The San Francisco call., 1906-05-23
RECOMMEND SEWING TABLE FOR
THE women OFFENDERS.
Police Judqes Hold Conference and Devise Scheme
That Will Be Submitted to the Supervisors
BY JAMES C. CRAWFORD

IL UAlf1LO ". VIM w OANH
Two women proven guilty of drunken
ness were dismissed in the Police Court
because there was no available means OF
Furnishing them in a way that would ac-
crue TO the city's material advantage.
They could not be gracefully sentenced
to labor upon the municipal rock pile,
as inebriates of the sterner sex are pen
allied and TO consign them to incar-
ceration unaccompanied by toll would be
TO augment the expense of a munich
pality already heavily burdened in lh2t
respect When the four magistrates got
together and discussed the problem they
virtually agreed that its best solution
would be the establishment of sewing
factory, in which female prisoners could
be employed 10 repair the garments of
bachelor policemen and other public SER
wants, many of whom are already re-
duced to a state of sartorial dilapidation
in which safety pins are more numerous
than buttons.
1t was Judge Conlan's suggestion, and
it won out over his Honor Cabaniss'
strenuously debated theory that a cook
ing school would more fifty meet the
emergency. Judge Mogan gracefully
abandoned his idea that the weaker sex
might be utilized to stack the bricks
that male prisoners have demortared,
and Judge Shortall magnanimously with
drew his ungallant opinion that in these
ough-and-ready times no sex distinction
should be drawn in the treatment of
drunkards. said opinion being not illogi-
cally based upon the fact that when a
woman imbibes intoxicants she willfully
surrenders all right TO the exceptional
consideration that is due womanhood by
law, justice or common-sense. So the
sewing factory argument prevailed and
will be respectfully laid before the Board
of Supervisors.
1t was the case of Mrs. Mary Cody.
before Judge Mogan. that opened the
question, and the case of Mrs. May
Kelly before Judge Conlan, fastened its
decision.
Mrs Cody came from here home at
Vallejo TO inspect the ruins. She had
never during her forty years of exist
ence known the taste of ardent spirits
until she arrived here, and this is how
she explained the lapse
"Jist before l started for the boat one
Of my neighbors, Mrs. Burton. says to
me, Mrs. Cody, If you're goin' to look
at them rulings you'd better take along
something for your nerves, for I've seen
them and they're turble sight. know
you don't drink nothin'. she says says
She but at the same time you'd better
be prepared against faintin', for I'm
sure I'd a-swooned if hadn't had
somethin' TO put my lips to- So she
gives me a small flask of whiskey an
puts il in my bag and starts. No
sooner did I clap my eyes on them
rulings than I'm glad I has that flask,
for my head swum an I'd a-drapped
where I stood If 1 hadn't although of
"a 1rrhfa T.
save myself. an then / walks UP Market
street. an / can't remember how many
times I'd a-fallen if IL hadn't been for
that whisky"
The policeman who arrested Mrs. Cody
testified that he perceived her, much dis
heveled and with empty bottle in hand.
clambering over a heap of debris at Mar
ket and Taylor streets, and when he
solicited information as to what she was
doing there she replied that she was as
cending the gangway to the Vallejo boat,
though what had happened to said gang
way she could not for the life Of her un-
derstand, and would be greatly obliged
to him if he would enlighten her on the
subject Instead of doing so he took
her into custody.
Under a bailiff's escoH she was con-
veyed from the court to the genuine
gangway to the Vallejo boat.
While the strong waters imbibed by
Mrs. May Kelly, whose years also came
close 10 the two-score mark, were
smuggled to the city, she did not per-
form the smuggling. She was camped
at Lyon street and the Panhandle with
her mother and stepfather, when sew
eral friends of the family came from
Stockton to view the evidences of devas-
tation, and among their impedimenta
were several bottles of distilled spirits.
Mrs. Kelly consumed more of the stuff
than was discreet, and when her step
parent chided her for drinking to excess
promptu kitchen in which he was then
preparing the family's vesper meal.
That was what she really did, although
the complaint filed against her by Pa
trolman 4. c. Williams set forth that
she disturbed the peace by creating
loud and unusual noise, by tumultuous
conduct and by threatening, traducing,
quarreling and challenging to fight and
fighting"
At the suggestion of her mother that
lady's husband declined to prosecute,
and ii was then the Judge bethought him
of the sewing factory as a means of re-
proving ladies of truculent temperament
when under alcoholic influence. But she
was dismissed, of course.
Mrs. Alma Drury told Judge Cabaniss
that never until the morning of April
Is did she realize just how little she was
thought of by her spouse, Thomas J.
They were occupying separate apart
ments in the same house on that fatefu
morning, she averred. and when the
earth trembled he fed to the street
/ leaving her to extricate herself from OIL
perish in a chamber from which egress
was barred by the collapsing of door and
windows. When a total stranger did set
! her out she found Thomas ]. seated or
the street and recounting how he man
aged to escape.
Despite that indubitable proof OF
Thomas Us lack of affection for her she
accompanied him to a place of refuge
numbered 1913 Steiner street where the,