A new county home for the aged and inform would not be amiss in Cleveland County according to the jury charge of Judge James L. Webb Monday morning in Superior Court here. While the Shelby jurist did not urge the building of a new county home, he talked alng that line to the grand jury, giving them the topic to think of while in their regular rounds of inspection.
“The present county home is operating as systematically as is possible under present conditions and the county commissioners are making an excellent record with what they have,” stated Judge Webb. “But in covering the state from Murphy to Manteo, one notices that only two or three counties in all of North Carolina do not have better county hoes than Cleveland. The present county home is well located and the site there might be sold at a good price and a fine building erected on another site. I am not urging this move, but it seems to me that it is a matter that this progressive county should consider soon. The present building is only a one-story structure and while every improvement and convenience known is in use there now, it wouldn’t hurt to have a new building. Such may come in the years ahead. Just how long remains up to the officials of the county, but it is about time someone was thinking about it, the jurist concluded.
Quite a bit of favorable comment was heard about the court room at the suggestion.
Continuing in his charge to the jury, Judge Webb touched upon many enlightening and interesting topics concerning law enforcement, delivering, as is his custom, a strong survey of grand jury duties and matters they should investigate. With his long experience on the bench, Judge Webb is familiar with points that need discussion and his charges prove very helpful to the jury and also to the standpoint of court spectators.
Interesting topics touched upon in the charge included automobiles, liquor laws, proper care of children, sale of cigarettes and numerous other things. He informed the jury that the law regarding the sale of cigarettes to minors, those under 17, had “been on the books for near a quarter of a century and indictments on the charge have been few. “A man who sells cigarettes to boys under 17 and thereby stunts their physical, moral and mental advancement is just as guilty according to the law as the man who sells a pint of liquor,” the judge stated in urging that they prefer charges in cases deemed necessary by them.
Would Bring Back Curfew
“If it were in my power I believe I would bring the night curfew back to the land,” Judge Webb philosophized in speaking of the crime that originates through careless neglect of children, “and when the bell was heard at 9 o’clock at night, every boy and girl under 16 years of age should be at their homes with their parents. That would erase much of our law-breaking.
. . . .
Attorney C.E. Cowan of Morganton, law partner of Solicitor R. L. Huffman, is acting as solicitor in the absence of Mr. Huffman. Mr. Cowan attended the Lincoln court in the same capacity and apparently handles the court as well as the state’s representative. Mr. W.J. Moss of Grover is foreman of the grand jury, while Mr. Guss Jolley of Boiling Spring sis the officer in charge.
Following the charge to the jury and opening formalities, the court got down to its regular grind on the criminal docket shortly after noon. . . . .
Charlie Bungardner of Kings Mountain is formally charged with an assault with deadly weapon with intent to kill and also for murder. It will be remembered the Bumgardner’s wife died after being shot at her home in Kings Mountain, the shooting, according to Bumgardner, being accidental. Barristers say that the charge is filed as formality and that there is little likelihood of murder prosecution against young Bumgadner.
Jessie May Francis, sensational center of many court terms here, will face the court on three charges appealed from Recorder John Mull’s court, she having eliminated herself bodily at the last term before her cases were called.
The majority of the cases on the criminal docket are continued from former terms or have come up from recorder’s court in the nature of appeals. Charges of the usual run make up most of the docket, including receiving and possessing, carrying concealed weapons, F. & A., breaking and entering, prostitution, false pretense, receiving stolen property, transporting [liquor], bigamy, seduction, carnal knowledge of female under 16, manufacturing liquor, driving while intoxicated and numerous other minor criminal counts.
From the front page of The Cleveland Star, July 26, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn97064509/1926-07-26/ed-1/seq-1/
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