The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1917-01-22
Don Marquis
Column

Preface to q Collection Of Suffrage
| The question has arisen. in connection
with the Votes for Women movement,
as to whether women are as well fitted
by nature for jury duty as men.
Are not women more inclined to be
influenced by circumstantial evidence
than men?
Our own impression, we hasten to an
nounce. is that women will make quite
as good Jurors as men. And yet We
cannot forebear relating an incident. con-
| corning heroic friend Of ours whom we
will call, Higgins. in which, evidence
purely circumstantial influenced a fe-
male jury to an undue degree.
Higgins arrived at his home early one
Sunday morning-at a quarter past 5
precisely. he told US afterward-to find
his wife, his wife's mother. his wife's
aunt, his wife's married sister, his wife's
unmarried sister, the cook. the house
maid, and the children's nurse all watt
ing up for him. The female relatives
had been arriving in relays. II appears.
since midnight.
They all demanded in angry chorus
how he dared to come home at that
hour and (they said) smelling Of al
cohol.
Their anger increased when II was
seen that Higgins was wearing around
his neck a baby's blue and white bib
and that he carried in one hand q long
stocking Of pink silk and in the other
hand a cocktail shaker. Something
squawked when he sat down. and 1t was
discovered that he had an auto horn in
his hip pocket.
On the evidence Of these tribes. which
might innocently and logically attach
themselves to any man, the female Jury
condemned Higgins; nor would a plain
and simple recital OF the facts influence
the jurors to reverse their verdict that
he was a wretch.
He had been walking through Cen
trail Park about dusk when he had
seen a gang OF ruffians climb out OF n
taxicab and attempt to steal q baby
from its perambulator. The baby's
mother Ia plain featured young ON
an Of a type that had never made eny
appeal to him, Higgins was careful TO
state) fought desperately and
screamed for assistance.
HfSgins-soul Of chivalry that he is
rushed to the aid OF mother and
child. But the desperadoes lung him
to the ground and choked him into
Inconsistencies by tying the baby's
blue and white bib tightly around his
throat. They also rubbed into his
eyes crumbs from an oatmeal cracker
the baby had been eating, which ex-
I.s- 4
The snow into which he fell revived
Higgins, and when he regained con-
seriousness he pursued the taxicab.
guided by the outcries of the mother
and the child. As he came abreast Of
the machine he made grab for the
baby.
He missed the infant, but caught
the mother, who had never ceased to
fight, by the foot, and her long. pink,
silk stocking came on In his hand.
what had become of her shoe Higgins
never knew; likely, he thought, she
had been wearing slippers and one of
them had been kicked of In the
struggle.
Hastily apologizing, Higgins wrap
ped the pink stocking around. his left
wrist. to assist him in parrying, in so
far as he might. the blows that the
bandits were raining upon him with
the butts OF their rifles and revolvers.
AndA still running at top speed, he
made another plunge and grabbed at
the child again. Again he missed the
baby. This time he caught the horn
on the taxi and wrenched it OF, bulb
and all. As he ran he placed II me-
thodically in his hip pocket.
The machine was by now emerging
from the park at the south end. At
Columbus Circle a truly frightful
combat occurred.
Higgins might have been killed had
not a noble bartender rushed from a
cafe and given him timely help. The
bartender thrust into our heros hand
heavy cocktail shaker and babe him
strike valIantly with that weapon.
1t seems that the cocktail shaker
happened at the moment to be filled
with gin, vermouth and bitters of
some sort, together with particles of
ice and a very little bit of sugar
Perhaps. Higgins says. there was a
VII VI pccllHB VI sOIuc
amidst the ice; he has never known
definitely. But as Higgins struck at
his foes the mixture was sprinkled
over his clothing. This accounts,
Higgins believes. for the ,harge
brought against him later that his
breath was scented with liquor. 1t is
possible, he said. that he really did
inhale some OF the fumes from the
cocktail shaker in his excitement He
has never been quite certain on this
point.
During the battle at Columbus Cir
Gle Higgins was struck savagely and
repeatedly on the head. He must have
wandered about the streets for hours
and hours in a semi-dazed condition.
with the bib around his neck and the
silk stocking in one hand and the
cocktail shaker in the other.
Every time he sat down to rest the
auto horn squeaked. and he would
start I'D in alarm and live over in
fancy the awful experiences of the
early evening, and run wildly through
the night.
At times. while gallopinE on, he
would regain full consciousness, and
then he would fear that ne was going
to die, for a blow on the diaphragm
had given him the hiccoughs, and he
fancied that he vas bleeding intern
ally. And when he would sit down,
that he might die in. peace, the horn
would squeak once more, and again