of the Territory belonged to the Western District of Arkansas, with process returnable at Fort Smith. In these courts Indians were punished for the commission of offenses against the persons and the property of non-Indian citizens and Indian deputy marshals and possemen were also protected by a special law. The court in Arkansas was presided over by Hon. I. C. Parker, a native of Ohio. After serving as a prosecuting attorney in the courts of northwestern Missouri, and representing the St. Joseph district in Congress, he was appointed by President Grant to the vacant District Judgeship of the Western District of our neighboring state. Circuit Court powers were granted to him and this court was made the court of last resort. Appeals lay "from Phillip to Phillip," and naturally the judge sitting in the capacity of a circuit court sustained the decision of the district court. Hon. Wm H. H. Clayton, a a native of Pennsylvnia, was the U. S. Attorney, Hon Yoes Marshal, Gen. Stephen Wheeler, Clerk and U. S. Commissioner. Jas. M. Brazzolara, Esq., was the other Commissioner. Hon. Wm M. Mellette was the Assistant Attorney. Το Owing to the striking individuality and overshadowing fame of the bench, the public men gave paper credit to the other officials of the court in their great work in the enforcement of the law. Judge Parker, if not a great jurist was a great magistrate. His destiny was to see that no guilty man escaped," — that the United States should not be imposed upon by defendants useing the rules and maxims of the law to conceal their guilt. the end, and in the face of the decisions of the highest tribunal of the land he contended that the decisions of the common law in the year books relating to "retreating to the wall" before using force in self-defense was the rule. The only penalty for homicide was capital, and during his long career a hundred men were sentenced to be hanged. Under other conditions many of these men would have escaped with sentences of imprisonment for life or for a long term. While the judge was "death on the pale horse" to the criminal, he was courteous to the attorneys benign and fatherly to the great host of minor officials, jurymen and witnesses who thronged the court which was in session throught the year. He was tenacious of the jurisdiction of his court, and yielded to the claims of the forum at Muskogee only when there could be no other interpretation of prerogative. The demand for the court, provided for in the Treaties of 1866, between the United States and the several civilized tribes arose from different quarters. There were a hundred thousand people in the Territory. The work of the Missionary, intermarriage with the caucaison race, commercial and political relations had developed here the highest type of the American or Indian race, and many excellent pepole from the "States' had cast their lot with them. Nevertheless for half a century the country had been a cave of Adullam" for fugitives from justice, and one towards which the eye of no creditor need ever be turned with hope of collection. There was no recovery either from resident debtor or from the newcomer. The impor. tunity of a vast array of non-resident creditors made itself felt in the halls of Congress. Again the title of the Creeks and the Seminoles to their lands in Oklahoma proper had been extinguished. Thousands of 'boomers' were held back by the army of the United States from entering the "promised land." The frontier was about to be opened without a forum for the administration of justice. Lastly, the demand for laws in relation to misdemeanors and establishing a court in the midst of the people to enforce the same was pressing. In the creation of the court, Hon. John H. Rogers of the Fort Smith District and a member of the Judiciary Committee had great influence. On the first day of April 1899, the U. S. Court in the Indian Territory held its first session. It met in the Phonix building in the town of Muskogee, and was opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Bryce, Pastor of the M. E. Church South. Hon. James M. Shackelford, of Evansville, Indiana, had been appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to the task of planting our system of laws and jurisprudence upon this frontier. Hon. Thomas B. Needles, of Nashville, Illinois, was commissioned Marshal of the court. Mr. Needles was a banker who had some knowledge of, and experience in the political conditions of the "Egypt" section of that commonwealth and had served in both Houses of the Legislature and been Auditor of the State. Judge Shackelford appointed Major William Nelson of his State to be Clerk of his court, and master in Equity. The Indian courts admitted Indian citizens to practice without examination. A receipt for the license fee was the only qualification required. Often the judges were full-bloods. In order that its bar should be composed of persons learned in the law, the court in the Terriiory |