Waterbury Democrat., 1901-12-23
POLICE COURT DoINGs.
Case of Itinerant Vendor Went Over
 to January {.

Merchants association and the prose cutting attorney over the enforcement of the law relating to itinerant store keepers was fought out i'll the city court this morning in the trial of Mich ael A. Jesseriti, who opened a store at 134 Bank street some weeks ago. Jesseriti was defended by Attorney Russell. The arrest of the above named did not take place until after the Merchants association. the prose- cutting attorney and the chief-of-police had had many tilt as to who should and who should not see to the enforce ment of the law. The Merchants as- sociation thought it was the duty of either the prosecuting attorney or the chief of police. The chief of police thought it was the duty of the prose cutting attorney, and the latter main tained that he was not q policeman and that it was the duty of the chief of police. And so each party had it hard and fast and finally the chief of police was convinced that it was his duty. And thereupon the arrest of the above was achieved.
 w. IT. Camp testified that he re- fused to let the store at 134 Bank
 street to the accused for more than I
 month at the time. He would not be
 positive as to the accused wanting to rent the store for more than that pe-
 riod. F. r. I4unny testified that the accused wanted to borrow from him
 the use Of his auction flag, telling him
 that he intended to have an auction
 sale after the holidays and that he
 would ring in'' lot of stuff for that
 sale. The story told by Detective Ca
 hey was to the effect that when he en-
 tered the store it did not have the air
 Of intended permanency. Half Of it
 was vacant.
 The accused told his story then. 1t was to the effect that while by birth
 he is an Egyptian, by descent he is
 Syrian. He thought an auction sale would advertise his goods better than any newspaper advertisement; further more the latter was dear, more than he could afford. He knew that the law required of him no license if he in tended to locate in this state perma- nently but he did not know that if he did not intend remaining it would re- quire of him license. Since May last he has not been permanently stationed anywhere. He has been to Buffalo and to Saratoga, and he heard that Waterbury was a good town and ne came here. Business so far has been satisfactory with him and he said he 1 intends remaining here. A. !. Uberti q portrait painter, with whom Jesseri- 1 ii occupies the store in question, testi 1 fled, but his evidence was not of any ! moment. In addressing the court Nil ] Durant also addressed those witt ! whom he had been in conflict over the operation of this law. He said he 1 knew his duty and he was taking or 1 ders from no one, only the coart. HC was aware of the difficulty of prose
 cutting successfully a case like this, fol l before one could hope for a conviction
 he must have obtained the criminating 1 evidence from the accused himself. ] Attorney Russell said that men like
 the accused were natural business men
 They come to this country and instead
 of going into the ditches to dig they go into business. There has been q great hubbub raised over this case, hC went on, and probably it would result
 in harm to his client. If the law could be operated against this man then the l law was unconstitutional. For how can any business man tell how long he 1 will remain in any locality. It all de pends on the state of his business The law cannot require a bond from any man to stay when his business is not good. Furthermore, went on Nil Russell, landlords require protection as well as the Merchants association. Ii l a business man cannot come here and 1 take his chances, what is to become o1 the landlords? What is to become o1 the property owner? Any business
 man will stay as long as business stays with him, but not minute longer. II l business were not good with Mr. Rus sell he would get up and dust; so would any other lawyer or business man. II 1 this strain Mir Russell spoke to some llength, and when he had concluded
 Judge Burpee, without comment, sai( l he would continue the case to January
 6.
 l A young fellow named William Scol berg, aged 21, was fined 8 and costs l for intoyication Saturday night. H.
 would have been dealt with more leni
 ently had he not insisted Saturday
 night that his name was Murphy.