Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1903-11-28
Henry lrvs American Tour Testing the Tipper and How
EgxzEEgEyuwNWMmNl| To Determine noxication Degree

Among the multitudinous Difficult.
ties the police have to overcome, one
OF the most peculiar is that of decid.
ing when persons arrested on suspl
cion Of having drunk too deeply of in.
toxicants are sufficiently inebrated to
constitute charge. In many po.
lice stations a long piece of tape is
kept at hand, and, when an alleged
case OF drunkenness is brought in, the
tape Ia laid down along passage and
the prisoner is asked to walk over the
tape, placing one foot right before the
other as he does so. And II depends
to a great extent on how the prisoner
acquits himself in the performance OF
this feat whether he is charged or dis.
missed, says London Exchange.
But this test Is not always regard
ed as a reliable one. and in many pc.
lice stations II Is either not adopted
or is supplemented by other tests.
The match box test is more dif1icult.
md has the attractive feature OF being
amusing. II consists OF dropping an
ordinary match box near the feet of
the person suspected OF tipping and
telling him to stand on one leg and
pick the box up without mishap.
The feat is easily performed by.
sober man, but when the Attempted
has supped strongly the chanceS tfre
he falls to lift the box before dustisg.
the floor with his clothes. The device
Ia rather more in the nature Of a test
OF sobriety, however. than a test Of
drunkenness. for II does not follow
that man who fails to perform the
feat is drunk, though, II he succeeds.
the inference is he is too sober to be
charged with being intoxicated.
Tested and Then Locked Up.
A carman who was recently brought
before a magistrate for being drunk
while In charge Of a horse and cart
complained Of the indignities TO which
he had been subjected by the police.
He had walked q chalk line marked
down the middle Of long passage;
had said clearly and distinctly truly
rural and "chrysanthemums"; had
picked his hat up from the floor with
his right foot, raised II from his foot,
and put II on his head while standing
on his left foot; had been asked to
stick q pin in a small dot made by a
pencil on q wall, and had told them
that, II a brick weighed eight pounds
and half a brick, a brick and n half
would weigh l6 pounds. And yet the
divisional surgeon had said he was in.
toxicated.
The police explained that the &C.
cused had not walked the chalk line
properly; that his enunciation OF "trh
" rural" and "chrysanthemums" was
very throaty and vague; that no had
three times fallen on the floor in his
efforts to pick up his hat with his foot
"a test he volunteered; and In stick.
ing the pin in the wall he had select
ed a spot that was not visible to any
one but himself. The brick problem
had merely been put before him by
way OF a joke, and his solution was
wrong.
Station Doctors Kept Busy.
Il must not be inferred from the
above that the moment a man is
brought in by constable for drunken
ness he is put through such an i'm
posing examination.
In all the larger stations he Is
charged In the usual way. and II he
denies the charge the general course
is to send for the station doctor. This
is done entirely at the prisoners dc
sire, and II he fails to satisfy the doe
tor that he ia sober he has to pay his
fee. No matter at what hour man