OH came across this news report when researching a relative - a very distant one, I'm relieved to say. Only got room for part of it, but court reporters weren't quite so austere in those days.
HE ANNOYED A YOUNG LADY.
Though Meek in Demeanor His Mashing Ways and Invisible Inks Caused His Conviction.
A crowd of interested spectators from both sides of the bay gathered together in Police Judge Campbell’s courtroom yesterday to hear Charles E. Basebe answer to certain charges brought against him by Miss Isabella A. Worn.
The specific charge agalnst the defendant was that he did willfully and unlawfully, etc, disturb the peace of the neighborhood of Urant avenue and Tost street, and particularly that of the lady before mentioned, on the 18th Day of April, 1893
Basebe, the defendant, who hails from perfidious Albion, and has brought with him from his native shores a ‘cockney’ accent of a rich flavor, presented a queer type of the genus masher as he composedly took his seat beside his counsel, ex-Judge Ferral.
With smoothly shaven skull garnished about the ears with a fringe of pale red hair and with pallid countenance, wearing an aspect of meekness, calculated to impress to the best advantage a body of sympathetic jurymen, he looked as though his mission were rather to offer prayer for the souls of the guilty than to listen to aspersions cast upon his spotless reputation. He was moreover attired in a suit of somber black, duly appropriate to the surroundings.
Yet Charles Edward Basebe proves to have one weakness which has triumphed over all his noble qualities and wrought him harm. That is his fond admiration for the fair sex.
And this is trebly reprehensible in Basebe, when it is reflected that he has been long bound by the ties of wedlock...