Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — Police Judge Who Fined Himself. [ARTICLE]

Police Judge Who Fined Himself.

Alexander Laidlaw, whose name was once in every paper in the land as the judge who lined himself, died in Waldeck sanitarium, Sau Francigctff, the other day, from the effects of a surgical operation. Laidlaw in his younger days was a hail fellow well met with a band of as merry fellows as ever laughed away the hours of the night. He studied law and afterward was elected police judge in Oakland. 1 His oecasionad bibulous escapades became the talk of the town and attracted newspaper notice. After an unusually boisterous outburst there was an editorial comment in the Tribune referring to the peculiar position of a judge on Ihe bench who was called upon to sentence men for drunkenness when he himself should be in the dock. The next morning, after the calendar in his court had been gone through, Judge Laidlaw looked down at the clerk and said: “You will make this entry on your calendar: ‘Alexander Laidlaw, drunkenness.' ” “Yes,” said the astonished clerk. “ ‘Arrested by himself,’ ” the judge went on. * “Yes.” “Enter a plea of guilty.” “Yes.” “Alexander Laidlaw is fined SSO. Here is the money.” At once the country rang with his fame, but from that time forward Alexander Laidlow drank no more. A supreme court decision finally ousted him from his position on the bench and he removed to Sau Francisco. Here he entered upon the practice of law, with fair success.