Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-16
ALL SHADES AND KINDS
Varieties of Human Kind Found
at the Police Court.
INNOCENCE AND iNNocENTs
protestations Of Those Who Find
Themselves in the Dock.
FRIENDS RALLY IN DINGY ROOM
Al Fresco Gathering Of t'aplorers,
Witnesses, Complainants and
Policemen.
INNOCENCE AND iNNocEHTs
FRIENDS RALLY IN DINaY ROOM

The aroma OF the Washington Police
COurt-but this isn't going to be one of
those Upton Sinclair of-the- Pa ckingtown
Jungle stories: and II the aroma or the
Washington Police Court and the rooms
and stairways and Railways contiguous and
adjacent thereto doesn't make the efhuvia
of the Chicago stock yards seem like the
tittivating fragrance OF asphofel meadows
and things, by comparison, this writer lie
color blind.
This however, is intended to be merely q
little dissertation on the subject OF limo
cence and Innocents.
All OF 'em hailed before the Washington
Police Court throne of justice, every day,
are innocent. If this statement be consid-
ed remarkable. let 1t be at once pointed out
that It is the hailed ones themselves who
say 1t. And the trains, retinues and en-
tourages of the nailed and hailed ones in
sist upon the point just as strongly as
those In whose interest they hang around
the Police Court and contribute their hum
Bile mite to the pervadfnE and permeating
aroma.
For local color and strange novelties In
the way OF individual and blended smells
there isn't police court in the world to
equal that ancient, rattletrap. dilapidated
shack, called the Washington Police Court,
on 18th street, across the way from the
1t il in no mitigation OF the sternness OF
the kind OF Justice dispensed there to say
that even Justice itself seems a sort of end
less. unceasing joke when laded out amid
such grotesQus surroundings
wide Flagged Arsaway.
In front Of the crazy old 10Th street
building there Is a sort of wide tagged
area-way. sunk about three feet below the
level of the pavement, and 1t In on this
tagged space, and around the enveloping
stone copings thereof. that the interested
ones In the cases ground out every day be-
gin to assemble of mornings. long before
the prisoners themselves are due. When
that al fresco gathering attains It's full
quota, along toward IL O'Clock in the morn
ing. by which time all OF the halls and
stairways and dingy rooms Of the building
are alive with witnesses and policemen and
detectives and compliments and implorers
OF all shades and kinds, the hum in that
nefghborhood, leaving entirely out OF con-
sideration the smells. makes the fair at
Nijni-Novgorod seem like an annual picnic
OF deaf mutes or conclave Of Brahminis-
tic priests pledged to lifelong silence.
The interested ones holding down the
tagged area-way are preponderantly black
and of the most rollicking tatterdemalion
kind of black
Their sudden descent from laughter to la
mentation. or ascent from depression to hi
larity. is a thing that even the seasoned
old cops standing around never leave of
studying, these maryelously swift changes
in the Afro-American mood are SO instan-
taneous and banning. The merest shuttle
OF the feet or quip of one Of his kind viii
start the grieving ''dinge" huddled over on
the end OF the coping to laughing as IL the
joy of life had never been out of his system
for eighth of a second, whereas one of
the FOSTERING blades of the areaway outfit
who has been keeping the rest of them in
roar will suddenly slump down into a sort
OF Stygian depression from which 1t seems
he will get no relief this side of the tomb.
The blacks, men and women, are being
"shooed" out of the main front door of the
Police Court building In sets of fours dur
ing every minute of the session.
The bunch of blacks arriving at the build
ing sweep right toward the door In close
of business that can't be delayed minute.
But the cops on the door stay them with
naughty sweeps of the arm.
Where d'you think you're going?" the
cops ask them, and the blacks come out
with the chorus:
I'VE want t see de man."
They all want to see de man." That in
definite parsonage might be anybody from
the Police Court magistrate to the dinge
craps shooter who Is due to arrive presently
In the black Maria. But the black visitors
and presumable voluntary witnesses for or
against somebody always smear the situa-
ton by just asking to see "de man.
'See who?" the door-holding cops ask
them.
de man whut-'
wait out yonder," say the cops. waving
the group In the general direction of the
tagged areaway. and three of four more
blacks, filled with possibilities for despair
or JOY, join the humming gang already hud-
died there
Incident Of a Day.
A few mornings ago a very black maiden,
her kfnky hair flying In a thousand eccen-
trio points. her bedraggied skirt hanging In
clinging to her shoulders by a miracle and
one pin, essayed to pass the big, good-na-
tured cop who guards the stairway leading
to the main door.
Alice" the cop said to her, seriously
ats a wonder you don't rent room here"
The black hoyden grinned amusedly,
showing a set OF white teeth, finely planted
In her depraved face that any white beauty
might have envied AS the cop shooee her
away from the door, "She's been here every
day. mixed UP In some case or other, for
about ten days now" explained the cop.
Nothing is started that Alice hasn't got
In hand in. somehow"
From amid the DIN of the area-way we
CLEAN expressions of the innocents, dis
coursing upon innocence, something like
these:
HE nevuh done teched her I all. She
done hit him wifi a saucepan, an OATS
how 1t done happen
She didn't tex nothin'. She foun' de
dress on de street. All was wifi her wen
she found it,
He done got paid of. an he nevuh had
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