The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-17
THE JAIL
Bertha Brown, Tired of
Habeas Corpus, Pays
Fine and Costs.


| In the Police Justices Court yes
| terday the matter of Bertha Brown
was finally settled by the woman pay
| ing the fine and costs imposed upon
her rather than to go to Jail.
The sum paid amounted to 500
fine and seven dollars and odd cents
costs
The hundred dollars the woman paid
with check on the Merchants and
Farmers Bank Of Durham, which was
endorsed by A. P. Capin, a Raleigh
furniture dealer.
The Brown woman looked fresher
than she has since she began to figure
as q star in court proceedings, al
though yesterday morning she was
more simply dressed than she had
been on either previous occasion. The
case was called and Attorney j. G. l..
Harris refused to pay the fine imposed,
whereupon the Police Justice signed
a commitment to the Wake county
Jail.
Here Mr.. Harris asked that an ap-
peal be granted his client to the Su-
perior court, claiming that she had
ten days in which to appeal after
judgment. Attorney Snow replied
that the ten days limit applied only
to civil and not to criminal cases and
that it would be grave injustice
to the State if defendants were per-
mitted to appeal after a long delay
when the States witnesses had left
the city. The defendant, he stated,
that chosen her remedy in habeas
corpus proceedings. They had been
dismissed and there was now nothing
to do but for the defendant to pay the
fine and costs or suffer the alternative
punishment of gOir~ to the county
jail The court refused the appeal
and Col. Harris thereupOn desired to
appeal from the commitment, which
he stated was part of the judgment,
because it differed from the judgment
in that costs had been added thereto.
This motion, also, the court refused
and ordered a policeman to remove
the defendant
Bertha Brown SHES at Jail.
All this time Bertha Brown had been
sitting in the bar, smilingly watching |
and listening to her attorney in his !
effort to throw further delay and OBJ |
jections against the carrying out of |
the sentence
When the Chief of Police ap-
preached her, however, she sat up |
quickly and exclaimed:
II amt agoin' to that place!"
you've got to 60" replied the |
Chief, taking the woman by the arm.
Il tell you, 1 amt going" replied
the woman drawing back. "Pll pay
the fine first"
She started to the desk OF the JUS
tice and Col. Harris broke in;
You go on with the Chief and I'll
in tXVn no
corpus before Chief Justice Clark
You. won't have to stay there long. I |
advise you not to pay that fine"
But Bertha Brown had come to the
parting of the ways with her attorney.
Her horror of the Jail was writ large
on her face. 81 amt agoin' to that
place nary minute" she said with
conviction.
Col. Harris sighed and waved ges-
ture of resignation:
"Oh. all right" he said, the battle
of another habeas corpus fading from
his eyes as the woman commenced to
tumble with her satchel.
"There are Others"
After the fine was paid, the woman
complained that she had not been
treated fairly She retailed the names
of half a dozen other houses of the
SOIl run by Ilet ana NdIleu 10 hllON
why it was that she should have been
singled out. She felt aggrieved that
evidence arising from a little scrap
should have caused her indictment
There is Emma Richardson" she
exclaimed why don't you pull her.
Didn't they have fuss there yester
day and make such a racket inside
the house that you could hear it
block? But there wasn't any trouble |
made about that They all just came
up and submitted for what they did
on the street. There wasn't anything
said about what went on in the house.
There was Grace and a lot of others
all fighting and fussing."
who is Grace?" the Brown woman
was asked.
She's a woman at Emma Richard
sons that was up in court this morn
ing for getting in a fight with heI
lover, a fellow named Mabry."
The matter at this point was grow
ing in interest when Col. Harris
touched the Brown woman on the
arm with his cane:
mind out, Bertha" said he
Sc sometimes the least said is the
easiest mended.'
Whereupon the Brown WOMAN shut
up and it was all over.
Client Didn't ''Stick."
Afterwards, Colonel Harris said that
# the woman had stuck" he had in