The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-06
sheriff Has No Laughs.

Sheriff Has No Laughs.
"The songbirds think it's Sing Sing.
some comic among the visitors suggested
with hearty laugh. But Sheriff Jim
would not be cheered even by a witt
cism so subtle.
He was sick. sore and tired. groaned
Sheriff Jim Donnelly. OF trying TO run
jail in which the prisoners are herded
so close to the material witnesses that
prisoners and witnesses can sing back
and forth 10 one another. thereby ena-
bling the witnesses to tell the prisoners
awaiting trial and vice versa what they
are going to swear to when they take
The stand. Sheriff Jim said that at
present he was loaded up not only with
more than 100 prisoners, but also with
lot OF soprano. tenor and bass material
witnesses. all crowded together in jail
that had Accommodations for only
ninety-siX prisoners.
Take little Suffolk county. down on
Long Island" cried sheriff Donnelly,
heatedly. The Suffolk county Jail has
accommodations for 200 prisoners with
county population Of less than a third
course, that we'd dare ask for as swag-
ger a jail as one OF these murder de
luxe counties like Nassau. but" insisted
sheriff Jim with a note of local pride.
when 1t comes to crime Bronx county
will take a back seat 10 no county In
the entire
Where was YOU. my darlink. on the
last night of june"
Again the lady material witness WAS
directing the opening strain OF her in
tsrrosatory lyric 20 some unknown gen
ueman prisoners.
Ragtime Prisoners Warned.
"Once more for the last time" roared
Sheriff Jim, you ragtime prisoners back
there cut out the
But the lady witness in detention
paid no attention now to Sheriff Jim
She repeated the opening line of her
song in louder tones and promptly some
gentleman friend, who perhaps had been
delayed by his inability to summon
rhyme and rhythm as quickly as his
lady love across the way. seemed to
ind the vocal art stirring more rapidly
within him. II somewhat rusty barry
tore, which also had suffered from the
ravages OF Boishevsm. he took up the
melody a the second line. and after
that the soprano barytone duet ssunfed
proportions that absolutely drowned out
even the angry commands for silence
from Sheriff Jim Donnely,
The lady Where was you. my dar-
Ink. on the last night of june"
The gentleman; "Oi, yoi. vol Up In
Gnsbergs saloon"
The lady:
10, no, semmy. not In Gin.beres saloon!
You left there. you fathead. In the late
In the late aft-rnoon-set mo-
In the late afternoon
You never went at Nighttime to Ginsberg's
So vehemently did the lady wind up
the duet that never did Mary Garden
IN her most violent stage moments STAB
A tenor in his highest note and stimuli
taneously come so near to ripping the
roof off an opera house
Now What's the Use.
You see What's the use?" sighed
Sheriff Jim Donneliy the last of the
~chc~s % the duet had rumhlad off into
The Bronx. And that little duet is mild
compared to the full oratorio Of mixed
voices thatll be giving grand opera here.
They ought to be in full swing by this
tlme-they usually are. Maybe the
brains of our song writing birds are not
functioning as fast as usual this morn
ing,
Now sometimes as early at o'clock
IN the morning this whole coop sounds
like a church choir rehearsal Ever since
some wise guy in one OF the cells began
10 hit upon this idea OF putting personal
questions about his ase to the music of
old songs or popular tunes of to-day the
whole darred collection of witnesses and
prisoners has taken up the idea. know
ing the jail Is 40 crowded that .hey can
get their stun over from the coils 10 the
part where we keep the material Wit
ncsses. When all
\ lugubrious voiCe--ths time a tcnns
Interrupted with a solo right here
The voice came from IA corridor OF