ENGAGED TO 19 WOMEN.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1927, Page 2

ENGAGED TO 19 WOMEN.

BERLIN, Aug. 16. Ninteen women appeared in a Berlin court this morning to give evidenco against a man to whom all had been engaged. He seemed to be such a miserable-looking worm that one wondered how lie could ever have induced one girl, let alone 19, to promise to marry him. That he had performed the feat was clear from the evidence, which showed that the affection he inspired had induced his fiancees to give him all the money and presents which they could produce. He was by trade a mechanic, but ho passed himself off as chef of a noted hotel, as a police sergeant, as head cook of an Atlantic liner, and so on. One of his favoruite tricks wgfis to establish himself at the home of one of his fiancees, send her out on an errand, and then remove her belongings, including even furniture.

One of these unfortunate young women was a servant, and when she got to the station with him, intending to leave for a new post, he declared that he felt that a police sergeant could not let a girl to whom he was engaged remain in service. He therefore begged her to telegraph that she could not go. He himself would look after the luggage while she was in the telegraph office. When the girl returned he had vanished with the luggage. The man was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and the warder had some trouble to get him safely past the 19 fiancees, who appeared to contemplate a combined attack,/