Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/252

 The Essex Market Cottrt. names of their patrons; and used every means short of actual physical force to compel them to cease dealing with Baughman Brothers— thereby causing them to lose from one hun dred and fifty to two hundred customers and ten thousand dollars of net profit. The acts alleged and proved in this case are unlawful, and incompatible with the prosperity, peace and civilization of the country; and, if they

215

can be perpetrated with impunity, by combinations of irresponsible cabals or cliques, there will be the end of gov ernment, and of society itself. Freedom— individual and associated—is the boon and the boasted policy and peculium of our coun try; but it is liberty,f regulated by law; and the motto of law is: Sic nterc tuo, ut alicmnn non Icedas."

THE ESSEX MARKET COURT. BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN. WHO has not heard of the famous "East Side" in New York City? It is at once the poorest as well as the dirtiest portion of the great metropolis. There poverty and crime stalk boldly hand in hand, for there they are in their element. Small wonder, then, that in the midst of this district the strong arm of the law must always be in evidence to protect the lives and property of the respectable element in the community. Standing on Essex street is a large Court House, known commonly as the "Essex Mar ket Court," presumably because vendors of fruit, vegetables and other eatables have their wares exposed for sale in the immediate vicinity. Arrests are such frequent occurrences, that it is no uncommon sight of a morning to see lined up before the bar fifty or more pris oners whose offences vary anywhere from murder to drunkenness. His Honor takes his seat on the bench pre cisely at nine o'clock in the morning, and has his hands full till four o'clock in the after noon, when court adjourns. The court is infested by lawyers of ques tionable intelligence and doubtful ability. They have their "offices" in one or two rooms in the tall, forbidding tenements immediately opposite the court house. The street for a whole block is bedecked with large signs,

which protrude far out into the street, on which are inscribed in large characters for the convenience of passersby the name of the attorney. What is decidedly peculiar, but neverthe less true, is the prevalence of the belief among the would-be litigants that the man having the largest sign must of necessity be the most capable lawyer, and no sooner are they in trouble than they make a bee line for his office. One lawyer, who does a remarkable busi ness, due perhaps more to the dimensions of his sign than that of his head, has become quite a celebrity in and about this court, and has been voted the president of the Essex Market Bar Association by his admiring colleagues. For obvious reasons his name should be withheld. He speaks English with a reckless disregard of the good rules contained, in Goold Brown's grammar, and is quite orig inal in his conduct of a case. One morning, while this important per sonage was seated in his chair before his desk, endeavoring to ascertain what caveat cmptor meant, which term he found in an answer served on him by an attorney, Jhaving a faint idea that it must have some reference to an "empty cave," one of his many runners, whom he employed to stop people on their way to the court and ascer