Scene at a Wedding

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 35, 2 September 1886, Page 4

Scene at a Wedding

An extraordinary scene at Portsmouth. A Mr Mariner, a grocer at Landport, fifty-four years of ago, tvliose wife had died three months hefore, left his residence with a girl named Eliz beth Lock, about seventeen years of age, and who had formerly been in his employ as a domestic servant, and the pair proceeded in a , carriage, with postilions in blue, to St. Thomas's Church, for the purpose of being married. The neighbors had closed their shutters and drawn their blinds, while some of th,** tradesmen h. I hung out mourning boards and b »\vs of crape. A crowd assembled i-i the street, and the pair were pelted with decayed oranges and apples, and other offensive missiles. Outside the church they were hooted and hissed by another crowd, and on the return journey after the service they were similarly greeted. Meanwhile tlie bridegroom's son had proceeded to place a mourning wreath on his mother grave. A great deal of excitement prevailed in the streets, and traffic was temporarily suspended. The severity of some of the senten s pa »<d by Judge Docker, who has bee.' presiding at the Sydney Quarter Sessions has been the subject of considerable comment in the Press, and the Judge took occasion, on the 13ih inst., to refer to them, iie said that it was of no use abusing the Judges for doing what the compelled them to do. If the community did not like the law, the hest plan they could adopt was to get the Legislature to alter it. He for one felt that the law us it at present existed was a bur» dea upon him, but whether it was wise law it was not for Uim to say. It was wrong to suppose that the Judges could pass heavy or light sentences out of mere caprice, as the present Act 8 -.-mod to make mere machines of the Judges, who were bound to pass certain sentences unless they found extenuating circumstances. Atter these remarks His Honor -.eutenced a young man of previous good character, who had been convicted 6F embezzling several small amounts belonging to his employer, to ten years' impis.mment, stating that when tne prisoner had served five years lie would recommend hio release. They have got the champion stupid man in Napier. The Telegraph relates the following incident in his carreer : — Marvellons as is the telephone, its utility has made it as common as grocers' sugar, and in consequence ie does not get the credit it justly deserves. People have ceased to wonder, and find themselves unconsciously demanding more than the little instrument can perform. This was tlie oase of a well-known architect, the otiier day, when telephoning to the stone yard about a cer am piece of work. Ho had asked the »to.ie yard boss if he knew the exact shape of the stone that had been ordered, and on receiving a negative answer had promptly replied : "It is just this way," drawing the shape of the stone on the wall alongside of his telephone. ]3.c looked silly when ha discovered his -mistake, and quickly told the stove man he would call down aad tell hna about the stone.