TOLD THE MAGISTRATE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1927, Page 4

TOLD THE MAGISTRATE

LONDON, Juno 10. Among the old games of modern London none is more popular than the l ing and the crook. A respwctivably dressed man who looks something between a publican and a sinner approaches a provincial visitors and, fur. lively displaying a ring that glitters in the sunlight, hints in a horse whisper of the golden prize encasing diamonds worth many pounds that, owing to the unreasonable prejudice of tho police can be bought by a man who asks no question at the cost ol a few cigars.

A past-master in this game, which depends for its success on the avarice amt gullibility ol the public, is John Johnson, a middle-aged, comfortably built and clothed man whose cold, calculating eye.se were shaded by stcolii in tiled spectacles. He is the sort ol man that a stranger to London would trust because bo is a student of psychology and usually picks his game with the instinct of a sportsman. His happy hunting ground was outside King’s Gross Station, where lie waited for confiding Scotsmen.

On Saturday afternoon, however, he caught a tartar in the form ol a London auctioneer to whom he ifiered u gold ring, which lie said was worth £.(. lOs for 3s. The nuciimi vr h..d one look at the ring, which was made of brass and worth about Is and then summoned it convenient policeman. “Ho gat hold of the wrong man." observed Mr Dummctt, the magistrate at Oorkcnwell Police Court yesterdav.

“Quite,” agreed a detective. “I know him very well. He deals in cheap jewellery, hut he cannot resist using Ids knowledge ol the trade to impose on the credulity ol the public. This trick is a business with him, and it. has already brought him penal servitude. -

“Six; weeks' hard labour,” ordered M-.r Dummctt, who still limps as a result of his recent omnibus accident.

Tbe finer the weather the fewer the applicants for summonses. Given a wet Monday and the. warrant officer parades a. long queue of women dissatisfied with their husbands; but on a fair sunny morning such as we enjoyed yesterday angry wives drop their week end worries and give- their erring husbands another chance. Ihe compelling effect of weather on t">nperamcnt is not sufficiently lecogniscd. Only the woman with the puce hat said anything out ol the ordinary to the resigned magistrate yesterday. “A woman living in the same h vise has sera tdied my face,” she' c nnpl I'ned.

“Whyasked Air Duinmett caressing his injured limb. “.Jealousy.’’ snapped the woman in the puce bat. “I buried two kiddies at the other side of the mac! and no 1 have got the bottom room, on her side, and she is so jealous because she lives upstairs, that she i- maxing my life a misery.’'

In the tenements the under tenant is tJie top dog, hence the resentment of the old inhabitants who. the lower they descend in the bunding. the higher they go up in the social scale. A police caution will be conveyed to llu* woman above blit, the- trouble will not end there. Only a summons and a c rn.-s-NUiumnns will satisfy r'u ]M 'e of the tenements.

This overcrowding in the congested areas provokes bitter cnninenls against the Rents Restriction Act from metropolitan magistrates and county court judges, who are faced with the alterna-

!ive of turning tenants into the .street, or condoning bad cases il overcrowd-

A'osterday we had the problem c l an elderly widow who for IS) years lies occupied a room at (is !id a week. She receives KG a week In.in the parish, earns lbs a week by honest toil and

she has never been behind in her rent, iiie landlord insisted that with Ids growing family of nine lie needed the room of the widow, who would not go into the attic. She agreed to take a roam at the hack, but said the landlord had fixed this up neatly and r,mpletcly with wireless, 'ami they don’t want to move.

On the principle that those who reivivi must be prepared to concede, the magistrate adjourned the case for a week to enable the parties to come to an understanding, which would embrace a removal of the wireless set. Broadcasting is breaking up many homes where enthusiasm is not equal to accommodation.

Two youths, Frederick Barker (17), from Kent, and Harry Kart.insky In), from. Leeds, fascinated bv the lure ol tho London season, (ravelled to tho metropolis without paying for their tickets. Tho leading desperado was the younger bov, who is wanted by the Leeds police. He led astray tho youth of Kent, who, tired of working in the now coal mines, preferred to seek for gold in London’s streets. He was put in charge of tho pniliation officer, and young Kartiusky was sent hack to Leeds to face an embarrassing record.

Grey-liaired grandfathers and grandmothers formed in an impressive profession to the dock. Full ol excuses and vitality, these old offenders came in In the dock like veterans of a bygone age when drunken ness was not so much an evil habit as a social indiscretion. At least a dozen old men and women were each fined the usual os for causing young constables a lot of trouble and perturbation. “The older they get the worse they behave.” said the observant if cynical gaoler, and there is something in his complaint. Critics of modern youth would do well to study the manners and customs of the Victorians as revealed in tho police courts.

Rose is a young wife who confesses to two weaknesses—one a love ol gossiping and the other a husband who goes to bed early. Leaving home to buy the supper at half-past nine on Saturday night. Rose met a relative, and the two exchange family confidences until half-past eleven, when Rose, who had forgotten all about the supper, returned home full ol information but with an empty basket. No sooner had she arrived at her own door when her early retiring husband threw up the bedroin window and with a well-aimed shot hit her on the lien cl with a boot. Attracted by Rose’s repartee, a passing constable took her to tho police station. “Just talking. 1 was,” she told the magistrate, who discharged her, “and I will teach my husband that he can’t throw his boot at a respectably married woman." Frederick, who had bought a new green hat that did not go well with his complexion, explained that lie had just come out of the hospital, and some medicine given to him by the lady doctor did not agree with two brandies he had taken to celebrate his discharge. “It wasn’t the drink.” he observed fervently; “it was the fault of tho medicine that would not mix.” “Never mix your drinks,” warned the magistrate gravely as he charged ys for tiie prescription.

MODERN BAD MANNERS. The younger generation to-day use a private house with no more ceremony than they would- a restaurant, and that in particular they litter and scorch carpets, mantel-pieces, and table-tops with cigarettes half-consumed and hastily discarded when the band strikes up again. The fact is part and parcel of a general and marked decline in manners in this country in the last decade. Its causes are clear enough, but tlie remedies for it are not so easy to come by. The post-war years have seen a sad and probably a permanent lessening of private hospitality. Except in the largest houses of ail, and they grow steadily fewer, there is. little or no counterpart to-day of the private dance that was one ot the happiest features of the youth ot the last generation. The hotel ballroom and j the palais de danse absorb the young j people whose dancing, when the century opened, was done in each others homes. The hostess who nowadays puts a waxed white drugget over the carpet, cleared the drawing-room ol its furniture and arranged for “ sitting out " on the stairs would get scant thanks for her pains. But the spacious irresponsibility of public dancing is bought at too dear a price when it carries its manners into the home. Iho hostess who is compelled to hang on her ballroom wall a notice requesting her guests to use the receptacles provided lor litter may wch iool that a social code that was worth preserving is outraged by the need.-—1 lie ’ Manchester fiuardian.”