THE SEAMY SIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1926, Page 4

THE SEAMY SIDE

TALES TOLD TO THE MAGISTRATE A 7-HOURS QUARREL ON A SUNDAY. vK. E. Corder in the “Daily Mail.”) Names reminiscent of pld lavender and lace were announced at Marvlebone Police Court on Saturday. The case itself was a very modern example of a. young married couple finding they had nothing in harmony except hot tempers. Rut the names were wonderful, Clarence is a commercial traveller and his wife, Josephine, is a domestic servant. The wife’s sister was christened Selina and the husband’s land-

lady answered to Clementina, while the owner of the stained glass door panels is called Reuben. The' three stained glass door panels were broken by Clarence, whose wife vanished when she recognised his fist through the first panel. Rut that was merely an episode in an interesting story of married life which lasted eighteen months. •Josephine, wearing a purple and gold hat, remarked quite casually that ten days after marriage her husband began to knock her about. “He has never supported me,” she said vindictively, “and when T put my foot down against giving him any more money he beat me in the street, hit me on the nose, banged my head against a wall, and scratched my knuckles.” “She had a swollen nose,” agreed Sergeant George Smith, who was called in to stop the row, “hut the damage to the stained glass panels was nine'll more serious.”

Selina, the sister of Josephine, declared that from the honeymoon the young married couple began to show temper. “ They quarrelled from the first day,” she said, “ and 1 have seen bruises on both of them. I heir tempers are torri Mo.” Clementina, the landlady, agreed that tTfe tempin' of her two lodgers was most trying. “They had a terrible row on Sunday. October I.” she said. “It lasted from 10 o’clock in the morning to r, o’clock in flic evening, and the room was like a battlefield. A mirroi was smashed, the furniture was thrown about, chairs and three coat-hangers were smashed, and when I saw Clarence he was bleeding Irom scratches all clown his face.”

“That was when she l«t me with a hair brush,” said Clarence. “She always attacked me with the nearest tiling bandy, and hair brushes hurt.” “Here is a summary of my married life.” announced Josephine, presenting a sheet of foolscap with one band while she disclosed her chest with the other. “ And here is what he did to me.” The scratch was very small, so were the marks on her knuckles, and there were no humps on her head. “You are just as bad as lie is,” declared, .Mr Snell, the magistrate, “and I think both of you will be better apart, but 1 shall make no order.” “1 don’t want bis money,” snapped the wife. “He has never kept me and be never will.” So everybody was satisfied except Reuben, who was allowed only C.'l for the damage to bis stained glass panels, which a sergeant, who knew something about stained glass valued at more than tt. So ended the adventure of (I:il'.’ini'. .1 oseoliine. Selina. Clementina, aml Reuben.

A labourer who had the physique ol a w clter-w'cigbl boxer cheerfully admitted that he Imd thrashed Ills son-in-law. “Ho struek me daughter,” said the 111.10 of the muscle, "so I set about him. and I would do it. again. She might lie Ids wife, but she is my daughter." .Mr Snell, himself an atblelo, let him off with Os. Moral: ( boose a light-weight father-in-law. A conk who lives out wished to ile.o rate her bedroom, so she sacrificed her employer's silver folks and spoons to pay the decorator's bill. * AVhon y detective arrived all be found was the pawnbroker's tickets; bat the room looked vor> Hue. The cool: was remanded. Another domestic servant waited in the ball of the flats where she was employed and collected the letters of the residents, Flic selected a letter containing a cheque, which she cashed with the dairyman. She also was remanded in custody, and when she comes up again next week she will be be nut on probation in charge of the w iiman missionary. A young motor-driver was saved by a deled ive from a severe sentence. The youth was charged with an offence against young girls, but the detective said he was satisfied that the girls who hung about kinema shows wore very “ precautions.” meaning extremely advanced in knowledge of the world, fbe flesh, and file devil. So the voting man escaped with a sentence of two months’ hard labour, which he earned in consequence ol previous convict ions.