Lady Speaks to Him Only with Her Eyes

Indiana, 1916

But Interpreter Spins a Long Story from the Conversation.

Mrs. Joe Pogzelaski, of Hayden street, was called to the stand in the city court, Monday, to testify as to the conduct of her husband, who was drunk Sunday and creating a disturbance at home. Neither Joe nor Mrs. Joe could speak English and an interpreter was called.

Mr. Beklixyzski volunteered the use of both his English and Polish vocabularies.

"Ask him if he is guilty," said Judge H. Waveland Kerr to the interpreter.

"He says he will never do it again," volunteered the interpreter before the prisoner had a chance to say a word.

After some sparring between the court and the interpreter Judge Kerr asked for Mrs. Joe. She was sworn and sat gazing into the face of the interpreter. "Ask her if her husband struck her over the head with a beer bottle," instructed the court.

"She say they been married twenty-two year and never had no trouble and she want him to come home and he won't do it any more" — and a whole lot more, said the interpreter.

Mrs. Joe had said not a word. If she spoke it was with her eyes and she might have wig-wagged the message to the court through the interpreter, but there was reasonable doubt even of that. For five minutes Judge Kerr sought to find out whether Mr. Joe had assaulted Mrs. Joe. It was futile. The woman said nothing, whereas, the interpreter discharged conversation like a whole battery of phonographs.

Then Mr. Joe, Mrs. Joe and the interpreter got their heads together for a three-cornered talk-test, the upshot of which was a translation by the interpreter that Mr. Joe wanted very much to go home. Judge Kerr gave up in despair and continued the case until Tuesday, sending Mr. Joe to jail. When the police arrived at the Hayden street residence Sunday they found no end of beer, a bottle of whisky and broken bottles all over the house and in the street. Mrs. Joe had taken refuge across the street.

—The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, April 26, 1916, p. 4.