The Washington times., 1922-09-10

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: sessions in a little room on the
i; top floor of the District Police
Court Building. at Sixth and d
streets, and while badly handi-
capped by lack Of space, it man.
y ages to transact a large volume
OF business each day.
20 1t is presided over by Judge
Robert s. Hardison. who also deals
out Justice to the petty law break.
ers In the District branch of the
Police Court. During his long
experience on the bench, Judge
Hardison has listened to many
stories born of vivid ,imaginations
- and II takes a true son Of Ana
MAS to. put one over. on, him now.
Thomas Walsh, assistant corpora.
ton counsel, with the help of two
expert traffic men, in the persons
of George s. Scriven and Otto
C.. Hauschild, looks after affairs in
'. the preliminary traffic court down
stairs.
MUST FIGHT JAM.
It's tough job to fight your
way through the crowds in the
corridors and gain the Traffic
court on any day while IT is in
{ session. On Mondays lit 10 almost
q an ,impossibility. The weekend
crop of violators of the automobile
traffic regulations constitute quite
r q gathering In numbers they
range somewhere in the neighbor.
= hood Of from fifty to seventy.five.
Each offender is accompanied by
from three to six witnesses.
There's usually a plaintiff for each
defendant and he also has a bunch
Of folks. along with him to hack
up: his story. ~
All of this fuming, fretting.
crowd try to assemble in a little
room about sixteen feet wide and
twenty feet in length. Added to
them are the judge, the lawyers
in the case. the clerk Of the court
and the bailiff. Besides the
Judges rostrum. the room contains
a dozen chairs, which are some
times occupied by the juries and
sometimes by witnesses: q table
and several chairs, within a rallied
inclosure, for the use OF lawyers;
and two long benches with a total
= seating capacity of about forty
q, people, -;'r. r.
Jack Dempsey, with the aid OF
those mighty shoulders Of his,
might be able to force his way
., through the mass Of people and
secure a seat in the Traffic Court.
II Jack ever does drop round to
watch the proceedings, he will
see a calm, cool-looking man
. seemingly engaged in playing
d, what looks like an interesting
Igame Of chess with several oppon.
! ents. The man is Judge Hardison
and the game is not chess, but
the more interesting one OF trying
to nsift the false from the true.
On the desk in front OF him. the
Judge has a. large sheet of heavy
cardboard. Upon this cardboard
are marked, a number of street
Intersections. This is used in
coiliding cases. First the com.
planning witness takes the stand
ana after he tells his story, he is
handed two toy automobiles. He
10 instructed to place these nina
ture cars in the exact positions on
the. street intersections marked on
the cardboard that the colliding
automobiles held just before the
accident occurred.
ILLUSTRATES COLLISION.
Then by moving the toy
I machines about on the cardboard.
he illustrates just how the collid.
ing automobiles came together.
While he is engaged in this man.
ner, the Judge is plying him with
pertinent questions relating to the
accident. The witnesses ON both
sides, who follow him on the stand,
must also illustrat. heir stories
with the toy automobiles. In
cases where thepe are a large
number Of. people to testify. this
y consumes time and very often q
single celliding case viii consume
more than an hour In the trying.
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