COURT SCENES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1928, Page 4

COURT SCENES

LONDON. Dir. 2. Tin' AVnman Win - - Laughed nils nsvistcd into jin l wit nin--lii\. where sin" ncrvously lingered a -hade over her eyes. A lair, i>ltin 11 > little married woman. Winifred Smith, had a dramatic adventure to relate at the North London I’d! ire Court yesterday, a narrative that intimately concerned Frederic].: Curl, a dark, middle-aged mechanical stoker, who was committed tor trial on a charge of throwing corrosive acid into her face. It was a story of seven years’ intrigue, told by the Woman Who Laughed, a story of how, unknown to her husband, she had met Curl twice n week, how they had <|iiarrclled on her decision to give 1.-ini up, and how she had laughed in his face when he had threatened to kill her. She said that on Saturday afternoon she and Curl went to Walthamstow, where they drank and quarrelled, lielurning to Hackney Downs, Curl took two second-class tickets and they entered a compartment in which were three other passengers. No sooner had the train started, she alleged, than another quarrel broke out. C'ttrl, she said, took a bottle of acid from his pocket, and she laughed and dared him to do anything. lint she had laughed once too often. Twice, she stated, he dashed the acid into her eyes, and as she ran screaming to the other Lorriiied passengers she tripped over a portmanteau and he threw more acid over her, burning her coat and the coivt of the man who owned the portmanteau. Tt was stated that her eyesight had been saved, hut in the witness-box she looked a sick woman who would not easily laugh again. Arthur and Minnie have been married just long enough to discover each j other’s weaknesses, which each was retailing to the other at midnight in I Clarence road. Hackney, when P.C. ! 77 5.1 showing more courage than dis- I cretion interfered. > Of course, the usual thing happened. Minnie, seeing her mate in dan- j ger, clawed the constable’s face, broke his whistle, and was busy rolling him j in the mud when a pork butcher intervened. i The young married couple, united in ■ the dock, paid £ll*—an expensive method of making it. up. | * » * * ! Betting in a boot shop in Black- | stock road, N.. must have worn bet- ' ter than leather, for an inspector who : raided the place said he found bet- j ting slips in every part of the house. 1 Tn the shop and parlour were 10-1 • betting slips, 57 football coupons, 2-t paying-out slips, and several hundred j old betting slips ; while upstairs there • were 800 football coupons, 2.000 bet- ' ting slips, and six hooks of revenue tickets. j Among tlie clients wore two little girls, aged 11 and 14. and the single bets ranged from sixpence to £5. I Fines amounting to £OO were inflicted on Lorenzo Vircelli. an Italian subject. Robert William Bookless, an engineer, and Frederick Sharp, a florist. ) Bookless said the betting slips bad ! been kept for inspection by the Customs and Excise officers. I * * * « * ! Domestic service does not appeal to ■ Edith, an attractive young brunette, who prefers the simple life. A policewoman found her sleeping in a covered van at Hackney Downs, and for a fortnight she had slept in barges on the Bivcr Lea. A situation had been found for her, but the wide open spaces called her front tlie ' kitchen—that and bad company. 1 The woman missionary undertook the card of the beauty of the barges. 1

1 Barbara, an elderly Trish woman, who sells nuts and sweets, broke her umbrella over the head of a young charwoman, a neighbour. I Barbara employed a solicitor,, hut he soon found himself out-talked by | liis client, who set out to tell Mr ! Basil Watson, the magistrate, all about the seven years' war that had raged between herself and the charwoman. After many vain efforts to keep Barbara to the point, the solicitor exclaimed, “Very well; tell the learned magistrate all about it in your own way as shortly as you can. • Mr Basil "Watson, looking reproachfully at the solicitor, leaned back in bis chair, while Barbara, before she was bound over, related the lite history of the charwoman, her own experiences as a tenant, and intimate details of the social life of the neighbourhood. Douglas, the hawker, eating his supper of fish and chips Ironi a papoi. offered to share his meal with a constable—not its one. gentleman offering, hospitality to another. No. as a matter of fact, Douglas desired to thrust the* supper .including tho paper, down the officer's throat in the hope that the meal would disagree with him. Douglas bad to pay tile price of a really good Christinas dinner. Out of the fog a. short, siiin. ghostly figure appeared belore the taxicab rank at Marbye Arch. It was live o’clock in the morning, and the taxicab driver next on duty wiped the log from his moustache anil peered ihroughe damp eyelashes at the first fare of the morning. OPaxi. sir!-'” suggested the early and elderly cab-driver. “S-s-sli!” exclaimed Cyril the slim, grey ghost. “Hush,” be murmured, looking over bis shoulder. “Bight you are. sir,” said the driver cheerfully. “Mum’s the word. When.* i to?” j “Secret service,” hissed Cyril the slim as he stepped back a pace, measured bis distance carefully, and heavily and accurately smote the cab-driver j a blow in the Jolt eye. • “Help I” shouted tl:e astonished driver, blowing a police-whistle. “Silence.” ordered Cyril. “The fog thickens, I will now depart.” But, summoned by the urgent whistle of the agitated taxicab man, a constable arrived out of the log, and grappled with Cyril, who ground his teeth and snarled. “They shall not take me alive." “You are drunk,” retorted the officer. “What did you want to bit him. for (indicating the Cabman who was cooling liis injured eye against liis cab)?” “Load on.” commanded Cyril, and the constable led on. followed by (lie cabman, who wanted to know why tnis evil tiling should have happened to him. Cyril was brought before Mr Hay Halkett, the magistrate at Marvleboni* Police Court on Saturday, when lie confessed that be could not remember anything except the fog. Asked if lie recognised tin* cabman, I be bad one look, shuddered, and shook hi*, head. | “Have you any excuse to offer V” I demanded tin* magistrate, j “No. sir.” admitted Cyril, as In* paid Alt 75.. “I got* lost in the log; and everything seemed queer.’’ ! “host, a night’s work. I have," enmj plained the cabman. “As a servant ol \ l!:.* public I can’t appear with a black ! eye." *‘ f )f course you can’t." agreed tin* • magistrate, awarding him lbs from Cyril’s fine. LONDON, Dec. •_>. Derwenf-hiiildiiigs, S.K.. which lorn: a square in a congested area, was excited. And Derwvnl-buildings is not easily excited. Here, in these crowded lenenu'iits, a domestic row is merely an cnisedc. an accepted item in a prosaic programme. i Itat jitsl at supper-lime when IVr-wont-buildings was yawning alter an uneven I fill day. when the evening newspaper had been read, and the daily gossip had been dutifully reviewed. Dennis of the impatient temperament. Dennis slim and slight of hoily. but having a power and will for destruction, stirred the* admiration of Perwcnt-huildings. Dennis, dissatisfied with liis home, began to rearrange the furniture. With the aid of a chopper he started on a. new decorative scheme, and began by throwing a table out nf the window. Mrs Denis, who had conventional ideas about home furnishing, clutched a treasured clock and went in search of a policeman. Quickly sin* found P.C. b-IGB. who had been attracted to Derwent buildings by an unusual crowd of more than l?b() people intently watching Dennis reorganise liis home. “Conn* inside and slop him," requested Mrs Dennis as a chair came crashing through the window. “What is all this about?” demanded P.C. 546 P. dodging the framed

portrait of a family group. “Why don’t you be quiet and pick up the tilings you have broken?” “You hop it,” replied Dennis tersely as he altered the design of an ornament with the chopper, “Remember your children,” urged the constable. “If you were a man.” retorted Dennis, “you would take off your coat, and fight me.” The two went outside, and P.C. 516 P complained that Dennis hit him on the left eye. Derwent-build-ings agreed that there had not been such an enjoyable evening since August Bank Holiday, and every child in the square was allowed to stay up late. Mr Oulton. the magistrate at Lambeth Police Court, yesterday decided that the assault was not serious and lie fined Dennis 40s For insulting behaviour, but that was nothing compared with the ordeal of meeting Mrs Dennis wailing over her ruined furniture. Thomas Quin Kelly, whose nationality does not belie his name, was hit on the head in the Boer War and was shell-shocked in the real War. and he declared that his very bad criminal record was due to the horrors of peace. But a cute old man is Thomas Q. Kelly As a beggar he is an artist. Mot content with the crude method of the regular cadger who requests a copper for a bed. the old soldier having sought out his victim in a quiet spot says silkily. “Pardon this intrusion, but I had to seek some secluded place before asking if your honour would kindy assist an old man broken in the wars.” And to make sure that he was word perfect Thomas Q. Kelly had written dpwn his recitation on a piece of paper. A good soldier but a had citizen, lie will spend Christmas in gaol. Marie and the policewoman had a thrilling game of hide-and-seek. For half an hour the policewoman had been trying to catch Marie, who led her a dance from saloon bars to private hotels. At last Marie, who was very drunk, sought an hotel that wasn’t there and the policewoman pounced. There was a short, sharp, and somewhat painful struggle, in the course of which Marie learned that policewomen in London are perfectly trained in the art of handling rough customers. As Marie said herself; “In a couple of minutes she twisted my arms up my hack, shoved my head between my knees, and asked me what il meant by clutching a gentleman’s sleeve.” Marie was fined 40s. , An Irish labourer met 'a Scottish constable. “Where the do you think you are going?” asked the Irishman. “The same way as you,” replied the Scotsman. “You’re a liar,” observed I lie Irishman. “No. (lie mistake h> yours.” retorted the Scotsman as he and Iho Irishman went the same way to the police station.

ACCORDING TO DICKENS. Charles Dickens once presided at a meeting of the Mechanics’ Institute at Leeds, and was introduced to George Stephenson, the inventor of the locomotive. in the “ Yorkshire Evening News.” Mr T. I*. Cooper quotes the speech the novelist made on that occasion. Dickens said: “Ladies and Gentlemen, reflect whether ignorance he not power, and a verj dreadful power. Look where we will, do we not find it powerful for every kind of wrong and evil? Powerful to take its enemies to its heart, and strike its best friends down; powerful to (ill the prisons, the hospitals, and the graves ; powerful for blind violence, prejudice, and error, in all their gloomy and destructive shapes. 'Whereas the. power of knowledge, if T understand it, is to hear and forbear ; to learn the path of duty and to tread it: to engender that self-re-spect which does not stop at self, but cherishes the best respect of the best objects—to turn an enlarging acquaintance with the joys and sorrows, capabilities and imperfections of our race to daily account in mildness of life and gentleness of construction, and bumble efforts of the improvement. stone by stone, of the whole social fabric.”