The San Francisco call., 1897-12-23
Attorney Dunno in an
Arena Reeking With
Remarks.
The Chief Rebuked for Not Fa-
voring Nickel-in-the-SlOt
InnOcentS.
And Now There Is Another COnpli-
cation in the Already Much Com
plicated wordy War.

AS If to heap horror on Horrors
head, Attorney P. F. Dunno impels
himself into a situation already suffi-
GENTLY distressing. 1t is little less
than melancholy to see good men and
true throwing words at each other, and
not even getting a space rate for them;
all about a small slot constructed to
WOO the nickel. Here is the Dunno
lancet directed to the Manager Of The
Call:
Dear Sir: 1 see by your paper this
morning that Chief of Police Lees says l
acted in an unprofeSSional manner in
dismissing the nickel-in-the-slotc cases be-
fore the remittitur had been received by
the courts" This is not only very i'm
pudent statement, but very Ignorant
one. When appeals are taken from a
/ Police Court there is no remittitur except
where the appeal is dismissed or the
judgment affirmed. This is what section
1470 of the Penal Code provides. In the
nickel-in-the-slot case the appeal was not
dismissed; neither was the Judgment az
firmed. But, on the contrary, the judg-
ment was reversed, the defendant dis
charged and the case ended in the Su-
perior Court. 1t was not a case for a re-
mittitur at all. Not only that, but Judge
Levy and myself did not dismiss any
case. The cases were dismissed by the
Police Court, of which Lees seems to
think he is Chief Justice, and were dis
missed upon motion made by US in open
court and consented to by the prosecut-
ing attorneys. This did not satisfy Lees.
He wanted to reverse Judges Cook, Wal
lace and Dunno and keep a charge of
crime on the calendar, and over the
heads of fifteen or twenty innocent men.
His conduct in the matter is an amalgam
of presumption and ignorance.
l read in a newspaper the other day
something Lees had been saying about
/ don't think it's Gunst; l think it's the
O'ii'i iei'O" ~ P. F. DUNNE.
San Francisco, December %.
In a case involving such a wad of
professional ethics, and the feelings of
so many distinguished gentlemen, the
public can only stand aloof and let the
affray go on. AS well try to coax the
sun-spots not to heave large, hot worlds
across our orbit so as to abruptly spoil
the atmosphere for breathing pur-
poses.
The letter of Mr.. Dunno shows that
a case already serious is becoming
tragic. Lees has charged Gunst with
loss of a once fairly serviceable mind,
and with being a false alarm; Gunst
has implied in guarded language that
Lees is a doddering lump of senility.
And now comes Dunno to support the
Gunst side of it. There would seem to
be nothing for Lees to do but resign,
or talk some more
ignorance" is not only a fetching
phrase, but the death knell of the
dove of peace. who had gone to roost
in fancied security. It is fully as bad
as the charge of acting as Chief JUS
tice of the police courts. Perhaps any
desire on the part of Lees to reverse
Wallace and others results from
wish to save the Supreme bench trou-
bic. However, the matter is a delicate
one for discussion by the merely NOR
tai. Here are the great in contention,
armed with type-writers. pens, pen
cils, agile tongues; fired with zeal to
square themselves with the populace of
whom they may want something
sooner or later. Let them do their own
scrapping.
AS to the innocence of the men who
run nickel-in-the-slot mchines, that is
so we'll established as to need no COM
ment They are more innocent than
babes unborn, than daisies blowing
fragrant on the bank of a sylvan
stream, and they don't care who
knows it. Didn't it cost them good
money to be shown up in all their pur-
ity?