Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-16

Thsy are da4rous of telling the prosecute
Ing attorney all about It. but there are
and that dismal possibility. The barriers
are In the form of ratings about ave feet
nigh. and even the eagsrest blacks, dead
set upon breathing their warm breath upon
the hair OF MT. Given as they narrate unto
him the story OF their friends grievances
viii balk at leaping q nve-foot barrier.
prosecuting attorney. they're invited to say
IL In the brfefest Imaginable manner, with
that barrier intervening. but " they are
only thers for the purpose OF unraveisng a
skein OF glittorfng general;ties. there's a
bunch OF large cop-persons just outside
OF Mr.. Owens door who are experts at
the "sheoing" game themselves.
Woc-beGone black men and women wan
der aimlessly around the halls ana stairs
with their heads done Mp In bandages that
leave scarcely anything but their eyes
visible. and the whiffs OF arnica and hnl-
ment are heavy upon the already over
charged air. These bancaxed ones are gen
orally complainants. and they mutter weird
~ to themselves about "eittin' hunk with
CLEANS In their baleful eyes when the
bailin. from the top of the stairway lead
Ing into the court room. calls upon them
to appear In his rough. slng-song tone.
make Ii look pretty bad. at that, for the
'nigguh whut done DEM"
Appeal in Behalf Of ~Man."
Black women. some of them leading all
efforts to engage the cops and detectives.
anybody who looks like somebody in au.
thority. In conversation upon the subject Of
their mans" case. Their man has been
pinched for righteousness or brutality.
generally upon the complaint OF the wife,
but the wife has had nights rest on the
matter since the arrest, and the horrid
possibility that she might be deprived OF the
benevolent presence OF her gin-sodden or
rough-h housing man for a period vary
ing from thirty days to six months 80 STAN
pedes her that she nearly always turns up
at the Police Court IN the morning, wild to
have him "tuhned loose by any hook or
crook. The poor black woman VIII lie until
she Is four shades darker than her original
color to get her man out of the laws
clutch, and as soon as she joins the bunch
OF walters around the areaway and In the
halls she begins to eeseech the cops to
listen to her, az II they themselves were
the whole works In the dispensation OF JUS
tice to her man
policeman occasionally comes In, walt
ing to appear in court. with his uniform
torn to tatters. and then there Is smoker
ing all up and down the line among the
huddled blacks.
.'somebody dun come neah teahin' dat po-
leece apaht," In the general whispered COM
ment, for II sure Ii a dear and inefrable
balm to their eyes to see any old kind of
o white minion of the law messed up at
the hands of any old color of lawbreaker
Occasionally one of the tumultuous ones
riered office. on q dead run so as to escape
the staying hands of the cops. and bleats
out, "Whaffo am All dun sup-peenered tub
come down heah. wen An don't know nur,
the amuck runner gets this far he Is man
handled by a couple OF the despised wife
po-leece. there for that purpose, and run
all the way down the stairs and into the
tagged areaway, by the scruff of the neck
and the slack of something else.
Dead Game Spote.
Occasionally, too, some dead-game ''spotc
n,gguh." arrayed regardless from the rim
OF his Leghorn hat to the bottom seam OF
his white linen spats. strolls disdainfully
up to the door of that office. bent upon
aweing Mr.. Given into giving him complete
and definite Information upon some subject
weherein he Is Interested. When Mr.: Given
declines to awe any, the "spote" black Is
pretty liable to swish his cane around some
and to roll his eyes dreadfully and to de-
mand "whaffo," whereupon he. too. be-
comes the beneficiary of the quick-foot all
the way down the stairs and Into the area
way at the powerful hands of the cops sta
toned there for that Identical purpose, and
when the "spote" reaches the areaway the
tatterdemalion blacks greet him with the
long and sustained ha-ha. whereupon he
rolls his eyes spitefully at them. but quick
iy relapses into q supplicatory and beseech-
full mood.
Frequently some white lawyer witness
concerned III y CdScr WUo mas Dcch pStiA NP
in one of those indescribably fetid rooms OF
Washington's Police Court shack for a
couple OF hours, staggers and wabbles down
the stairs. wiping his brow weakly, ana
then he shambles clear across the street.
deliberately steps upon the Treasury mail
In clear violation OF the law, throws his
chest back and stakes himself TO about
fourteen long. deep breaths of real. honest
Injun air, while he gazes through the IN
terstices of the sun-checkering leaves and
thanks God that he is stiil alive. The In
toxication of sure-enough air In these cir
cumstances sometimes causes a man who
does 1t this way to sway as IL he'd been
overdrinking.
Yet the men who handle the machinery of
this day-in and day-out, year-in and year
out Washington Police Court grind, from
the bailiffs on the doors to the magistrates
who assert the never-ending grist, are n
cheerful enough lot OF men, not In the least
inclined to pessmism. and most OF them
deriving what fun they get out OF life from
the simplest imaginable pleasures
Notwithstanding which. the good men are
welcome to that grind, and particularly to
hot