A Sad Story

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 32, 26 August 1886, Page 4

A Sad Story

A sad spectacle was witnessed on Thursday (says the Mflbourne Age) at the City Police Court, where John Gahan formerly a solicitor in extensive practice in this city, was brought up on a charge of vagrancy. For n long time Mr Gahan. by his dissipitated habits, has ceased to have any business, l«>g»l or otherwise and lattorly he has wander*! ab >uf tl c streets, literally siaivmg. begging hisdailj f>od and shelter from the lowest clbbs of p :rnous in the vlums around Li I tie Bourke ureet. His appearance in the Court wan pitiable in the extreme to those who had known him in his better days of prosperity. The once-well-dressed popular lawyer now shuffled into Court as an old broken down man, clad in wretched rags, and weariug old dilapidated boots which left hu naked feet exposed to view. Hib long uncombed hair and tangled beard, bow quite gray, and his dirty raiments, dt/wied the utter neglect of his person which he suffered, whilst his hollow cheeks told a painful tale of privation. The arresting constable said he found accused beggiug in the street. He wandered about without any home to go to, and only subsisted on the charity of the public He slept at night in some outhouse or other, and seldom twice in the same place. The Bench committed the unfortunate aocuted to prison for twelye mouths.