Evening star., 1902-03-22

addressing himself directly to the late as
pirant. as to be sure that he would not
break out again, the good old days are
represented to us by those who have
reached certain age as being somewhat
superior to those of the present. [ am not
maintaining the general proposition. but l
say this as the result of a contrast between
the customs of my younger days and those
that now prevail. that there does not seem
to be the same sense of personal RESPONSE
blity for words uttered as used to be the
case. 1t seems to me that men now have
an almost feminine license in talking about
each other Lawyers ff1 court go to an
extreme of personal abuse and slander that
IN my younger days would have been ad-
Justed as soon as court adjourned by the
arbitration of fists. There is q shameless
latitude allowed counsel in their treatment
OF witnesses. while outside of the courts
or Justices the tongues Of men wag and
roll off the most libelous, injurious gos-
sip. 1T is absolutely unsafe to repeat what
men and women of good regulations in the
community say freely about their fellows,
that is, II one wishes to avoid circulating
the raise and the scandalous. I believe
that II men were held more strictly to
personal accountability for their words
that the regulations of all would be much
safer"
+ * X *
Said well-knOwn citizen to a Star re-
| porter: "a friend of mine had a singular
and dlsagreeable experience in this city
a short item to the effect that a man of
his name and street address had been
picked up in the streets by the police and
taken to the Emergency Hospital for treat
ment for alcoholism. Being entirely inno-
cent he was naturally indignant at the pub
lication. When the facts were presented
TO the newspa pers the usual correction was
promptly made. In the case of each news
paper 1t was explained that the informa
ton on which the item was based was OBJ
tanned by the reporter from the police
records. Naturally desiring to know now
such mistake had occurred the gentleman
visited the police station where the case
was made and was informed by the station
Keeper In the most matterof-fact way that
some one who was present when the in
sensible man was brought in said his name
was giving my friends name), but didn't
know where he lived. AS his place of resi-
dence was necessary to complete the rec
ords the keeper explained that he looked in
the city directory and saw that a man of
the name given lived at No. - street
tmy friend S hOme), and so the record was
made up accordingly. Such was the sta
ton Keepers statement. He was even good
enough to show my friend where he was
officially recorded as having been picked
up by the police suffering from alcoholism
The true situation was explained to the
station keeper and he was asked TO erase
the record or to change it in conformity
with the facts. He would willingly do so,
have the authority Recourse was then had
to the chief of police who promised to in
VeStigate the matter and do what he could
The officers of the precinct in question at
tempted at first to shift the responsibility
by saying that the newspaper reporters
were to blame for the mistake in the name
and address. They were subsequently, COM
PEELED to admit that the mistake was made
by their own men, but had been corrected
by the entire erasure of the entry in uues-
ton AS that was all my friend desired
the matter was allowed to drop. 1t might
nave proved serious thing for somebody
however, II he had chosen to prosecute it,
This is a true story and is told without the
use OF names So as not to injure any one"
x x y X
During the trial of damage case re-
Gently before Chief Justice Bingham and
jury in Circuit Court No. the listeners
found much to amuse them while counsel
were making the summing-up addresses to
the twelve men, good and true who were
charged with the duty of framing the YER
dict The plaintiff sought financial solace
for an assault, the assailant having been
little girl. In connection with his re-
marks To the jury the attorney for the de-
fendant said something like this:
why, gentlemen. this accusation is pre-
posterous l could allow a small child like
the one that figures in this case to strike
me in the face with her fists all day and
I wouldn't feel IT.
The attorney for the plaintiff. of course,
had the closing. Even the presiding JUS
tice smiled when. replying to the state
ment Of his opponent. the attorney COM
mented: "Of course. gentlemen of the jury.
MIR. c. wouldn't feel the blows If this girl
should strike him in the face If pos
sessed a face hard as his 1 wouldn't
feel such an attack either"