Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-09
SCENES ABOUT TOWN.
The Criminal Court Now a Popular
Resort for the People.
LAWYERS BESET FOR AUTOGRAPHS.
Why Pedestrians Should Pat One Wide,
Awake Policeman on the Back.
GOSSIP OF THE DAY In THE BUSY CITY

THE crowd which is filing the Criminal
Court these days to hear the racy details of
Mr.. Fitzsimmons practice of burglary as
fine art is really as interesting as the men
and women, prisoners and advocates, who
are the chief actors in the drama. The other
courts being closed a larger number of
lawyers than usual, even in q cause cetebe,
are seated within the bar; and it is notice
able, too, that a great many of these at
torneys at leisure are young, nattily dressed
men. Among the public beyond the bar the
percentage of respectable people is notably
larger than usual in criminal trials and
very different body of spectators from that
which used to lounge in a cloud of evil odors
in the old court room few years ago.
The trial is telling upon Fitzsimmons; he
is not nearly as clipper as he was ten days
ago, and the sharp lines of his face are
sharper than ever, while his eyes are dull
looking, and the rings under them are dark,
as if telling of sleepless nights and perhaps
tears. There is absolutely nothing interest
ing about the other prisoners arraigned
with Fitzsimmons, unless 1t be the wonder
fully glossy wealth of black hair coiled at
the back of Mrs Clark's head. The court
officers are still often asked to point out
Laura Snowden, the interesting witness, who
sits picture of demure and very conscious
innocence in q faraway corner by the pris-
oners' pen. A large number of the specta-
tors in the front seats are women; most OF
them evidently personally acquainted with
some OF the parties whose liberty IS in
danger. The proceedings were not at all
exciting yesterday, but the audience
seldom changed, and most of
those who were at the morning
What the mob will be like when the grave
charge of murder against Fitzsimmons is
tried the court officers dread to think. 1t is
already evident that this will be the most
m
court house, and the theaters being closed,
the halls of justice will for once compete
with baseball for popular favor.
The Petition Nuisance.
A LEAN, ill-favored fellow crept into a
Grant street office yesterday and thrust
greasy, thum b-marked scroll of foolscap
under the nose of a lawyer sitting there, at
the same time whispering in his ear. The
lawyer took pen and wrote his name be-
meath somes others on the sheet of paper,
without saying a word, and the hungry
looking man rolled up the scroll and de-
parted. Then the lawyer turned to me and
said: "That bird of evil omen belongs to a
flock that could be well spared. He wanted
me to sign petition in his favor for some
office he's after"
"And knowing his character you signed
the petition7"
Looks queer, doesn't it," continued the
lawyer. "But the fact is that the significance
of petitions signed by lawyers is generally
understood to be waste paper as far as hay
ing any influence is concerned. So many
petitions have been circulated among and
signed generally by the bar of Pittsburg
during the last two or three years that the
market is flooded with them. That's why Mr..
Porter, when he was a candidate for the
judgeship, did not have the regulation petit |
tion from his brethren of the bar sent to Har- |
risburg. When that man just now asked me |
to sign his petition l observed that a |
dozen lawyers of far greater eminence than |
can claim had already signed it, and 1 felt |
it would take less time to append my sigma |
ture than to refuse and be asked to give my |
reasons for so doing. If he gets all the mem |
bers of the county bar to write their names |
on that sheet it won't do him a particle of |
good for all the powers that be and the pol
iticians especially understand exactly the
value of this sort of Endorsement. Still, it |
would be better all around if the whole busf-
ness were stopped; the custom of indiscrim-
mate indorsement is vicious, and, some
might say, what is worse, such Endorsement
is altogether futile"