The San Francisco call., 1904-04-07

Farrier. middle aged and shabby gen
teel, upon the fact that they were not
accused of footpedism instead of beg
ging, and hinted that the. evidence
pretty clearly proved them guilty of
the former offense.
Mrs Minnie Irwin of 2229 Woolsey
street, Berkeley. was the complaining
witness. While walking along Mission
street, between Third and Fourth. last
Tuesday afternoon she was stopped by
Annie Meehan and requested to hand
out some money" Surprised and a little
startled at the woman's manner, Mrs.
Irwin endeavored to resume her walk,
but was restrained by annie, who
roughly repeated that she wanted
money, and wanted it right away"
Then. becoming thoroughly frightened,
Mrs. Irwin attempted to run past An
ME, and had almost succeeded in doing
so, when Mary Ellen grabbed her and
with an epithet hurled her against the
wall. The lady managed to continue
her flight, however, and ran until she
met Patrolman Moriarity, to whom she
recounted her experience.
Accompanied by the complainant, the
officer began a search of the neighbor-
hood and was soon rewarded by find
ing Annie and Mary Ellen seated in
a Mission-street restaurant They were
partaking. of the best the larder af-
forded and chatting and laughing as
they ate, when the policeman claimed
them as his own To this the restaura-
teur filed protest, ON the ground that
he had received no payment for the
nv
Mary Ellen. She pleaded inability to
pay. and the caterer was insisting on
holding her as security for the debt,
when a perplexing situation was clari-
fed by the officers suggesting that an
additional charge of defrauding an inn
keeper be entered against the debtor.
This was done.
AS they sat in court the defendants
were closely yelled, until the Judge or
dered them TO remove the face cover
ings Then he pronounced them guilty
as charged, and expressed regret that
strict adherence TO the letter of the
law prevented him from Furnishing
them for attempted highway robbery.
They will be sentenced to-day
That it is unsafe for layman to
monkey with the laws we'll regulated
machinery can be testified TO by one
K. DaIis and corroborated by one Gus
Cotherintien 1t was either a pitiful
mfsconception of the duties and re-
sponsibilities attached TO the office Of
policeman. or an indiscreet desire TO
relieve one of those functionaries Of
his prescribed work. that led Mr.. Dalis
TO take into his own hands the task
Of effecting the arrest Of a man who
had assaulted him, and it was the error
thus committed by Mr.. Dalis that led
TO the wrongful placing of Mr.. Gothic
rintien in the position of defendant
before Judge ConIan-
Mr. Dalis, who resides at III Folsom
street. swore to warrant accusing one
Gus Macres of battery, and without
getting the document signed by a mag
istrate or enlisting police aid in any
way he went forth to arrest his al
legged assailant. He must have been
somewhat in doubt as to the identity
of the man he desired to punish, for
ii was Gus Cotherintien instead Of Gus
Macres that he dragged into court. 1t
took Judge Conlan just about three
minutes and a quarter TO ascertain that
Mr.. Dalis had committed serious
brunder and to order the case stricken
from the calendar.
The next time you want to have
any one arrested said the Judge to
Mr.. Dalis, you would better let the
police act for you They are better
acquainted with the circumlocutory
Of warrant-serving than
any amateur can possibly be- Your
zeal-some people might term it stu
pidity-has put this Mr.. Cotherintien
10 a great deal of inconvenience, |
though if he had exercised a little or
binary intelligence he might have
averted it by discovering your mis-
take. How you managed to get him |
this far toward trial without encoun-
tering a snag is one thing that puzzles
me and leads to the inference tEat
there is a defect in our time-honored |
routine"
Mr.. Cotherintien did not seem to un-
derstand why he was released any
more than he understood why he had
been arrested
Judge Cabaniss dismissed charge of |
felony embezzlement against Charles
E. Clark, assistant manager of the |
Farmers and Manufacturers Assocla- |
tion Of America, and supplemented the |
order of dismissal with voluntary |
opinion that Mr.. Clarks conduct in the |
premises had been absolutely blame
less.
The complaining witness was J. E. |
Allison. president Of the aforemen-
toned corporation. and he accused the 1
defendant of having willfully misap /
propriated about $3.50 of the funds en-
trusted TO him as manager. The de- !
fense was an acknowledgment that /
the money had been received as
charged, but that it had been dis |
bursed among other corporations with /
which the Farmers and Manufactur-
ers' Association was financially affili- |
ated The plea was thoroughly sub
stantiated by evidence.