The Shack They Called a Courthouse

A visitor for whose judgment we have great respect, has been a sojourner in our town for some days, and has greatly gratified us by his unqualified praise of all he had heretofore seen: our beautiful town site, magnificent harbor, and our unbounded resources. But today, he mortified us beyond measure by the exclamation, on visiting the place in which the United States District Court is holding its session: 'A perfect disgrace!' This remark had no reference to the Court or its conduct, but to the courtroom exclusively, for which the county is solely responsible; and the sting of it was that it is true. There is no county upon the coast which has less to show in the way of public buildings than this county. With aggregate annual taxes to the amount of about $40,000, the entire county buildings, until within the last two years, consisted of an old shanty jail on a sawdust alley, repeatedly presented as a nuisance by grand juries. Two years ago, an amount was expended upon county buildings sufficient, if judiciously applied, to construct a very respectable courthouse and jail, and nothing came of it but some ill-arranged offices and an insecure jail.