A Scene in Queen-street!

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1659, 12 June 1875, Page 3

A Scene in Queen-street!

A DRUNKEN VIEAGO ATTACKS A BARMAN.

A scene illustrative cf the depths to which a woman who gives a loose rein to an inclination to drink is capable of descending was enacted in Queen street this day about noon. The woman in question, whose name, is Eliza Lestiangc, and who is well-known to the police, was drinking shortly before that hour at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Her potations, whether obtained at the one place or not we are unable to. say, proved too much for her, and presently her tongue began to run riot The barman civilly told her to mind her stops or go about her business. This reprimand amounted, in her excited slaio, to a direct interference with the liberty of the subject, and merely to show her of such impertinence, she up with the pintpot, and, after carefully draining it, threw it at his head. The man clucked, and the missile, projected w>th no feeble foice landed among the show bottles on the shelves behind the counter. Dire was the crash that followed and pi.iable the ruin caused."Without waiting f< r the good lady to "do that again" John was round the counter in a jiffy aud forcibly ejected his unruly customer into the street. Sub she was not an assailant to be got "rid of easily. No sooner were his hands off her than she tnrned and squaring up in a manner that would not have disgraced Harry Sellais, demanded if be wanted to fight, and without waiting for a reply brought her long hand sharply across his face. This attack the poor fellow didn't seem to know how to ward off. He didn't appear particularly well up in the art of self-defence, and as the woman kept making ruwhes at him (just waiting to arrange her back hair each time), and hitting out on- all sides his visage frequently came to grief. We must say that the man kept his temper admirably. For fully ten minutes he was kept fully employed protecting his face and eyes from the busy knuckles and nails of his awkward foe. Attracted by tho unusual sight, a crowd collected, but stiil the fight went on, no one apparently caring to meo'dle with the cornlatants. Three times in throwing the woman from him the man lodged her in the gutter all of a heap, but, nothing daunted by her falls, she rose again and came up to the scratch grinning with fresh determination to "have his eyes." Human nature could stand it no longer, and after remaining on the defensive till his face was scarred with the random blows he had received, " John hit out with his left and again-her head and face disappeared among a heap of muddy petticoats. By this time (and quite time it was too, for the spectacle was a most disgusting one) a constable came, up and attempted jto take Mrs into custody.jj This was no easy matter. She thraw herself down in the mud in the middle of the road, and there she persisted in remaining. Another constable came up, and between the two, she was literally dragged to the station, her appearance by this being as misernblo as can well be conceived. She was one mass of mud from head to foot, and her at first somewhat showy dreßß of green and black stripes had altogether lost its original hue. We understand that Miss Eliza L'Estrange only came out of gaol after " doing " a twelvemonth a few days ago.