Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-08-04
That De,roit Judge Again.

Margaret Graham, why is this thusT
asked his Honor, as an aged woman
stood at the bar
II couldn't help it, sir, she sadly
said, folding her hands and dropping
her eyes.
"I see gray hairs, wrinkles of age,
and signs that you are slowly drifting to
the grave he continued; and yet you
get drunk and hurrah for General Jack
son, aud rouse the neighbors from their
beds"
Please, sir, it was q small drunk,
she explained.
"And yet you have been here before,
and have let mercy overpower justice.
am ashamed, Margaret, to think that
in this nineteenth century of ciyiliza-
ton woman forty.four years old should
be brought here charged with drunken
ness.
"Tll do better, sir
81 hope so, Margaret; | hope you will
dash the cup from you, and take a sol
emn VOW never to drink anything
stronger than river water after thisY
II will sir. "
"And though the bloom of youth may
not return to your faded cheek, you will
feel young again in spirit, and life will
seem to you like a grand picnic at Belle
Isle, with frosted cake piled up ten feet
high. One further remark, and | am
done-I shall send you up for ninety
days"
She desired to appeal to higher court,
hut Bijah led her away, and told her that
her friends could get her out on a writ
of "haverous corpus any time they
wanted to.
A sweet voice singing broke the silence
of the court 1t was female voice, and
in low, sad tones it sang the plaintive
melody:
Hickory. dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock;
And Jack fell down and broke his crown, 3,
Ten thousand miles away.
otis the voice of the broken hearted
Jane Mooney" said BJah, and he went
in and led her out,
Miss Mooney, is it true that you we're
overcome by the spiritual influences of
fermented liquors acting upon your nerv-
GUS system2" inquired his Honor.
1t wasn't, she said. 1t was true that
she had Just got up from the supper
table and was going around the corner
to see about a new dress, when an officer
captured her and made the base charge
The officer had his say to the effect
that Miss Mooney was as drunk as a
Boston Alderman at a clam bake, but he
acknowledged that it was her first Of
fense, ana that perhaps she could have
reached home If left alone,
81 shall suspend sentence this time,
said his honor, but don't think for n
moment, Miss Mooney, that you have
bluffed this court. The doubt is in your
favor, and thus | let you goi repeal. the
offense, and the equinoctial gales OF au-
tumn won't have chance to ruin any
bonnets for you"
They won't, eh, she sneered, eleva-
ting her eyebrows and breathing hard /;
but Buah whispered to her that 1t was
dangerous to triae with justice and that
she had better rush madly towards the
pure air of liberty.
AS the door opened there was a sound
of shufiling feet on the hagstones, and a
voice sang:
"Ohl sister, what did mother say.
When she went down to Put-in-Bay?
She told me always to be good,
And never, never run away
Was that you, James William2 I"
asked his honor, as the prisoner came
out
1T was. Do your worst, oh cruel
executioner cried James.
And you we're drunk2
Drunk l was, and now drive the
poisoned dagger deep into this aching
breast
"And you haven't fully recovered
yeti"
James stood back, and. waving his
long right arm to and fro, he said:
"They come around me here and say,
My days Of life are Der:
That / shall mount my noble steed
And lead my band no more.
They come. and -
IL want to know whether you are
guilty or not guilty" broke in the Judge.
"If / had me brave retainers here /
should say no. l am thy victim, and |
answer that / were drunk. Drunk
Ayel the fumes Of the accursed wine
still floats through me weary brain, and
see strange sights before me eyes,"
You don't see anything that looks