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Justice Doty As A Linguist

Justice Doty As A Linguist image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
December
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

JUSTICE DOTY AS A LINGUIST

HAD A PRISONER WHO COULD NOT SPEAK ENGLISH

Justice Talked to Him in French and a Friend in Italian--Prisoner Paid Costs

A polyglot episode was enacted in Justice Doty's court Friday afternoon about 5 o'clock that deserved a larger audience than chanced to be present. An Italian vendor of images had been arrested on the charge of peddling without a license, and Justice Doty quickly found that his prisoner knew scarcely a word of English. Signs proved of little avail, and His Honor was about to give the vendor 99 years on general principles when he conceived a happy thought.

"Parley-vous Francais?'" he asked the prisoner.

"Oui, Monsieur! Oui, Monsieur!" quickly responded the vendor and in his excitement he gave an Italianized French shrug of his shoulders. The justice through the friendly medium of French was arriving at the peddler's story when the door of the card room opened and in walked Frank Ratti, the restaurant keeper, who had been informed that a fellow countryman was in difficulty. Then ensued a linguistic relay race. Ratti and. the prisoner were on common grounds in Italian but the stranger couldn't talk English and Ratti didn't know French. Justice Doty and the prisoner connected in French but the justice grounded when it came to Italian and the peddler was non compos mentis as far is English was concerned. Ratti and the justice hit it off in English, but here again the former's Italian and the latter's French were useless; while Officer Ball, who had made the arrest, had only one point of connection--English.

At last the justice learned that the Italian's name was Nicoli Cassiano, that he is a vendor of homemade plaster of paris images, that he lives in Detroit and was on his way home from Grass Lake. The man also stated that he had sold no images in Ann Arbor, having stopped off in the city for the sole purpose, he said, of buying the bag of cookies which he was carrying in the basket with his images

The justice finally made a proposition that Cassiano pay the costs and be discharged, but the prisoner said he had no money. Another three language trialogue ensued, but the prisoner's case was apparently hopeless. He swore by all the saints in the calendar that he was penniless, went through the list backwards, raced through it again giving the Freneh names for the holy personage and then appealed to a few French saints that aren't indigenous to Italy.

The justice was obdurate and in a dreadful tone commanded Officer Ball, in French, to lead the prisoner to jail, translating for Ball's benefit. The penniless peddler watched with tragic eyes the approach of the officer and finally, just as the latter was about to grasp his arm, he raised his hands to heaven with a despairing groan--and then pulled from a pocket a whole handful of money.

He left the court room thanking the justice in French and cursing him in Italian.