JUDGE
Well, quit looking so moufy.
(to CLERK)
Call de first case. And I warn each and all dat my honor is in bad
humor dis mawnin'. I'd give a canary bird twenty years for peckin'
at a elephant.
(to CLERK)
Bring 'em on.


CLERK
(Reading)
Cliff Mullins, charged with assault upon his wife with a weapon and
disturbing the peace.
(As CLIFF is led to the bar by the
officer, the JUDGE glares ferociously
at the prisoner. His wife, all
bandages, limps up to the bar at the
same time.)


JUDGE
So youse one of dese hard-boiled wife-beaters, huh? Just a mean old
woman-Jessie! If I don't lay a hearing on you, God's a gopher! Now what
_made_ you cut such a caper?


CLIFF
Judge, I didn't go hunt her. Saturday night I was down on Dearborn
Street in a nasty ditch *[Handwritten: nasty ditch crossed out in