PUBLICITY CURE FOR NEIGH-
BORHOOD ROWS, SAYS
JUDGE KYLE.
Declares He Will Set Aside
Afternoon Each Week for
Spite Cases and In-
vite Public.
The publicity cure for neighborhood fights is to be adopted by Judge Harry Kyle in the police court, unless this character of cases becomes less frequent.
The city officials have been imposed upon to the extent of exasperation by a dozen women appearing in police court to air their personal quarrels and tongue lashings.
"If these cases do not quit coming in I am going to set aside one afternoon of each week which will be made an open court day," said Judge Kyle this morning, when impressing upon the women residents of a neighborhood on Drury avenue how foolish they were to bring their trivial affairs into court.
"I will make the afternoon session a public affair, so that everybody can get in on the entertainment and see what fools people will make of themselves. Now here is a case where two women had a little hair-pulling contest, which did not settle their differences so they employed counsel, one to prosecute and the other to defend, to come into this court and tell just what this woman said about the other's husband. If drastic measures are resorted to I think this character of cases will be less frequent."
After Mrs. Addie Shearer, 419 Drury avenue, and Mrs. Olive Garnett, 423 Drury avenue, had pulled each other's hair, trampled down the grass and slapped each other for ten minutes, they decided their difference would have to be decided by Judge Kyle in the police court. Mrs. Garnett preferred charges against Mrs. Shearer, charging her with assault and battery. A physician testified that Mrs. Garnett' face bore evidence of having been slapped as, when he examined her, he found several red marks. Mrs. Shearer assaulted her because, as she said, Mrs. Garnett was an aristocrat, a hypocritical church-goer and had told some of the neighbors that her husband was a chicken thief.
Both women had their little band of witnesses, who declared each lady to be a perfect lady and was entirely right in this affair. The trial of the case lasted an hour. Mrs. Shearer was fined $1, after which the women who favored her raised their heads in the air and fairly sailed from the court room. The opposing witnesses were equally as indignant because Mrs. Shearer had not been fined $500 instead of $1, and followed the first band from the room.
When a neighborhood case of this nature was being heard Tuesday morning before Judge Kyle, and after one woman had declared that the statement made by a witness was an infamous lie, about four square feet of plastering, directly over the witnesses, fell with a crash on the heads and shoulder of the parties lined along the bar. At that time Judge Kyle declared that it would not surprise him in the least if the entire city hall did not fall down some time when one of the family affairs was being tried.
