Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1913 — Court Dignity Limbered by Quacks and Squawks [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Court Dignity Limbered by Quacks and Squawks

PITTSntJRG, Pa. —The quacking of a duck and the squawking of a chicken completely limbered the dignity and shocked the solemnity of Criminal court the other day, when the fowls were offered as exhibits in the case of John Kowalczyk of Whitaker, who accused Mike Lukacs of robbing his coops. Kowalczyk had brought the fowls in a basket and they remained in the court room the greater part of the session. The duck would “quack" freely, especially when witnesses were being sworn. Once, when Judge Marshall Brown wa» beginning with much gravity his charge to the jury, the duck reached out his long yellow' bill and caught the chicken by the neck. The court room immediately resounded with a series of piercing squawks. Judge Brown was seized with violent coughing; the jurors covered their faces, and someone back in the court room exploded Into a “Ha. Ha!" “Order! Order!" cried a tipstaff. . The case was tried In another room. before Judge Thomas D. Carnahan.

“How do you know it is your duck?" Judge Carnahan asked Kowalczyk. “Why, because it’s white,” was the answer. “But there are lota of white ducks in the county. Cant you identify it better than that?” “Well, it’s my duck, that’s how 1 know,” protested Kowalczyk. He identified the chicken In a similar manner. Lukacs admitted having ducks and chickens for sale, but said he got them in Brldgevllle. He resides in Whitaker. A jury found him. guilty. He was remanded to jail for the preeent.