The Officer, the Wife, and the Bouquet: A Seattle Courtroom Melodrama
John Brown gets thirty days for disorderly conduct, but he blames a handsome policeman for stealing his wife—who arrives in court with flowers and a secret for the judge.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John Brown, who needs no introduction to the public, was sent to the city jail yesterday for thirty days on the charge of disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty, and then told Judge Glasgow that Officer Crandall was the cause of all his troubles.
Brown said that until that good-looking officer came on the lower Commercial street beat he and Mrs. Brown lived like turtle doves. Mrs. Brown, however, could not resist the winning ways of the officer, and consequently Brown played second fiddle. Brown was ill for a few days, and he says Mrs. Brown and Crandall used to stand in the hall and whisper, and a few nights ago he was positive that Mrs. Brown tried to have him go for a bucket of beer so that Crandall could come in and make love to her.
While Brown was telling his ridiculous story the constable had a hard time to maintain order. Just as Judge Glasgow said ‘thirty days to Brown,’ Mrs. Brown, with a bouquet in her hand, came into the courtroom and whispered to the judge. Then she walked out and never looked at Brown, who moved his lips as if he was saying ‘ditto.’ It is rumored that Mrs. Brown has decided to accept the marriage proposal of her Tacoma lover.
“Mrs. Brown, with a bouquet in her hand, came into the courtroom and whispered to the judge.”
A police officer's off-duty conduct, a jealous husband and a courtroom stunt made prime copy in 1894—long before viral station-house scandals. The story also shows how public courtrooms could become stages for private lives, with a wife's bouquet speaking louder than any testimony.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.