The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-20
four-Cornered Fight Causes Lots of Fun In Grimi-
 nal Corridor
CUSPIB0R FIGURED AS
 PRINCIPAL WEAPON USED
It All Happened Over a Massive Parcel of Ebony Femininity, Who Re- fused to Sell Her "Speeny"
 For Six Bits.

The peace of the temple of justice was very abruptly disturbed yesterday aft ernoon.
 Never did the great American eagle in all of his majesty perch himself upon a high pinacle of the Rocky mountains and scream out with the effect rendered by the passage of a bunch of compressed air over the finely strung vocal chords in the throat of big negro woman against whose shoulder large cuspidor had been heft with considerable force.
 The whole affair occurred in the lobby just outside of the first division of the criminal court Since the old courthouse was put up back In the sos there was probably never such a yell let out within the confines of it's walls as was the case yesterday afternoon, and the judges and clerks and the people who sought justice, and those who did not seek 1t, naturally had a most eminent right to be disturbed and the business of the courts was rudely upset for a few minutes.
 Shortly after o'clock there emanated from the second floor of the building a shriek that sounded as would be the case if somebody was twisting a goats tail four-thirds off. Some of the inmates of the temple of justice surmised that that Lew elevator which it took more than 20 years to secure, had busted rope and had dropped to the displeasure and injury of some occupant. Others thought that maybe some over-vigorous shouter had been given the death penalty Others thought other things, but it turned out to be only a fight.
 When the shout rang out practically everything In the courthouse ran upstairs or downstairs as the case happened to be, and in the course of about half a minute everybody from one or two of the judges on down to Jack" the greyhound who makes the sheriff's office his headquar- ters, was on the scene to learn the trouble.
 Those who were not fortunate enough to arrive in time to get room on the first row could only hear lot of negroes jab bering. One negro was bawling worse than a lost calf, another was excitedly talking about dat white man hittin' ma brother," about 100 spectators were cram ing their necks to see what they could see, and a poor old, badly dented ius- pider that has sat in the corridor since the beginning of time was lying off to one side as unconcerned as you please, thank you.
 From all majority of the excited spec tators could learn the trouble happened like this;
 A big negro woman in whose class Jack Johnson could not stay for two rounds had subpoena, and Joe Smith, scrip buyer, wanted to purchase her ''speeny" or "spinyon" (no telling what she called i) for 75 cents. The daughter of Ham would stand for no such price because she thought Jefferson county ought to pay the face of it's scrip, and she tried to grab it out of MT. Smiths hand when he stated his proposition.
 MT. Smith thought, so it is said, that the reason the certificate was not worth it's face was that there was already too much grabbing involved in the fine and forfeiture fund. and he did not propose to have any more grabbing if it could be dNerteu, anu De was SuIc ilO IcSTO WOIildu was going to do any grabbing. So he re- quested the woman in no uncertain tones, not to try to grab the "speeny" from his hand, and told her he would hand it back if she didn't want to sell it.
 About this time, however, third party, a negro man, became interested and ad- vised the woman not to sell that "- baf. ha man had no more than uttered that .--' than he incurred the force of MT. Smiths five knuckles which darted straight from his strong right shoulder.
 AS soon as the pop from the concussion of MT. Smiths fist against the negro's ''coco" was heard, fourth party, the negro mans sister, became interested and Handed" one against MT. Smiths head. This was the signal, and three against one it started fair fist and skull.
 The negro woman with her "speeny' tightly clutched in her left hand, grabbed the cuspidor with her trusty right and drew back to heave it in Mr. Smiths di- rection. City Detective Baker interfered, however, and knocked the deadly wea- pom from the negro woman's hand.
 The cuspidor bounded from the floor but once, but white man identity not guar anteed, caught it on the fly as it bound ed. Never did the Roman discus throwers perform so nobly as did this gentleman Straight back over his shoulder he swung the prehistoric cuspidor; back he swung it and over his shoulder 1t flew. Never did q dove fly to it's nest with the accuracy, and never did rifle ball go truer to it's mark than did that cuspidor. Square to the person of the negro woman with the "speency" in her left hand it flew.
 And it was then that the impression gained ground that somebody was twist ing a goats tail
 Of course, in twnlSlng a horde of in- terveners was on hand and with but little difficulty the warriors were induced to withdraw with divided honors
 Everybody had a good laugh over the matter and with the remark that he'd make 'em all holier if he could get hold of them,o MT. Smith went into the chan cery courtroom to check over his scrip. Clerks and all others agreed that they'd never had such a time In their lives, and everybody went back to work with re- newed energy.