The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-06-30
FORD SENTENCED
TO SIX MONTHS
Mother Asked for Lunacy Commission
for Man Who Stole
Mite Boxes.

about 25 years old, was convicted in
the Police Court Wednesday morn
ing on two charges OF having pur-
Joined from cafes donation boxes be-
longing to the Virginia Home for In
fants, which he afterwards rifled OF
their contents--contributi ranging
from one cent to fifty cents, and sem
fenced to sixty days in Jail on each
charge.
The prisoner strenuously denied his
nesses gave damaging evidence. JUS
tice Crutchfield having no hesitancy
in convicting him.
The specific charges of which Ford
was convicted were the theft of boxes
from the Commercial Hotel and
Shere's Cafe, both Main Street estab-
lishments.
Two other charges, those of taking
similar boxes from Reuger's Hotel
and the Straus Cigar Company. at
Ninth and Bank Streets and East
Main Street, respectively, were con-
tinued.
In the Reuger case the complainant
failed TO put in an appearance, a rule
subsequently being issued.
AS the last words of the sentence
left the mouth of Justice Crutchfield,
the aged mother of the prisoner step
ped up to the bar and declared that
she wished to have a commission of
lunacy held over her son.
HE has been acting queerly for
the past eight years. she told the
Police Justice, land 1 think his sanity
should be looked into"
Subsequently, Magistrate James
Connolly, upon being approached i'm
this connection by Mrs. Ford, declined
10 issue the necessary warrant on the
grounds that sufficient proof of Ford's
insanity had not been furnished him.
Probably harboring the melancholy
and unpleasant prospect of conviction,
Ford made a desperate, but Intellectual,
attempt to destroy himself in his cell
in the Second Police Station last night,
employing for this purpose his neck
tie.
Fortunately for him, his crudely con-
structed hangman's moose broke, but
as he had tied the article of neckwear
Of strangling to death when Police
man Garter, who was just outside the
cell, had his attention called to a CUR
from the throat OF a man who was be-
ing choked to death.
Upon investigation Policeman Car
ter found Ford lying in an uncon-
sciouS condition upon the floor of his
cell, where he had fallen when his
cravat, with which he essayed to de-
stroy himself, parted. The policeman.
assisted by Policeman Witt Tomlinson
and Desk Sergeant Otey. dragged him
out and administered first aid to the
injured. The remnant of the tie had
% be severed with a pocket knife, so
light had the slipknOt become.
The city ambulance was summoned
charge OF DR.. NJ. II. Taylor, who, by the
liberal use of ammonia and other slim
plants, succeeded in reviving the would
Much Small Change.
Ford was arrested Tuesday after
noon by Detective Sergeant j. L. Wilt
shire in Sparks cafe, on East Broad
Street, as he was casting longing
a rarn a. 90 IL
receptacles, in which are dropped by
a generous public the necessary
wherewithal with which to procure
the necessities for the maintenance
Of the infantile wards of the Virginia
Home for Infants.
In this connection it might not be
amiss TO state that Mrs. Dunkley, SUI
perintendent of the institution, is au-
thority for the statement that the
proceeds accruing from this source
are sufficient TO pay the rent of the
home.
When arrested Ford had in excess
of Sill in various denominations
usually nickles, dimes and pennies,
and, in few instances. quarters and
halves, just the kind OF contributions
that are dropped into the boxes, in
his possession.
Ford's modus operandi was some
what after the following: He would
enter a saloon or cafe, in which he
had knowledge that one of the boxes
was kept, and make a trifiing pur-
chase. He would then saunter over
TO the receptacle and spread Il news
paper-and he usually kept one about
him for the purpose-oVer the covet-
ed box. although apparently uncon-
sclous OF its presence. He would then
rod the paper up, at. the same time
secreting the box in the folds of the
sheet and innocentiy saunter out.
with no one the wiser.
When asked by Justice Crutchfeld
in court this morning to account for
SO many small coins, Ford's eXplana-
ton was that he won the various
small denominations while prosecut-
ing divers games of chance; that he
had won the greater part of it in play
ing pool.
Ford is a printer by trade and is
said to be an A-No. 1 empIoye when
he feels so disposed. A relative re-
marked in court this morning that
the young man is as circumspect an
individual as one could wish to see
when he wants to be, but that his
disposition is extremely erratic. Ec-
centrlcity, 1t seems, is one of his traits.
His has been a checkered career.
Ford has figured in the public
prints with more frequency within
the past few years than probably has
been the lot of any other citizen of
slons he has attempted to commit sui
eide, or at least to have made pre-
lenses OF having attempted to do so.
COurt-MartiaIed.
AT court-martial sometime ago
he was convicted of stealing and dis
honorably dismissed from the ser
vice.
In September, 1908, while on a
spree he was found lying beside the
car tracks on West Broad Street near
the Hermitage Press, with a partially
hiled whiskey flask clasped tightly in
his hand.
n street car inspector on a passing
car saw the body lying PROSTATE be-
side the rails and. fearing that the
man had met death by being struck
by car, made an investigation.
The city ambulance. which was in
charge of a DR.. Scott at that time.
was summoned. but the man, who
subsequently turned out to be Ford
was in such a drunken stupor that the
inferno could do nothing for him.
Fearing that the man had been in
Jured in some way, DIR. Stuart Mclean
called private ambulance and had
him removed to the Virginia Hospital
at the company'S expense.