The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-14

that the belonged to a young man, a
stranger to her, who was then in the
dining car. In her seat was a box and
three quarts of whiskey and one quart
Of wine and two ostrich feathers such
as are used in trimming hats, the
sdtcnel containing one quart OF
"hisSey watch she admitted belonged
TO her. The inspectors felt justified
in believing that she and the young
man were engaged in a partnership
enterprise involving the illegal trans
portation of liquor, so that they were
both arrested and taken to the Jail in
Alexandria county, where she was
assigned to "A cell not occupiCc by any
other person, but was provaS.d with a
clean. comfortable bed. She prefer
red, however, To occupy chair dur
ing the remainder of the night. and
when brought before Hon W. c.
Cloth, the trial justice of Alexandria
county, she said that she was mil
liner and had been to Baltimore to
purchase stock of feathers and hats
for he.' store. She denied, however.
owning either the feathers or he
whiskey and wine in the box. She ad-
mtted that her prior statement in re-
SdEh 10 MOI utlI1E aCQud1fltt1 Win the
young man with her was false.
Though the circumstances wer quite
sufficient to warrant her conviction
under the prohibition law, her APP
parent nervousness and fran constitu-
ton excited the sympathy of Justice
Cloth. who dismissed tn. charge
against her, whereupon she i'm
midiate,y laid claim To the feathers
that were in the box. though still
denying the ownership of the whisk ely
and wine in the same receptacle!
When it is remembered that some
OF the most assiduous and cunning
persons in the bootlegging business
are women, it will be. Acknowledged hv
all who are not incurahly hostile to
the enforcement OF the prohibition
laws that the inspectors were amply
( Justified in arresting this woman. Her
name Ia withheld from publ. cation out
of consideration for her feelings. but
it will be furnished contidontially tc
any person honestly desiring to ascer-
/ tain the facts. In the appendix will
| be found statement under oath by
Justice Cloth, fully setting forth the
/ circumstances of the case. and deSg-
/ mated TO Exhibit L.
The Cases OF Mrs. A. and Mrs. u.
Wide publicity has been given ir
| lhe press not only of this state hut
! throughout the United States to sto-
/ ries OF the invasion and search of la
| dies herths in Pullman cars to the
: annoyance and EN- barrassment OF these
i ladies, Editorials galore and infam-
matory have been written, Indigna-
! ton reached the boiling point. Ot
! course, many people retoiced because
/ they wanted to believe these stories
! and they rightly felt assured thai
nothing yet devised was sure II
! excite public hostility to prohibition
/ and law enforcement these ac-
| counts. But strange to say. a large
number OF really good citizens swal.
/ lowed this bait. hook. line and sink
! err The mayor of "A certain city in
/ North Carolina protested in an indig
rlant letter to Hon. walker n. Hines
| director-Ieneral of the United States
! railroad administration. Mr. Hines
! turned the letter over to Judge John
| Earton Payne. general counsel for the
railroad administration. Judge Payne
| forwarded the letter TO the commits
| sioner OF prohibition OF Virginia and
asked an explanation; he also wrote
! the governor OF Virginia. Some one
rot connected with the department OF
! Prob bition gave out this letter to the
press before the commissioner had
time to look into the matter The
/ toons ct the most offensive kind and
pictorial Sunday supplements got
busy. The public was led to believe
that prohibition officers were ruth
lessly searching the berths OF ladies
i'll every Pullman passing through this
state,
In this preliminary letter Of the
mayor, he cited three specifications
and while not publishing the names of
MS witnesses he declared they were
available His specifications were:
ta) That a Iadys berth on certain
Pullman was opened and one lady
had "A hashlght flashed in her face uo
&C ntinue to protect this lady from pub
licity we will call her Mrs. 40;
tb) That one lady had a pistol
flashed in her face while in her berth
1--WE will call this witness Mrs. "BD
Co That lady had her baggage
rtfed and contents stolen. We can
not designate this witness as she does
not exist--at least the mayor would
not give any name),
Now the reader will please bear in
mind that the mayor never once
charged the officers of the depa ri ment
Of prohibition with these indignities--
he only charged that "ruffians mas
querading as officers of the law" did
these things.
The department Of prohibition i'm
mediately set on foot rigid investi-
cation to ascertain whether or not any
officer OF this department had been
guilty OF these alleged offenses and
if not whether responsibility could be
fixed on anyone else. and 1t was
clearly shown that not only were the
officers OF the department OF prohibit
ton innocent of anything of this kind
but that at least two of the specii-
cations OF the mayor were not sus-
tanned by his own witnesses with
reference TO anyone else and. on the
contrary, were denied not only by the
witnesses whom the mayor cited to
the department and herein designated
as Mrs. "A" and Mrs. 81. but also by
the officers, by the conductor and by
the porter on the train (see the state
ments of Mr.. Dumford. exhibit 2: OF
Conductor Pearce. exhibit 3. Of Porter
Harvey. exhibit 4: OF Mrs A.. exhibit
s; of Mrs. b. exhibit 8. and OF Miss
c., exhibit 10
The other charge that lady Mira