KinSource - Tale of the Week - Villianous and Nasty

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

St. Paul Daily Globe, July 26, 1884, page 2

VILLIANOUS AND NASTY.

The Chapter of a Day in Police Court Records.

Sexual Sinners, Gamblers, a Crank, Barbara Reynolds, Etc.

The hot weather seems to have an eruptive influence on petty crime, or else as a pretty widely accredited school of philosophy teaches, vice like certain organic diseases comes in the nature of an epidemic and stays until it has run its full period. The heat in the police court yesterday was at a boiling point and the crowd was fearful, while the stench was strong enough to stop a clock. Tom O'Brien, the genial assistant city attorney, stood it as long as he could, but it finally floored him and he was compelled to call at a drug store and seek relief in chloride of lime.

The case attracting the most people to the court room was that of the six sports who were caught in the act of playing with the tiger at a Robert street gambling house. The knights of the green haize answered to the names of John Pelot, the keeper, Wm. Wilson, Andrew Philip, alias handsome Charley, Wm. Schines, J. W. Wilson and James Walker. They all pleaded guilty and were fined $25 each.

There is something radically wrong in a system of government that drags into the quagmire of prostitution young and tender girls, and the question of how to deal with this most monstrous of social vices is becoming day by day of more vital importance. Hardly a day passes but one or more young girls are dragged into the police court to testify by their presence to the extent of this burning blister of shame on the fair fame of the city. Yesterday Agnes Murphy and Johanna Reagen, two young girls, were the witnesses; their paramours were Thomas Meedham and Chas. Croffuth, and they were arrested while trying to gain admittance to one of the down town hotels.

The men were fined $10 or ten days, and the two girls were committed for 30 days each.

Another almost similar case, only that the parties were older, was presented in the appearance of Mrs. Middleton, Ellen Flannington and a man giving the name of Tom Flannington. The women are said to be strumpets, and the sweet scented gang were yanked from a room in the vicinity of Seven Corners. Their cases were disposed of the same as the others.

Still another case was that of Mrs. Johnson; she was charged with street walking, but she denied the charge and explained that she was looking for her husband when the officer run her in. She was fined $10.

John McIntosh, the crank who related a blood curdling story about the murder of a woman and who asked to be locked up and then tried to hang himself, was arraigned on the charge of vagrancy. He represented a most woe-begone spectacle and the poor wretch was committed for thirty days.

Joe Wick, a young idea who has commenced to sport a little early even for his fast age, was charged with stealing a snide chain. The trinket was worth about ten cents, and the court continued the case in order to learn something of the lad's character.

Mike Kennedy, a tony looking blonde with a nice moustache, and attired in a nobby looking suit of gray, was charged with bastardy, the complaining witness being a plump little damsel named Mary Ehrke. Mr. McCafferty appeared for the girl, and Mr. Thos. D. O'Brien represented the defendant. Considerable testimony was taken, with the view of making it out that the girl had pursued the accused and forced her favors upon him, while he also tried to prove that she had bestowed her charms promiscuously. The case was partially tried and continued until to-day.

The case of Barbara Reynolds, the colored damsel who slashed her lover with a razor because he was too sweet on Ellen Gilmore, a white woman, resulted in no new developments. Barbara was held to the grand jury and the Gilmore woman was sent up for thirty days, while Williams, the gay Lothario, was discharged, the court considering that between the two women he had trouble enough.

The case of C. C. Smith, the brakeman on the Milwaukee Short Line who struck Jacob Ermentrout with a poker because he was smoking a cigar on the train, was next disposed of. The testimony was conclusive, so far as the assault went, and he was held to the grand jury.

In addition to the cases named a number of vags, drunks and disorderly cases were disposed of, none of which, however, were aggrevated.