The headline for the court cases on this date 100 years ago read: "Heart Interest Shown in Each." The cases were truly pathetic.
James Ellis entered a plea of guilty to petit larceny. He was an eighty-one year old, impoverished African American man living on Hinshaw Avenue who picked up the coal fallen from railroad cars in the yard. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $25 fine. Both were suspended pending his good behavior. Mr. Ellis told a sad story of never having been married. (and thus would have no children to care for him in his old age.) I hope that he enjoyed a warm night and filling meal on the city's dime after his arrest.
Charles Jelietus also entered a guilty plea to petit larceny. His crime was entering a grocery and eating a pie and drinking a bottle of milk. He had travelled to Bloomington in a box car from St. Louis and was cold and hungry. His first act on reaching the city was to break into the grocery. He had spent over a month in the city's care before his hearing and his fine and jail time were also suspended pending his good behavior.
Edward E Knapp was shut in the jail for 120 days on a charge of living with a woman who was not his wife. The story was that he convinced this unnamed woman to leave her husband and daughters (ages 4 & 5) in Indianapolis to live with him in Bloomington. He was a steel car worker earning $4.50 a week -- which was apparently a princely sum for such a woman. Her husband in Indy had to be persuaded to come and get her, if only for the sake of the children, who continued to cry for her.
There may have been mercy for the first two men, but their problems were not solved. Mr. Ellis was still cold and Mr. Jelietus was still hungry. I hope that the mother did not take out her unhappiness on her daughters, for it certainly was none of their doing.
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