The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-16
JUDGE MGRATH EXPLAINS.
Acted as a Gentleman Would Act In
New York.


New York.
JERSEY CITY, Jan. Is, 1894.
| To the Editor of fh@ JerSep City iNetUS:-
Since Wednesday last, l have been favored
with quite a respectable exemplification of
| that bower which Burns implored in the
supplication embodied in these words of
his
''oh wad some power tbs giftie gl': us
70 see oursei's as ithers SOS US"
in the varied and various newspaper ac-
counts of and articles upon the, to me,
| rather interesting incident, in which [ was
made to play so conspicuous a part, on last
Tuesday evening, OF one of the leading
city across the river.
Relative to this affair l believe 1 have up
to date read eleven different newspaper ac-
counts thereof, and while all are evidently
written in a friendly spirit, for which l am
duly grateful, yet some of them clearly tend
to present me, at the time of the occurrence
referred to, as occupying a position liable to
be construed to my disadvantage by
| strangers reading this account of the con-
duct of a man occupying the public position
l do, and it may be also by people here,
whose good opinion l have enjoyed and wish
to retain.
In some of these newspaper versions / am
represented as being in a hilarious mood and
| the like; in Others it is said that, on the day
in question, | had put up at a downtown
hotel, and then. for some singular reason,
went out to search for a place to secure a
table d'hote dinner or something OF the
kind.
In another, I am represented as having
drunk several bottles of wine at this Column
bia Restaurant on Fourteenth street near
Broadway, New York City, where the
| trouble arose q hope notice will be duly
taken of the location), and just prior to its
| commencement. when, in fact, except to
4-44~ - - ~aa 10 farro mn, flao of tho
| quality of the one pint bottle l ordered at
| this restaurant, and did not get, | had not
ellioyed a drop of wine nor anything else OF
the like spirituous character.
Some Of the newspapers commend my
| course in refusing to be imposed upon, while
others ntimat that l was, perhaps, too per-
verse and obstinate, and that under the con-
ditions as they existed, it might have been
more seefnly for me TO submit to the im-
position refer red to, rather than subject my
self to the arrest and Incarceration with
criminals, which followed.
For instance:-A certain paper says of this
affair. l quote from the newspaper as fol-
lows
There are. however, many unkind and I'M
| charitable people who claim that his arrest
and subsequent trouble was due to his extra
ordinary obstiuacy and perverslty in choosing
to accept the degradation of being locked up
with common criminals rather than avoid all
trcubls by paying for the wine he had ordered,
whether it was imported from France or made
in Bleecker street.
In another part of this and in some other
paper, [ refrain from giving names, l find
| this view prevails.
Those, however, who criticise the Judge bs-
| cause hs didu't pav for the wine AMI avoid all
further trouble. are miserable. cowardiy souls.
WHIT permit. their rights to b unwarrautaoiy
tramuied upon rather than offer any Resistance
on principle, even whe1, Ike tbs JUICES cas-,
it involved a matter or fifty cents. {By the
way. let me remark here, 10 avoid mistakes,
seyenty-five cents was the sum invoived.)
1 shall not attempt, Mr.. Editor. to occupy
| more of your space by way OF criticism upon
these several newspaper articles, further than
to state that not one of them succeeded in
| presenting a correct statement OF the facts.
The story given in YOU paper, Mr.. Editor,
| approached nearer the truth than that con-
tafned in any of the other papers, for which
I beg to thank you.
Of course. l did not hire a room at a
hotel as was suggested in one of the articles
referred to, nor was l in the hilarious, happy,
noisy or obstinate mood which has been
limited at, il not expressed.
I simply refused to pay for what I did not
| get, and when it was sought to force me to
| do so, I, in a firm, but courteous and, !
| think, manly way, without exhibition Of
passion, resisted the imposition intended, and
| for this and this only, I was, for the first
tim. in my life, subjected to the disgrace of
an arrest and ~arraignment at the Bar of
Justice as a criminal.
1t is, I think. due to the people of this Gem
| munity, in which I have lived the greater
part of my life time, and in which l have
acquired whatever of reputation worthy of de-
Tense / have been fortunate enough to secure,
flor no other reason more personal to myself,
that l shall employ, as I intend to do, all the
remedies which the laws afford, to determine
the rights of a citizen in such a posture as l
| found myself in on last Tuesday evening, and
| to punish, in SO far as the same is possible,
by all means open to pursuit, all those who
actively participated in the wrong done.
Begging pardon for taking W so much of
| your valuable space in this matter, I am ETC.,
JOHN A. MCGRATH.