Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-08-25

trustworthy Italian, rose before my
linquish Jacko.
I'm the course of conversation with
the crowd lost my temper and con-
siderable portion of my clothes, and
by the time that policeman arrived, l
suppose my appearance did justify him
in conveying JACKIE, the Italian, and
me to the police station. There | spent
a most miserable night. My utmost
entreaties failed to induce the police to
send to Mrs. Tremaine to bail me out.
| think their malevolence was prompt
| ed by the policeman who had been so
rudely interrupted in his tryst with the
| cook.
In the morning we appeared before
| his worship. The Italian and l were
| charged with creating a disturbance
and assaults and breaches of the peace
and that kind of thing, and, as far as l
remember, the police threw a charge
| OF drunk against me. His worship
asked to see the monkey, and when
| they brought him in, 10 and behold,
| there were two Jackos.
After some explanation the magis-
| trate dismissed the charge against us
with caution, on the ground of excus-
| able mistake. And, indeed, it was most
excusable. Apparently the Italian had
really lost his monkey, and whether 1T
was his monkey or JACKIE that he had
| been pursuing when | encountered 1t,
| do not know to this day. At all
other monkey during the night and
had shut the two up together. There
they st, two ugly, grinning, indistin-
guishable creatures, both guilty, ac-
cording to the evidence, of aggravated
assaults on the police.
When We were released from the
dock the magistrate asked us to re-
| move the monkeys The Italian and |
stared at each other blankly. He knew
no more than l which was his proper
ty. OF course, it was useless to con-
suit the police about their identity. AS
the magistrate pointed out, there is no
presumption either in law or in fact
as to the ownership of two stray mon
keys. / appealed to him to decide the
question himself, and he pointed out
that 1t was the duty of the police to
restore property to its owners. He said
that he was not Solomon, but only
police magistrate, and that he doubted
whether even the house of lords could
throw much light on the subject. The
! matter, he thought, was eminently one
to be settled out of court
"At first | tried to solve the difficult
ty by buying out the Italians claim to
either Of the monkeys, with the idea
Of sorting them afterward. But he
also, it appeared, had a romantic at
tachment for his carissimo monkey,
and he declined my overtures with fer
vent appeals to most OF the saints on
the register. The whole thing, he
seemed to think, was base attempt
on the part of a brutal foreign govern
ment to trample on the rights of an
Italian citizen, and to consign his mon
key to the dungeons of the Zoo Then
offered him his choice of the two, and
tnlS might nave SdVeu ali trouble III
Mrs. Tremaine had not arrived at that
moment to inquire for Jacko, and had
not learned the whole affair from a
communicative inspector.
Neither JACKIE nor the alleged Jacko
showed the faintest signs of recogni-
ton. Indeed. they almost at once de-
voted themselves 10 sanguinary fight
in which Mrs. Tremaine interviewed
with considerable injury to herself.
Then she turned to me and ! could see
from her manner that she considered
me responsible for the whole difficulty