Free Guinan

Now Mrs. Mabel Willebrandt lives down in Washington,

If she doesn't stop her kiddin' and spoiling people's fun,

I, for one, will stand right out and make a little bet,

That Miss Liberty soon will be the girl that men forget.

I was carried down to court accused of selling liquor,

I got a hand upon the stand that made the lawyers snicker.

Judge Thomas said, "Tex, so you sell booze?"

I said, "Please don't be silly;

I swear to you my cellar's filled

With chocolate and vanilly."

So, in a broad, chortling voice, in a scarlet dress, in her latest Manhattan night club, sang, last week, famed Mary Louise ("Texas") Guinan. She had just been acquitted by a U. S. jury of a prohibition charge. She had returned to her own world to celebrate her freedom. A brass band preceded her. Her "suckers" (patrons) rose en masse to cheer her entrance. She kissed everybody in sight. The smoky air was thick with vindictive joy. Harry Thaw, onetime maniac, hysterical with delight, jigged up and down at his table until Miss Guinan led him out on the floor to introduce him. She read congratulatory messages from such friends as Manhattan's Congressman La Guardia, Henry Zittel of Zit's (theatrical weekly),

Billy Walsh and Moe Levy, nightclub "boys" now in a New Jersey jail.

Earlier in the day her trial had ended riotous with wisecracks. The courtroom had bulged with spectators. In the corridors countless more pressed toward the door for the free show, while in the streets about the Federal Building thousands stood to wait for the verdict. The jury's "not guilty" loosed a raucous uproar of approval. The crowd "gave the little girl a great big hand" (her cliche).

Defendant Guinan pushed through the press to Special Deputy U. S. Attorney-General Norman J. Morrison who had prosecuted her, put out her hand, said: "I want to thank you. You were a perfect gentleman." Shaking the hand, Mr. Morrison mournfully retorted: "You were the toughest customer I ever had." He had been unable to pin on her any technical responsibility for alleged liquor-selling in her "club," where she is merely "employed as hostess."

Thus concluded the contest between two famed Modern Women. The other woman, Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Assistant U. S. Attorney General, was asked in Washington if she would drop her other night club cases. Mrs. Willebrandt retorted: "Does that sound like ME?"