December 27, 1913
THE COLD GRAY DAWN
When you wake up in the morning
And your head feels queer;
And your thoughts rise up
Like froth on beer;
And your knees are weak
And your voice is strong
And you’ve laughed all night
At some foul song.
You’re drunk, old man; you’re drunk.
-Walter Juan Davis
Like a fortune teller who reads palms, Police Judge Ballard Caldwell of El Paso passes judgment on the men and women who appear before his bar of justice on charges of drunkenness. If the hands are calloused from labor and the offenders have committed no other serious offense they are given a lecture and told that a second offense will mean a jail sentence and are given their freedom.
But if the hands are smooth, those like the hands of gamblers, vags, gamesters and others who don’t work they are given not only a lecture but a heavy jail sentence.
This method of passing on the cases is a novel one, but it brings results seldom obtained in police circles.
Before the bar of the public judge yesterday afternoon there were nearly 100 prisoners arraigned on charges of drunkenness. Instead of court opening at the unusual hour of 4:30, Judge Caldwell started it at 2:30, and it was dark before the last prisoner was given his sentence. The unfortunates were those arrest Christmas day and night, and many of them were given from 10 to 60 days in jail, while a few were released.
Standing at the jail the offenders presented a pathetic appearance. Old Colonel R.E. Morse was sitting on the shoulder of each, and it was a typical day after the night before scene. Each wore a dejected look and had a dark brown taste in his mouth and his head feeling about twice the usual size.
Six nationalities were represented. There were Americans, Mexicans, Spaniards, Germans, Jews and Irishmen. Some had bloody noses and black eyes, trophies of their fistic encounters of the night before, while others had cuts about the head from falling on the pavement. One offender, a tramp who came into the city on Christmas to spend his holiday had both eyes nearly closed and his nose flattened. Peeping out at the court, he said that he had taken a “few” drinks, not many, just about 25 or 30, and that as he started to walk to his rooming house some person, whom he thought was training for a prize fight, mistook his head for a punching bag, and after knocking him down stepped on his face. His looks were anything but deceiving, and he appeared as if a steam roller had been driven across his face four or five times.
A khaki-clad fighting man had a face that resembled the tramp’s. He too had been used as a punching bag and there was blood all over his uniform. Several soldiers were in the jail on charges of running amuck during the night.
The majority of the prisoners were Mexicans. They celebrated Christmas by trying to make the breweries and distilleries work overtime.
Those who engaged in cutting affairs, robberies and holdups were not tried during the afternoon. They were taken to the county jail and many of them will be arraigned before a justice of the peace next week.
The two Mexicans who were cut in a fight in Chihuahuita are still confined at the county hospital and are in a serious condition. One of them has a dozen stab wounds on his body and is very weak from loss of blood.
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