USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 25
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" Why, Reverend Mr. De Charms, here is the damned thing after all!"
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STALEE AND THE NOISY BOYS IN THE GALLERY.
Our old friend Stalee was somewhat incontinently given to swearing, though only when there was some provocation for it.
It was his duty above all other duties to keep silence in the old court room, when court was duly in session. Sometimes, however, he was a little absent-minded. On one occasion during the progress of a trial in court, there were some noisy boys leaning over the balustrade of the gallery, jabbering like a parcel of crows or bluejays. The court was disturbed, and the presiding judge said to absent-minded Stalee: "Silence those rude boys in the gallery, Mister Stalee." The deputy sheriff sprung up from his seat at the sheriff's desk and vociferously bawled out : "Boys, boys ! silence-keep quiet-be still, there, or I will come up there, and bring you down d-n quick !"
The court looked aghast for a moment, but the boys being silenced, they kept right on with the case before them.
STALEE AND THE WAY HE SPELLED HIS NAME.
The old man would always spell and write his name "John Stal-ce." Frequently the lawyers would ask him why he did not spell his name with a "y" as being shorter. " No, sir-ee," he would say, no 'y' for me. You ask me why, I will tell you why and wherefore: because it looks better and it spells better, it looks more important, more ' distangu-ce' as the French have it, if I pronounce the word right, and besides I am better satisfied, better pleased when I am writing my name, for I can write with more case. Good for Sta-l-ce; though he loaned the wit, perhaps, from the comic almanac, it was a better application of it.
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HOW STALEE ASTONISHED THE PREACHERS AND THE DEACONS! AND THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
Stalee was frequently interested in church matters, for, as we have seen, he was the sexton of one of the churches of the city. The congregation of the church were clamoring for a new and more beautiful and splendid building for their church, and there was a meeting called upon a certain night, of all concerned-the preachers, the deacons, and the laity-to then and there determine the ways and means of erecting a magnificent temple. At this meeting the president judge of the old Court of Common Pleas, being a prominent layman of the congre- gation, was called upon to preside at the aforesaid meeting and he did so with the same urbane dignity as when upon the bench. On the question of what kind of a church was wanted, one of the preachers arose and suggested that they must build a fine church in a fashionable part of the city, where the rough scuff and scum of the city would not likely attend ; in a word, -where they would not be troubled with poor, ragamuffin people. This brought the deputy sheriff of the old Court of Common Pleas immediately to his feet, and, in quite a rage, he called out : "D-n it! we want the poor to attend our church; it is for them that we build churches. What in hell and damnation would you do without the poor?" All were more than surprised ; they were amazed and in a maze. They all stood perfectly aghast. Stalee was right in his sentiment, however, and he and they knew that.
STALEE AND LETITIA GRAY !
When I was in my official duty as State's attorney, a certain woman was duly indicted for keeping a house
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of ill-fame, and she had been arrested, and she had given bail for her appearance at court when her trial was to come on, and the day was set for her trial. The day in due process came on, and we were waiting for trial, with witnesses all ready and court all ready, but there was no defendant present in court to be tried. What had become of the defendant, Letitia Gray? Stalee, the deputy sheriff, as usual, was at his post at the sheriff's desk, looking anxious about things duly and properly proceeding before the court. One of his particular duties as deputy sheriff was to call aloud for absent lawyers, absent witnesses, absent defendants, and anybody absent who might be wanted in court ; and when he did so, he went to the big, outer south door of the old court house, and on the portico in front thereof, bawled out in tenor stentorian voice and lasting and blasting lungs, the name of the person wanted, three successive times, each time louder than before. On the occasion there was no lawyer present in the court room to represent the defend- ant or to explain to the court anything in the emergency, and this Stalee noticed, with some signs of dismay on his countenance and some misgivings. At last, somewhat impatiently, the presiding judge of the court called out, " Mister Stalee, call Letitia Gray !"
No sooner said than done. Stalee leaped from his high stool at his desk, hastened out of the court room and out of the south outer door and on to the portico, and bawled out in the fullest strength of his strong, high, manly voice and sonorous lungs, so as to be heard at the farthest end of the city : "L-e-t-i-t-i-a G-r-a-y ! L-e-t-i-t-i-a G-r-a-y !! L-E-T-I-T-I-A G-R-A-Y, E-S-Q-U-I-R-E !!! " And then returned immediately into court announcing very loudly : " May it please the court, the lawyer don't answer."
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Everybody laughed outright, of course, and Stalee returned to his desk and his post of duty, and because of the laughter, in tenor stentorian tones, with three strokes of the usual mallet on his desk, commanded "silence ! silence !! silence !!! "
It is not known to this day whether Stalee was in fun or earnest in dubbing the female keeper of a bawdy house Esquire, and changing her into a lawyer before the court, for one of his eminent characteristics as to him- self and his ways, was close and entire secretiveness. He was secretive as-the tomb about himself always, and to get from him his motives of conduct or action was absolutely impossible.
STALEE, THE SLAVE OF DUTY.
His law and rule of life was simple obedience, and it used to be a common remark among the old lawyers, that "to obey the orders of the court, if necessary, old Stalee would go through the infernal regions"-only they used the more expressive expression in one word-instead of the last two words ; for lawyers, you know, are plain- spoken sometimes. A lawyer once told me that he wanted a certain document in the clerk's office, and, hunting for it for a week, he could not find it. At last he thought of Stalee; if anybody could find the lost paper, he could. But how to get Stalee to look after it? He bethought him that Stalee would be sure to obey the court, and if they ordered him to find it, he would find it if the paper was in existence at all. So the lawyer got the presiding judge in court, although somewhat extra judicially, to order Stalee to find the document at all hazards. Stalee went to work to obey at once, and in one single hour from his commencement of business, he
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brought the lawyer's coveted and important paper to the presiding judge, who duly handed it over to the anxious lawyer, the old man Stalee being duly rewarded by the now gratified lawyer.
Stalee, in his official service, always had the model of Shakespeare's Macbeth before him.
" If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."
Or his Richard the Third-
" Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary. Then fiery expedition be my wing, Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king."
STALEE AND THE WHISTLING KEY.
Stalee was a great man to keep silence, so necessary and essential to the maintenance and progress of justice, or injustice, according to Gaines, in the old court house. He was a Jupiter to all noise-makers in the court room, and he hurled thunder-bolts of words, and rappings with the Sheriff's mallet upon the hard desk before him. "Silence ! silence !! S-I-L-E-N-C-E !! " he would exclaim, and then down would come the irrepressible mallet upon the face of the desk, making more noise than all noises before, or all noises put together.
On one occasion there was a murder trial proceeding in the old court room. It was one of extraordinary interest, and the bench was filled with judges, and the bar was crowded with lawyers, jury and witnessess, and the outside room was crammed with fellow citizens. But in all this crowd there was the stillness of death almost, for important testimony had been reached, and everybody was breathless to hear every little word that might be spoken by the witness on the stand. Stalee was at his post of duty, and he was attentive amidst that awful,
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awful silence which prevailed in the crowded court room. He was standing at his desk with his eyes peering over and through the whole auditory, and he had the sheriff's mallet in his right hand ready to strike down upon the desk when necessary. But in his other left hand he had the sheriff's great key, and the tube of this great brass key was hollow, and the muzzle of it happened to be held by Stalee's left hand, close to the unconsciously puckered lips of Stalee, and all of a sudden there came a most shrill and terrifying whistle from the open hollow tube- mouth of that now unfortunate key, to the alarm of the death-like stillness pervading and the amazement of the crowded auditory, but not to the discomfiture at all of Stalee, for, immediately upon the whistle blast, down came Stalee's mallet upon the sheriff's desk, and the terrific words : " silence ! silence ! SILENCE !! " issued in louder tones than ever before from his ready mouth ; and he looked himself unruffled, and duly composed, as if nothing had happened with himself, and he, himself, were entirely innocent of any whistle.
STALEE, AND THE CLAP OF THUNDER !
On another occasion, an interesting and important trial was going on in the old court room, and on this occasion the room was crowded. Outside of the court house the clouds were black and lowering, and a big storm was threatening, but as yet there was no stroke of lightning or no peal of thunder. All was silent in the court room, in the interest of the progressing trial, and Deputy Sheriff Stalee was at his desk, his post, to keep silence of all things in the court. The clouds grew blacker, and the heavens were now hung in black, and darkness almost brooded over the countenances of all in
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the court room. Suddenly a great stroke of most vivid lightning struck the point of the lightning rod above the steeple of the court house, and following its course down the side of the steeple and cupola and over the east roof, and the east side of the roof to the ground, made fearful havoc, and was immediately followed by the loudest peal and clap of thunder that ever was known. It seemed as if all the artillery of the world had suddenly and terrific- ally exploded. The audience in the court room were all with one accord struck with awe, and stood in dreadful awe! Not so, Stalee-silence in court and out of court, for that matter, when necessary-was in his sole and soul keeping, and at the dreadful stroke of lightning, and the terrifying clap of thunder, down came his mallet three times on the desk of the sheriff, with all the power of his right arm, and out broke forth the terrible words : Silence ! silence !! SILENCE !!! " from the somewhat dis- composed, but not de-composed mouth of Stalee.
Stalee meant classically to call Jupiter to order, and he succeeded, for there were no more claps of thunder, that being the only one during the day, and awful silence prevailed in the court room all day after. Jupiter must surely have been obstructed in his work of hurling thunderbolts by the eloquent demand and command of Stalee, for he surely stopped hurling them, while Stalee continued at his post of duty for that day.
STALEE'S WAY OF OPENING COURT.
The deputy sheriff had his own and peculiar way of opening the court, and he never varied from it, and never would. The presiding judge, at the proper hour, would say : "Mr. Sheriff," or rather "Mr. Stalee"-for it was more Stalee than sheriff-" open the court." Thereupon
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Stalee would strike his desk three successive times with his mallet, and then in a loud sing-song way, somewhat through his nose, bawl out : "Oh, yes! oh, yes ! oh, yes ! Hear ye! hear ye !! hear ye !!! All persons in attendance, having business in this court, give ear and hear ye-this session of the Court of Common Pleas is now in session."
The presiding judge so often remonstrated with Stalee for his tautological deficiency in grammar, in his opening court, that he positively got tired, and let Stalee have his own ungrammatical, by-rote way ; so he con- tinued, and continued always to bawl out : " this session of the court is now in session." He was fixed, and he could not be corrected. He was incorrigible.
STALEE AND THE GAMBLER TRIO.
Nobody could obey orders of court like Stalee, and the court well knew this, and all the lawyers and officers of court well knew it. What was ordered by the court, if within the bounds of practicability or possibility, was sure to be executed by Stalee. No fooling about him, no humbug for a moment about him. "The court so orders" was an all-sufficiency for him; he would go through fire and water, through "hell and damnation," the lawyers would have it, to execute an order of court. Resistance to Stalee in rendering efficient a mandate of the court was of no practical use at all. In executing orders he became at once a Mercury and a Hercules, and it was not a particle of use to try to impede him. It always turned out emphatically, " no go." I think that Stalee, from my experience with him and what I full well know of him, would have absolutely forfeited his very life, before he would yield an inch in obeying strictly and
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closely, as he viewed it, the orders of the court. The court was everything-the summum totum and the summum bonum to our old friend Stalee. It was omne in omnibus -the all in all.
I remember once, that one of Stalee's fellow deputy sheriff's had a capias issued by the command of the prosecuting attorney for the arrest of three notorious gamblers, who had been indicted by the grand jury. The gamblers got wind of the proceedings against them, and one morning early, got aboard one of the Louisville morning packet steamboats to take their departure, and exile themselves in the freer precincts of the city of Louisville for awhile. The deputy sheriff who had the warrant, heard of this, and he accordingly repaired to the " General Pike," on board of which the gamesters were, to serve the warrant. The steamboat had not yet pulled in her lines, and the deputy sheriff sprung aboard, and found the three gamblers, and arrested each one of them, by clapping him on the shoulder, and showing his warrant. But each one resisted the officer and each one swore he would not go with the deputy off the steamboat. What was to be done! The boat was about starting, and the defendants must be taken ashore. But they would not be taken, even at the peril of the deputy's life as well as their own. The deputy called bystanders in the cabin of the steamboat to assist him, but nobody obeyed the summons or call, and a thought struck the deputy that he would order the steamboat not to leave, and himself go ashore, and return with more official help if he could find any officers. He did go ashore, and as good luck would have it, upon the ascent of the wharf, he came across the deputy sheriff Stalee, who was already hurrying down to the steamboat to help arrest the afore-
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said gamblers, having been sent by the sheriff, who feared that one deputy would be powerless with the would- be runaway gamblers, and so obedient Stalee was quite on time, as the event fully proved. Both deputies now hurried down to the boat, Stalee having been informed of all the particulars by his brother deputy. To be not defenseless, Stalee, on his way down, borrowed a huge dray-pin from a neighboring dray on the wharf. When they reached the steamboat, the ropes had been pulled in, and the gangway was lifted on the boat, and her wheels began to turn, and her steam began to puff. Stalee at once took in the situation, and, with stentorian lungs, he yelled to the pilot of the boat to stop the boat. The pilot, seeing that it was the deputy sheriff, Stalee, for he knew him and his reputation well, stopped the engine, and the captain came forward upon the hurricane deck, and there was a parley between him and the veteran Stalee, who ordered the captain, under the penalty of confiscation, and the jail, and everything else, to turn the boat into shore, and let the officers get on board to do their duty, and obey the "orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county, of the State of Ohio." The captain obeyed. The prow of the boat was turned back to the shore, the lines flung out and fastened and the gangway extended from the guards of the boat to the shore, and immediately the two deputy sheriffs went and were aboard. They rushed upstairs and into the cabin, and there were the three gamblers, standing on their defense, each with a pistol ready aimed and cocked, and ready to go off to the destruction of both of the representatives of justice. But what did Stalee care for pistols or anything of the kind, where the orders of the Court of Common Pleas were concerned. He at once
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rushed upon the gamblers with his huge dray-pin, knocked down and leveled each one of them upon the floor of the cabin, took their pistols from them, tied their hands behind them, made them arise and walk and follow him out of the cabin, down onto the lower deck and off the deck onto the gangway plank, and off the gangway plank on to the shore, the other deputy sheriff in the meantime stirring up the rear and keep- ing things rapidly moving. Safe on shore, an ex- press wagon was hailed, and a load of "gay gam- boliers" was placed therein, and deputy sheriff Stalee mounted with the driver, while the other officer got into the rear of the wagon-and now there was a long but rapid drive up Sycamore street, clear to the jail, where the three gamblers were consigned to the cells at the jail, and to the tender mercies of the sheriff's turn-key, and Stalee and his companion officer returned to the court house, to inform the prosecuting attorney of their successful exploit ; and they made their return upon the back of the capias, for the sheriff: "I have the bodies of the defendants in custody, in the jail of Hamilton county." The day of trial of the frisky gamblers was set, and the trial duly took place, and the gamblers were found guilty and sentenced to long fines and longer impri- sonment in the jail of Hamilton county. What was the use of resisting Stalee in executing the orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county? As well might you have attempted to resist the torrents of Niagara's cataract, as to attempt to foil Stalee in the pursuit of duty.
STALEE AND THE FLOOD !
On another occasion, I remember, in the year 1847, when the whole lower part of the city was flooded with
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the rising and rising waters of the Ohio river, Stalee had a warrant for a notorious defendant, who lived in a rook- ery away down on Water street, which, so appropriately named, in its entire length was six or seven feet deep in water. But what was this to the deputy sheriff Stalee? Just nothing at all. The warrant must be served ; the order of court must be obeyed ; the defendant must be arrested, and justice must be done : fiat justitia, ruat cælum. Stalee duly ascertained the residence of the cul- prit away down on Water street, and he left the court house to pursue the even, rapid tenor of his way, away down on Water street, but on reaching Columbia street there was nothing but water, water, water-water all through and all over-all the streets had become water, and where now was Water street ? But was all this show of water going to stop Stalee, with the mandate of the court in his pocket? Not a bit of it. He jumped into a stray skiff which he found moored to the land or curb- stone on Columbia street, and unmooring it and all un- mindful of ownership of the little craft, in the absence of oars he secured a sort of paddle, and paddled his way out into the water, down Columbia street to Western Row, down Western Row to Water, and down Water to the house of the defendant, whom he found all alone in the second story of his house, his family having long since boated it up town, and he, himself, remaining in his house to take care of it and more particularly to take care of his own person and keep it out of the clutches of the law. But little he thought that Stalee was after him. Boat and Stalee duly arrived, and, tying boat to window of house, into window went Stalee and found the defendant, whom offering little or no resistance, he at once arrested with his capias, and marched him into
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the skiff, and up Water, up Western Row, up Columbia, to the place where he got the boat, to the curb. With the prisoner on hand and in hand, he marched off with him clear up to the jail on Sycamore street, and safely and securely lodged him, the defendant and prisoner, therein, and duly returned to court, and made his return that he had the body of the defendant safe in custody. This curious exploit of the veteran Stalee used to be called the voyage of Stalee across the waters to arrest a fugitive from justice, in a craftily-pirated craft, which, after being used on the voyage of discovery and success. was safely returned and moored again at its landing- place, for the benefit of whom it may have concerned. Here we have certainly a remarkable instance of Stalee going through, or, at least, over, the water to execute the order of the court. If water was no impediment to him in the discharge of duty, what could be ? Air, earth and water-three of the elements-were no hindrance. How about fire? I think Stalee would have gone through fire to obey the order of the court.
STALEE AND THE PRISONER-WITNESS, AND THE AWE-STRUCK MAN.
In the progress of a trial of a prisoner for some high crime, in the days of the old court house, it became nec- essary for the defendant to have a prisoner brought out of jail as a witness to testify in his behalf. One of the officers was duly sent for the witness, aud he went over to the jail and brought the prisoner-witness into court and seated him inside of the bar with the other witnesses, where he momentarily thought the jail-bird would be safe enough. He told Sheriff Weaver of what was done, and then left for other duties. Pretty soon after, Sheriff Wea-
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ver, on looking around the court room, espied the prisoner- witness brought out of jail, standing up erect, out of his place, and recognizing him immediately as a jail prisoner, he said to Stalee, who was at his usual post to keep silence, at the sheriff's desk :
"Mr. Stalee, do you see that man yonder?"
Stalee was very near-sighted with his little grey eyes, but looking for some time in the direction of the pointed finger of the sheriff, he at last said ;
"Y-e-s-y-e-s, I see him-there !"
Sheriff-" Well, that man is a prisoner brought out of jail for a witness, and he has no business standing there ; put him directly into the prisoner's box, until he is called upon to testify, and after that take him back to the jail."
Stalee-" I will ; he's no business there."
And forthwith, out of the sheriff's desk, and sure that he was right, he approached a man he thought was pointed out to him by the sheriff, and, without any scru- ples, took him roughly by the shoulders, saying "What the devil are you doing here?" and urged him on, sur- prised, amazed and alarmed, and marched him right into the prisoner's box, and seating him ( now nearly fright- ened to death,) with other prisoners, said to him fright- fully, "Now, d-n you," ( for Stalee would swear in spite of everybody and everything,) "stay there, where you belong, until you are called for, and don't be standing about the court room, any more !"
The poor, awe-struck man, his wits nearly gone, not knowing what was turning, or what had turned up, totally ignorant and unconscious of his rights, or himself-now did implicitly as he was commanded, and nervously silent and silently nervous, kept his place and his seat in the
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dock, wondering what in the wide world was coming next.
Old Stalee conscious of the rigid discharge of duty, and unconscious of the wrong he had just committed returned at once to the desk beside Sheriff Weaver, and went on as usual attending dutifully to the preser- vation of silence in court. After a while, Sheriff Weaver, again casting his eyes about, saw the prisoner-witness or witness-prisoner still standing in the same place where he had seen him before, and where, with others, he had been all along standing, notwithstanding the alertness and ex- treme diligence of Stalee in obeying orders.
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