Water Street, St. Stephen, about 1900
The above postcard can be dated to about 1900, the streetcar tracks visible in the photo were laid in 1895 and there are no autos which would have been present after 1905. In those days law and order in St. Stephen was maintained by the Town Marshall, Joseph McClure who housed any miscreants in the town lockup until they could be brought before the Police Magistrate, Daniel Crilley. Crilley was the judge and jury in St. Stephen for several decades and he gained some fame throughout not only Canada but also the United States. Visitors to Calais would, it appears, often visit Crilley’s court as it offered more entertainment than any other show in town. Locals also found court sessions more than a little entertaining. A typical day in court was described in newspapers throughout the United States in 1886.
Anniston Alabama News December 24, 1886:
A RARE OLD JUDGE
While I was visiting Calais Maine a short time ago, I was advised to go over to Saint Stephen to see Judge Crilley and his court. Judge Crilley is a red-faced bullet headed old Irish schoolmaster who in some way or the other has risen to the position of parish Judge, and his court with its quaint proceedings and the odd sayings of its bench have become a standard joke along the border.
There is a large sign, as big as a grocers over the door of an old store reading “D Crilley, Parish Court” The judge sits on a rude pine settee behind the little desk, surrounded by rows of old fashioned and spicy little drawers, labeled “Nutmegs”, “Cloves”, “Cinnamon”, “Soda”, et cetera. The judge himself and his manners recalled vividly the old Scotch squire whose dispensation of justice has been so amusingly described in some of Walter Scott’s novels.
The judge bends over till his nose almost touches his desk, constantly, laboriously and painfully scratching away with his goose quill, for his honor takes down every word spoken by every witness, and the testimony goes on at a halting rate necessitated by the forefinger of the court, which compels a witness to stop after he has spoken every sentence until the judge has taken it down. One day a witness testified that he had heard a man called another man a jackass twice in succession.
“Howld on there!” exclaimed the court. “I have put down one jackass. “Now am I to put down another.”
The judge has no jury, but he generally addresses, to the spectators, a lengthy charge after the lawyers have made their pleas. Upon a case which has been tried by two Calais lawyers, Judge Crilley commented as follows:
The learned counsel for the plaintiff has made a foine argument. It is a splendid argument. Indeed, I think his argument is oonanswerable. The distinguished council for the defendant has made an illegant argument that seems to be very sound. I think it is also oonanswerable. Indade, gentlemen I think both of your arguments are oonanswerable.
While the writer was a visitor in court some of the spectators indulged in laughter, which induced the old judge to exclaim “Silence in the court! The dignity of the court shall be preserved if I have to lock up every mother’s son of ye.
Justice Crilley is the original of the oft-told story of the Irish judge who was walking downtown with another Irishman of a humbler estate and remarked “Ah, Pat you would have stayed a long time in the old country before you could have had the privilege of walking with a joodge.”
“Yes, your honor” said Pat and you would have waited a divil of a long time in the old country before you would have been a judge!
Judge Crilley is said to be a good-natured, painstaking man who generally hits the nail on the head in his decisions.
The odd spelling was that of the reporter.
It may seem rather odd that the opposing attorneys in the case reported above were from Calais but the border in those days was treated more as a fiction than an international border.
According to the 1896 St. Stephen directory Judge Crilley lived at 40 Union Street in St. Stephen. His wife was Margaret. Born in Ireland he died in June of 1903 in St. Stephen, survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Judge Crilley rated an obituary in the Bangor Commercial in which he is described as an “honored citizen of St. Stephen”. His remains were taken to Rolling Dam for interment “many prominent citizens accompanying them to their final resting place.”