The San Francisco call., 1904-07-08

1t is probable that until they were
confronted by Mrs. Martha Edelstein,
tailoress, Police Judge Mogan and his
official aids never fully realized the inn
potency of the laws machinery to up
hold the majesty of the law against
! the will of a determined woman. For
without actually subjecting herself to
arrest fer contempt Mrs. Edelstein
bulldozed the bench, ignored the ad-
monitory glances of the clerk and
! scoffed the bailiff and his gavel into
silence. She triumphantly said all she
! desired to say and regulated the pro-
= pceedings to suit herself.
Mrs. Edelstein, stalwart and COM
, manding, appeared as complainant
/ against her husband. Harry, puny and
! shrinking. The charge was battery.
! For a while the Judge endeavored to
maintain the dignity and order called
for by the time -hCnored rules of po-
lice court procedure, but Mrs. Edelstein
ingenuously forced him TO relinquish
the effort and sit helpless while she
and Harry argued it out face to face.
Attorney Friedlander meekly informed
the court that he had been retained
for the defense, and Mrs. Edelstein
haughtily declared she could not per-
NIT him to have anything to say in the
the lady, "and l am sure that until
few minutes ago you never saw
either Harry or me. So l Will not al
low you to butt in. The very
Ideal" So she prattled on, while the
attorney tried to appeal 10 the Judge
and the Judge timidly appealed to the
! woman until her breath was exhausted
and he got a hearing.
will you permit me, madam, ne
. said. Ito saw word =
/ After moments reflection she mag
unanimously said she would. But.
! she added, pointing at the attorney,
mot a single word will l allow that
: fellow to say"
Il merely desired to- remark said
( the Judge, that the law allows any
person accused of an offense to be rep
| resented by an attorney"
A shrill laugh of disdain was Mrs.
! Edelstein's response. why. all the at
! torneys in the world" she shouted.
couldn't do that shrimp any good. An
attorney, indeed! The idea! Come
up here and say what you have to
say"
/ Harry obeyed with an alacrity that
I savored of force of habit acquired
/ through stern domestic discipline. 1t
was impressive picture. The woman.
! florid and aggressive, sat in the witness
chair and glared contemptuously down
at the pale little man who stood at her
| feet, nervously lingering his hat brim
/ and avoiding her glare, while the court
! breathlessly awaited the opening OF
| hostilities that seemed inevitable. In
response to an encouraging nod from
/ his attorney the husband started to
] speak but he had not uttered three
words ere the wife's tongue was wag-
/ ging also. He spoke the dialect made
! locally famous by Comedian Barney
n re~lr
| bad English with a Missouri twang.
/ No attempt was made to stop either
of them. Bailiff Hickey involuntarily
+ raised his gavel. but it descended slow
! ly and failed TO thump. Clerk Grey
! sat as one transfixed. The Judges face
was buried in a spOtless handkerchief
} and an occasional convulsive heaye Of
his shoulders was the only sign of ami
nation he displayed. The attorneys
| table was in a wide grin. So were the
crowded benches.
From the elimination and recrim-
/ ination fired by the Edelsteins enough
was CLEANED to piece together this bic
! of conference. They were married three
years ago and never did get along very
we'll together. Finally they decided to
J be divorced, but Superior Judge Gra-
ham refused to issue a decree on the
! ground that neither of them had suffi-
cient ground of complaint against the
other. So they agreed to live apart.
I The woman engaged an apartment at
| 1886 Howard street, and il was there
| the battery alleged by her was COM
mitted on the Fourth of July. She was
sitting on the porch, she said, when
Harry came sneaking around, as he had
! frequently done before, and sat beside
hex He accused her of improper con-
duct with a policeman, name not dis
closed, and then he bumped her head
| twice. With the aid of the landlady
she routed him. Two hours subsequent
/ ly, when she was returning from a
nearby grocery with two bottles of beer
which she had kindly gone to purchase
for another lady-as for herself she
! never drank beer-Harry again met
| her and asked her to return and live
with him, as he was feeling ill and
needed nursing. No" she said, Il
would not nurse you if 1 saw you dy-
ing on this spot" He smote her again,
and with violence. All she wanted him
/ to do was to let her alone.
| Harry admitted having visited her on
| the nations birthday, but denied the
! battery. He simply went to ask that
| she return his ante-nuptial gifts. con-
! sisting of jewelry and clothing. because
/ he had discovered that she punched
/ the eyes out of portrait of himself
which he had given here ere they were
| married AS for his accusations of i'm
| proper conduct, he believed they were
| we'll founded, although he could not
| furnish either the name or number of
! the alleged policeman in the case. A
| friend of his, Mr.. Rose. had asked him
| if he had a brother, and when he re-
piled in the negative Mr.. Rose ex-
! pressed surprise, caused by the fact
| that last Sunday Mrs. Edelstein had
| introduced to him as her husbands S
/ brother a gentleman whose arm was
around her waist as the twain sat be-
meath a tree in a seQuestered nook of
Golden Gate Park.
! Mr. Edelestein had much more to tell,
| but was suddenly stopped short by ar
rival of the noon hour and the court
asserting its authority to adjourn for
| luncheon. Two weeks hence the case
will get another inning.
Harry NJ. Blum, who has served two
terms in the penitentiary and is under
a felony charge in Judge Fritz's court,
was found guilty by Judge Mogan of
misdemeanor embeZzlement and sem
fenced to twelve months. He stole two