Baseless Prosecution of Homeless Addict

Aug. 24, 1899: The Orpheum presents barrelistic wonders and rag time comedians, plus Joseph Adelman, master of the xylophone.

The Times reports "baseless prosecution" of Richard Woodward, a homeless drug addict who accidentally broke a pane of glass at a Ferguson Alley saloon. "Chinatown": GITTES -- So how are you, Morty? Morty is wheeling in another body with the help of an assistant. MORTY -- Never better. You know me, Jake. As he begins to move the body into the refrigerator, he breaks into a wrenching spasm of coughing. Gittes spots the other body, lowers the. sheet on Mulwray. GITTES (picking up on cough) -- Yeah -- so who you got there? Morty pulls back the sheet. MORTY Leroy Shuhardt, local drunk -- used to hang around Ferguson's Alley -- Morty brushes some sand from the man's face, laughs. MORTY (continuing) -- Quite a character. Lately he'd been living in one of the downtown storm drains -- had a bureau dresser down there and everything. 98 Gittes has already lost interest. He starts away. GITTES -- Yeah. MORTY Drowned, too. This stops Gittes. GITTES Come again? MORTY Yeah, got dead drunk, passed out in the bottom of the riverbed.

Comments

[JJ Henry]

You omitted the line that gives this scene its irony, and at the same time pounds home one the essential clues: "In the middle of a drought the Water Commissioner drowns. Only in L. A."