Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1912 — MAN ON BENCH [ARTICLE]

MAN ON BENCH

Justice, Daly City, Cal., Teaches Marshal a Lesson. Had Officer Jailed for Contempt of Court—Six Months She Was a Stenographer for a Prominent San Francisco Attorney. Daly City, Cal. —“Arrest him for contempt of court!” The order came from a slender young woman, somewhat excited, it is true, who had just arisen from her seat on the bench. The “him” in question represented six feet of indignant official manhood glowering at her. “Arrest him,” she commanded again. “I can’t,” stammered a deputy , constable to whom the words werd addressed as he looked -covertly at the bulk of his prisoner to be. “You see I’ve just resigned.” “Then I’ll take him to jail myself,” announced the girl. And she would have done it in all probability if she had had to, but it wasn’t necessary. At any rate, Miss Jess won that fight as she has won others in the courtroom and elsewhere, and has become a figure in the affairs of her home community and in the state. It happened this way: There is no longer a bar to women holding office in California, and in due time Miss Jess was appointed city recorder Daly City, across the San Mateo county line. Now the office carries with it the duties and powers of a justice and Miss Jess found herself suddenly the arbiter of the minor legal and criminal difficulties of the place. There were men in Daly City, however, who felt that it was not just the thing to be bossed by a woman, and among them was the marshal. With the lawyers it soon became another story. To one she remarked candidly: “If you don’t know the law you had better learn something about it before you appear in a courtroom sacred to its usages.” After that they let her alone. With the marshal and certain other officials it was different. He had been ordered to act promptly in a case in which a Civil war veteran had been swindled out of his savings. The marshal had been given the warrant, but he loitered and the culprit remained free. Then Judge Jess summoned him before her. “Why haven’t you served the warrant on this man Simpkins?” coldly interrogated the girlish judge. “Can’t find him around here,” the marshal muttered angrily. “You haven’t been making any very strenuous effort that I can see,” responded Judge Jess acutely. “Why don’t you go to San Francisco and apprehend him there?” 'Lhe marshal stood at bay. “I’m not going to San Francisco to find him,” he uttered finally, the veins in his forehead working with volcanic wrath. “If you want him you can send the sheriff of San Mateo county for him. I haven’t time to go on such chases, anyhow.”

“Then.” She said, “you force me to order your arrest for contempt of • court. You have shown the bench unmistakable contempt in open court, and as a sentence you must pay SSO or remain one day in jail. Which do you choose?” The marshal scowled until his black eyebrows met. But he answered in a voice hoarse with passion: “Pay SSO! Well, I guess not See you—” That is why the marshal of Daly City came to be arrested and that is why things have gone more smoothly in the courtroom of the first woman justice. Six months ago Judge Jess was a stenographer in the office of a prominent San Francisco attorney. She lived in Daly City.