The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-14
IT WAS 'LOONY' DAY
How the Police Court
Was Queered.
lack Sellers, Crazy Woman With a
Mission as Prophet, and a Ban
jo.Picking Husband Making
a Decree"
a Decree"

The Police Justices office yester-
day ran upon experiences tending to
support the theory of the superstitious
that the universe and the things that
thereon crawl, as well as the motives
and crimes and loves that prompt
mems hearts or stain or beautifY their
| lives al proceed in a succession OF
recurrent waves which break in series
of threes upon the shores of mystery.
Yesterday the series was one OF
cranks and the three which went
| awash from the human ocean on the
| breakwater of the court room could
not have been supplemented by
| fourth. The like of neither OF them
is in the pack. Best of all--or worst
| of all-they were all harmless. which
| is a novelty to the Police Court where
! shifty eyes are the rule and there is
! a knife thrust behind the glance of
most of those who tarry there.
First of all in the morning hour.
came Jack Sellers, hobbling into the
! room his high crow of grOteSuue
concern heralding his approach. Jack
had been drunk four times hand run
/ ming and let off only to fall incontin-
emily into the lookup again. Under
| the tangle of his hair his weak eyes
shone with the jolly light of their
| idiocy, his mouth split wide open with
a grin that included everybody in the
| Joke But the Justice was out of
patience and SO was the city attorney
and they nondered Jacks case dar<ly.
Whereupon, an inking of the truth
| getting into the mjsts of his brain.
Jack twisted one bent leg around the
other. bumped his narrow shoulders
| higher still, drew the back of d
! gnarled and grimy hand across his
! bloated countcnancc, and came out
with a bubber that would have done
| justice to fOur-year-Old or a calf on
| the other side of the milking lot fence.
| In the perpleXity occasioned BY the
personality of their prisoner, the au-
thorities finally compromised with
| fate by sending Jack to the roads for
| thirty days. For that time, there Will
| be a sense of disappointment in the
streets, underlined but palpable. When
! the longing comes upon you. remeEl-
| Der that it is Jack-Whc is not here.
Jack Sellers is indeed a problenf> a
natural and an artificial idiot. Looking
as though he had been freshly sat on
with a passion for injecting his per-
| sonaiity in the life about him, subject
to bursts of harmless passion venting
| themselves in curSings which are be-
! yond the range of a master mind to
| remember, much less. invent, he has
| yet a knack of Self-Support which is
| as mysterious AS the man himself. He
is always comfortably clothed, always
! accomplishing, always wei-red. he
travels az will and afar and returns
I ike the wind when he listeth. He
wants but a stable for his bed and
food fO- his mouth.
| How arc you Jack p
"All right-si-r-r: had good
| brekfus,"
Every day is like the other to Jack
ma the breakfast comes regularly,
whether he carries water for the
hands on tho roads, or sleeps under
the stars with a paving stone for a
| pillow. and the devils of liquor light
ing the ghosts OF his Authorizations
to thei" chambers CT drunken
| dreams!
"A Daughter of tie Governor"
1t was in the afternoon that the
police captured on the corner, the wo-
man Maria Mcneil and two little
black children almost of a size who
were tagging at her skirts. Manifest
| ly the woman was insane with that
| worst of all diseases. the religious
| 5ent to madness. In the Police JUS
| tees Court she sat and talked to
Or. Hines a stream Of words that ran
| so swiftly that it was only at long
intervals that an intonatiOn broke
through their progress. 1t was un-
fanny, this tai, without sense, this
serried array of changing obcessions,
! of shifting personality, of martyr and
| aint and Drie5tesS of the secrets of
the Universe.
Daughter of the Governor of Wash
ngton. ID. c., she was. Sent to re-
| .eem the word. Guest at banouets
| heaven. Sent to Raleigh by reason
y having been prevented of 1nowi-
| edge. she who had more
knowledge that all the white
men IN this room-''set your
pen-men to work and write if all
lown!" Her name was Maria McNeill.
which was of the way of my girThooG
name which was of my Master be-
fore | became contracted of A trans
| parent marriage. which / have forgot
ten for my souls sake-which l am
| he daughter of the Lord the same
as all of you and have therefore put
AWAY the mammon of sin and the
name of hatred. Some are part pro
phets but | am all prophets. | can
| ee you all through and there are
| rings around your souls. | went to
| heaven at nine O'Clock at night and
returned at ten. coming to save the
| world, as one of the most circumSpect
! lawyers in Washington. d. c.. as al
| the most religious of the presidents
will testify [, Maria. come
And here the voice which, even i'll
| It's Insanity, had held the note of the
educated negro. the oyer-precise pro-
! nunCiation of the affectation of let
| 'erS. broke into q chant such as might
! have sounded in the jungle. Tie
! black eyes flashing with strange lights.
! 1uit their roaming. fastened them
| elves to tho wall. The blood pumped
| n quick surges bencath> the "copper"
olored skin, the lean jaw worked and
| he lips drew back from the long and
yellow teeth clinched so that the words
| escaped with a hiss long-drawn:
Come. come. to rave the world!
| To save the world and the creatures
! Ill Of every sort. -Maria--Prophet
/ belonging to the Governor at Wash
| ington, d. c., to save. to save! to
| wash away your SINS
One little child sat in big chair.
he other leaned Juggling against it's
mothers knees. tears trickling over
| its polished black skin, its frightened
whimper incessant and disconsolate.
Finally the woman stopped. For a
second reason flickered in her face,
with a rough tenderness she drew the
OlNi 4 fNfT. lsayN 4