The age-herald., 1902-03-16
STREET FAKIRS ID BE ARRESTED FOR TEST CASES Chief Austin Says Complaints Will Be Given At-
 tention THE LAWS FAKlRS VIOLATE They Defy the Police, Claiming Their Licenses Protect Them In Their Business-How They
 Operate. a 
THE LAWS FAKlRS VIOLATE


 much Chief of Police Austin has said em- phptically. It will be stopped without delay. This much the same officer has also said For both assertions he has been overwhelmed with expressions of thanks from many of the leading citizens of Birmingham. Before banqueting the chief the same citizens are waiting, how ever, for the action which will actually stop the annoyance
 Asked when the men would be made to stop Chief Austin said he would act next week, that he had warned the men to cease and would wait few days for them to heed his warning. He said they were violating two city ordinances and also a state law. Still they have licenses, and he said he wanted to give them full notice of his intentions before making any ar- rests.
 Law Is Plain.
 The law on the subject is very plain. The two sections of the city code the fakirs violate are as follows
 Section 3S5-"Any person who shall ob- struct any street or sidewalk with any animal or vehicle, or with boxes or bar pels, or other like commodity, or by loiter- ing standing, kneeling, sitting or lying theron so as to obstruct the free passage of persons on such streets or sidewalks, must on conviction, be fined not less than s1 nor more than s1OO."
 Section 3S6-"Any person or persons who establishes and keep or maintains any booth fruit stand, auction stand or stand for any business, that projects into or covers or rests on any street or side walk of the city or that retards the free passage of persons or vehicles upon or over the streets or sidewalks, or any part of either shall be fined, on conviction not less than s1 nor more than $100 for each day such business Is transacted; provided. this section shall not be con- strued to prohibit the occupant of a build ing abutting upon or lying adjacent to a sidewalk, and doing business thereon, from using as much as feet of the side walk when the same Is 15 feet wide and two feet thereof when the same is 12 feet wide. for receiving, delivering and dis playing his goods, wares and merchan- disc"
 Fakirs Laugh at Chief.
 To the fa,!rs the assertions of Chief Austin are matters for jest. ae
 One man said yesterday from his stand Arrest me? ,Ah, no. Not the chief of police. How long will be here? Oh, just as long as I will keep the crowds off the sidewalks and am able to sell enough goods to pay my licenses. Arrest me? have licenses from the state. from the county and from the city to do this busi- ness; and I will be here just as long as do not block the sidewalks. When I do that I am placed in a position to suffer arrest Otherwise, my licenses give me privilege to conduct my business quite as long as I wish and am able to put up the coin demanded by the city the county and the state.''
 Tax Collector Gambill was asked what amount the city received for the use of the streets by these men. He replied that the average paid S5 per week, al- though some pail less. He said one in- dividual who sold from a wagon almost everything wanted by any person paid sSo0 per year. The transient doctor who has been drawing crowds about the cor ner of Second avenue and Nineteenth street and Second avenue and Eighteenth street pays only $15 per week.
 The amount of the license is fixed at the discretion of the Mayor, the chairman of the miscellaneous committee and the chairman of the judiciary committee. No provision is made in the regular license schedule for the fakirs.
 Whether or not the licenses which these
 
 violations of the law must be determined. No other way exists for the determining tha1 for police officers to have arrests made So 1t is up to Chief of Police Austin and his men. He says he will act.
 He Is Most Persistent.
 During the greater part of yesterday afternoon and last night the corner of Second avenue and Eighteenth street was the scene of operations of one of the most persistent and strenuous of all fakirs working in Birmingham. This man sells medicine and corn salve. He gives dem- onstrations of the powers of his medicine, and employs big man with blackened ,ace to assist him in spelling The latter sometimes uses a guitar for effective ness.
 The doctor begins his harangue usu- ally with songs and jokes but sometimes with a scriptural lesson referring to the healing balm of trees which grow by the .,de of the river of life, the leaves of u,bicb cure all ills. He says his medicines arc made of these leaves. Then he begins n expatiate upon the value of his medi- .,nes Then he proffers to cure anyone suAering from any pain or ache. He is .u the time wildly gesticulating, waving h,s arms above his head. glaring at the crowd from his blue glasses, and trying to play upon such feeling of the super ,ot,ral AS may be found to exist among the listeners.
 Doctors Deaf Man.
 Suddenly he cries out for some one who ,s deaf or who is suffering from any ail- ment known to physicians to come to his stand and be cured. Some one walks up. A deaf man 1t is. His hat is removed. A bottle of the medicine is unwrapped, a few drops poured over the ear, into the onerator's hand and then rubbed over The head of the sufferer. In few minutes he asks if the man can hear. The reply |. in the affirmative. Then follow boys and men suffering from headaches, tooth ache and all kinds of diseases. From the same bottle . fluid is taken tor allf and