Wheeling Register

LIFE IN ST. LOUIS.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Yesterday's chief entertainment at the Police Court was afforded by the Larkin and Cauley clans, which came into the chamber of justice marshaled by Mrs. Della Cauley and Mrs. Mary Larkin, two ladies who disapprove of each other with a deep rankling disapprobation founded upon an unpaid loan of $3.20 made by Mrs. Cauley to Mrs. Larkin and by remarks made by Mrs. Larkin to and about Mrs. Cauley. It is putting it mildly to say that there has been some friction on Poplar street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth, where both the ladies live, and the tension of their strained relations has put in vibration all the rest of the loose indignation of the neighborhood. Both women are natural born leaders, but each has formed a party. Both are widows, and while Mrs. Cauley is perhaps ten years younger than Mrs. Larkin, Mrs. Larkin easily weighs 40 pounds more than Mrs. Cauley. Each is eloquent, and, given half a minute to think, each can call names that will raise a blister every time they hit. Mrs. Cauley seems to have been more successful in the use of language, because it was she who was summoned to answer for disturbing Mrs. Larkin's peace. Although the evidence went to show that while gentlemen might cry peace, peace, there was no peace on Poplar street ever since the original difference arose about the $3.20. The testimony was very conflicting, but everybody agreed that a condition of actual war existed, and that there was no more special reason for arresting either of the ladies on the day before than there had been on any day in the past two weeks. Mrs. Larkin, a heavy-set dame, with a straight mouth and a most determined chin, hair that disappeared under a black bonnet after the fashion of the '60s, muscular arms and a habit of jarring the witness chair every time she sat back in it, took the stand as prosecutor. It appeared in the fine Theban dialect that connoisseurs call the Far Down that she was an ill-used woman. "I live in the house wid dat one," she said, pointing with the apex of her bonnet toward Mrs. Cauley, "and it's a dog's life she leads me, s'rr. I'm an honest woman, with three children, and she began dhat day by sayin' dhat I'd be sore put to it to find fathers for thim, which s as dirrty a le as ever kem out of Kerry, and so I told her flat foot od to her sneaking face. Well, wid dhat she passed one word and I passed another, wid the stairway bechune us and the neighbors gradually gathering, whtn she says I was an Irish vixen, and dhat she'd knock the Irish cog mud outo' me if I darred kem down in the yard. I never took a darr from morchia! woman vit, and so down into the yard I'sem, whereupon, lo, and behold you, she rethreats up her starrway, given tongue like a pack of Lord Antrim's beagles. I asked her what she meant calling a lady Irish, when au Airisher-- than she wouldn't be found stealing spuds from the pigs in the Claddagh of Galway, or takin' thin sowp to swear away her soul in a Protestant church in the bad times. Dhat seemed to sthir her, aud all of the foul talk I ever heard I kem next I wouldn't repeat it, but she called me out of name, she did. She cursed and she swore, and I was dhis and was dhat, and she miscalled my mother and my father, and my husband that is dead, and my children that is living, and every second word was --or Irish. Not boin able to kem to her on account of her having a chair leg and the stairway bouts so narrow, I sent for the police, but they didn't come." Mrs. Cauley protested that every word of Mrs. Larkin's story was false and misleading. She had gone to her as one lady would to another, and asked her if she meant to steal that $3.20 change which she was holding out on her. The reply was a torrent of vulgar abuse, that was as shocking as it was unjust. Day by day this was repeated, until the climax of the day before. To add to the aggravating character of Mrs. Larkin's language, she had a most offensive habit of jumping up and down while she was cursing, and of yelling an opprobrious epithet every time she lit. Mrs. Cauley, to the amazement of the Court, illustrated Mrs. Larkin's objectionable school of oratory by suddenly rising from the witness chair, jumping about a foot high and screaming out language calculated to make the hair curl of even the hardened whenever she jarred upon Then she sat down and cried. Judge Morris filed his opinion er and of Mrs. Larkin. roving of each of them. technical hitch in the which made it necessary to put the case over until at which time, if the surviving, there will most be an interesting sequel's proceedings