Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1912 — Tates of GOTHAM and other CITIFS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Tates of GOTHAM and other CITIFS

Deaf Mutes Fling Epithets in Court

I*| EW YORK.—There was a silent ils commotion of an extraordinary character before Magistrate Krotel in Center street court the other day when Henry J. Hecker, a deaf-mute pressman of 754 East ipfie Hundred and Fiftysecond street, appeared as complainant against Miss Nora Sullivan, a young woman of twenty, also a deaf-mute, of 330 Water street. Hecker charged that Miss Sullivan grossly insulted him on the street last Saturday afternoon, flinging a broadside of slanderous epithets at him from the tips of .her fingers and then banging him on the head with an umbrella. The young woman, who is short and plump and highstrung, appeared In court in answer to a summons obtained by Hecker. There was no deaf-mute interpreter !n court when the case was called and Magistrate Krotel was at a loss to understand the multitude of high signs that were snapped at him. Hecker vainly talked himself into a state of manual palsy, and court attendants were sent scurrying everywhere for an interpreter. Finally Police . Sergeant Quackenbos, who is six feet tall and built like a hack, was reached at

police headquarters and came to court while the quiet excitement was at its height. ' Complainant Hecker was pretty weak in the wrists when he took the stand and related how he had been insulted and thwacked with the umbrella.Quackenbos olid not translate the insults, but informed the court that in thumb and digit discourse the language was pretty fierce. Then Miss Sullivan took the stand and talked so fast that Quackenbos couldn’t get her. He told the magistrate she was having a fit of manual hysterics. He made swimming motions at the witness, wig-wagging for her to become calm. There was a great stillness in the court and at the same time a great tumult All the deaf-mutes were talking at once and becoming purple in the face. At last Miss Sullivan talked herself into a swoon and was carried to an ante-room. Brought out again, she talked herself into another swoon and came out of No. 2 quite limp. Then it was drawn from her that Hecker had made unpleasant left-handed remarks to her and that she was entirely justified In swinging at him with her umbrella. •' “I guess this Is all we can stand for one day,” adjudged the court, mopping his brow. “Case dismissed.” As the two silent factions filed out of the courtroom there wan a wireless riot In the corridors until the mammoth Sergeant Qackenbos intervened and waved them apart