wd, reeking of
whiskey and tobacco. Now they whisper suspiciously in the ears of
forlorn prisoners, now they struggle to get a market for their legal
nostrums. A few, more respectably clothed and less vicious of aspect,
sit writing at a table inside the bar, while a dozen or more punch-faced
policemen, affecting an air of superiority, drag themselves lazily
through the crowd of seedy humanity, looking querulously over the
railing encircling the dock, or exchanging recognitions with friends.

Some twenty "negro cases" having been disposed of without much respect
to law, and being sent up for punishment (the Judge finds it more
convenient to forego testimony in these cases), a daughter of the
Emerald Isle, standing nearly six feet in her bare soles, and much
shattered about the dress, is, against her inclination, arraigned before
his Honor. "I think I have seen you before, Mrs. Donahue?" says the
Judge, inquiringly.

"Arrah, good-morning, yer 'onher! Shure, it's only the sixth time these
three weeks. Doesn't meself like to see yer smiling face, onyhow!" Here
Mrs. Donahue commences complimenting the Judge in one breath, and laying
no end of charges at the door of the very diminutive and harmless Mister
Donahue in the next.

"This being the sixth time," returns his Honor, somewhat seriously, "I
would advise you to compromise the matter with Donahue, and not be seen
here again. The state of South Carolina cannot pay your fees so often--"

"Och, bad luck to Donahue! Troth, an' if yer onher'd put the fees down
to Donahue, our acquaintance 'ouldn't be so fraquent." Mrs. Donahue says
this with great unction, throwing her uncombed hair back, then daintily
raising her dress apace, and inquiring of Mr. Sheriff Hardscrabble, who
sits on his Honor's left, peering sharply through his spectacles, how he
likes the spread of her broad, flat foot; "the charging the fees to
Donahue, yer onher, 'd do it!" There was more truth in this remark than
his Honor seemed to comprehend, for having heard the charge against her
(Mr. Donahue having been caught in the act of taking a drop of her gin,
she had well-nigh broken his head with the bottle), and having listened
attentively while poor Donahue related his wrongs, and exhibited two
very well blacked eyes and a broken nose, he came to the very just
conclusion that it were well to save the blood of the Donahues. And to
this end did he grant Mrs. Donahue board and lodging for one month in
the old