The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-08-19
THE WEEKS TALK
 IN NEW YORK CITY Car Riots Caused by a Noto-
 riety Loving Judge A MATRIMONIAL SYNDICATE How a shrewd Woman Has Shorn Many Lambs-Bad Livers Cause
 Many suIoldes-The Bal
 loon Fad.
A MATRIMONIAL SYNDICATE
BY sEwELL HAeeARD.

New York, August 1s.--The press dis patches sent out of New York this week have told the world of the scenes of riot and anarchy on the coney Island branches of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit company Sensible persons far from the scene Of the disturbances are justified in wonder ing what all the fuss has been about. If such a thing had happened abroad we would have raised our shoulders proudly and said that nothing of that sort could have happened in enlightened America. We would have pronounced 1t a farce Of the most ludicrous kind. And, though 1t happened here, 1t would be farce had not so many misguided persons been pum- meled and beaten by the regular police and the special officers of the street rail- way company.
 The cause of the trouble was decision of Justice Gaynor of Brooklyn in case where a man was arrested for refusing to pay two fares or ten cents to get to Coney Island. For a long time there has been an agitation for a 5-cent fare, and the matter has reached the courts several times before this. The justice decided that the defendant in this case had been ar rested illegally and released him. Then he went on to give decision obiter dictum, which means:
 Something said by the judge incident ally, and not as the result of deliberate Judgment: a passing remark, specifically an incidental opinion given by judge, in contradlstnction from his judicial de- cision of the essential point"
 What Justice Gaynor really decided was hot 4hA A1t,, l,sa1 ,irri fa n "a a man for refusing to pay a double fare. His decision that the company had no right to charge a double rare was obiter dictum and hence not binding. The jus tice could not have rendered a decision on this point that would be binding; first, because the question was not before him, and second, because there are two other courts in this state that must pass upon a legal point before 1t Is settled
 It was A characteristic Gaynor decision in that it left the justice in the center of the limellght. and everybody else in the furch. Bird s. Coler, the Borough presi- dent of Brooklyn. who is always jealous of anyone who threatens to get all tho notoriety of the day, dashed in where the limelight beat fiercest. He told the peo- pie that Justice Gaynor's decision meant that a 10-cent fare to Coney was illegal and advertised that he would furnish legal assistance to anyone that would refuse to pay more than cents. Some of the newspapers that use box letters for type and red ink to print them with up- held him. The result was two days of disgraceful rioting. Thousands refused to pay the extra fare and they were thrown off the cars by the special police of the company. At first the city police helped in this work. so confused were the city officials as to their proper status in the controversy, Then wiser heads prevailed and thp faa1iCa limited thnir activities n seeing that no brutality was practiced. The company in disgust suspended it's Coney Island service until the trouble blew over