COURT SCENES

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1928, Page 4

COURT SCENES

LONDON, July 10,

The first woman complained that her husband, who had hitherto been content to got drunk at week-ends, was now drinking overtime during week-days. “ And ho keeps on threatening me,” she pleaded. As threats did not turn to blows the disappointed wi£o had to he content With advice from the court missionary.

A mild man whoso wife had tried to get a separation order against him and failed declared that she would not come homo to live, hut only looked in to throw glasses at him. “ Sbo is trying to force liio to hit her,” he wailed, “ so that she can get a separation for cruelty.’-’

Another woman who had been charged with doitig grievous bodily harm to her husband candidly said she was tired of him and she wanted a separation because lie got drunk. Many wives in the East Eml are angry because their husbands get drunk instead of hitting them. Black eyes ate coveted in Whitechapel because they are becoming very rare. Husbands cannot afford to heat their wives, and the lazy, incompetent wives whose idea of a meal is a hurried purchase of fried fish and potatoes from the nearest providers, or, canned goods easily-served from the - nearest grocers, come before the magistrate in crowds demanding separation allowances. i * * *

From Stepney Green station to Arbour Square is a quarter of a mile, and during the last three or four years L have seen convincing contrasts in houses where husbands earn the same money, pay the same rent, and ought to live tlie same lives.

But what hnppcns? At number 9, say, I see a bright little woman scrubbing or polishing. Her sturdy three-year-old is curiously investigating the mechanism of a cheap and discarded Swiss alarm clock, an occupation that will keep him busy for hours. Clean curtains -adorn the highly polished window panes, the door steps gleam with vigorously applied sand stone, the woman of the house is neatly and attractively dressed, and one, instinctively knows tliqt a savoury’dinner is cooking on tjie gas stove.

Here is a real liogfo made by q good wife whq lias go, tiipe tq worry." about her neighbours. Her man and her children are a full-time job ; and she if} the sort of women to whom I take off my lint.

feminists may (all Jipy a fqmqe slave, a \yomqii wßhpqf. visijm or amhitipyi, a pitiful creature content to he tied to a man who cqnnpf app.i'eciqfg her. They are y;rpug: slid, and she alone, is the makpr of a fipi.no, the \vgman who can keep' hpf huqfismcl a lpver, the splendid mother of happy, children.

And next door I have seeq a slatternly woman sifting pn her unclean doorstep screaming' at hff cliifd playing in the refuse ojf the sfvepf, She aucj.thp woman npxf <h> not speak to each other, but-it is the slatternly woman who goes to the court and makes a complaint about a husband whose temper and digestion have been ruined by bad cooking.

Here are these women, crowds of them wasting the valuable morning hours at the police court spending 2s of their husband's wages to summons the woman from next door or oil the top flat.

How can they spare the time? What is happening to their homes? And what sort df a midday meal is being put before their husbands?

Suffering wives there are, hut their sorrows are submerged under the frothy complaints of lazy wives. Every uiorning nt Thames Police Court sees 50 or 60 women all with a grievance, and tlie experienced warrant officer weeds them out. Husband baiting is now more prominent and profitable than wife beating in tlie East End. A witness at Fermanagh County Court: If Mr is telling the truth then lie is telling lies. \ Nottinghamshire Husband: My wife bombarded me with sticks, bricks, tins, and hot iuiig.iago far an hour. A defendant at Epping, charged with refusing to work vvliun in the casual ward: The skilly provided for breakfast was superfluous in its inferiority.

A boot repairer at AVdlesdcu pleaded that he had tramped 69 miles in search cf work. The Magistrate: Making work, too, in your own line.

Air Cairns, tho Thames magistrate, to a husband said to have quarelled while drunk with his wife and her mother: You want all tlu? brains you possess to deal with two women of that relationship. Your wife plus your molher-in-law can do you down sober, much less drunk.

A Nottingham Solicitor: AVill you give me a chance to speak?—'the Valuable AVoniun : You should make your chance the same as I do.

AD: AV. B. Luke, the AA’illosden magistrate, to a wife who claimed £2OO maintenance arrears from her husband: If he paid up you would think it was tho millennium.

Tottenham magistrate to a woman complainant: AVlmt do you know against this man?—The Woman: Only that lie is my husband.

A man who disregqvds thp advice of his doctor is as foolish as the man who is his own lawyer.-Mr Douglas Cowburn, tlie Camlierwell coroner.

Nottingham AVonian: She called mo everything ip a farmyard—except n duck!

AVomen can m> more resist stockings than they can necklaces—Mr Bingley, the Marylebone magistrate. Solicitor at Bow County Court: Your wife dresses very well, constantly having new hats? The Husband: Not more than tho neighbours, she tells me.

Mail at Bow County Court when asked what lie earned: Some weeks it is more than others, and other weeks it is less.

Air Registrar Friend at Clerkenwell County Court to youthful Clerk to Solicitor: Don’t be in a hurry. You may he Lord Chancellor some day, but you have plenty of time yet.

AVillosden Magistrate; How long have you two been married? AVife: Six or seven years. Husband: Yon mean 34; why, our oldest son is 29. AVife: A r es, I must have made a mistake.

AVitncss in motor speed ease at Eastbourne: ITc came roaring round' the corner. I thought it must he Segrave.

Mr Pope, at Clerkemvcll (when a woman complained that she had been assaulted by three other women). — How many summonses do you think, sergeant? Sergeant.—one, sir. Mr Pope (to woman), —Clioose tho one

who smote you hardest, ma’am. a * * » A defendant nt Shoreditch County Court was asked if his wife was present and replied: ‘She said she would he hero to see if I had to go to; prison;” Magistrate lyt Tottenham, to mother —Wo are going to makes an order on your child to attend school. If ypu are summoned again you know wlnit you must do? Mother —yos, briyg some money with me.

Nottingham witness.—Her hair was blooding, her eyes were blackened, her noso wits blue—and then she fainted! Mr Pope, to young married yqman who complained about her husband at Clcrkenwell.—Ton had better sec Sir Marsh (tho missionary). lie *3 .iu st back from his honeymoon. We can’t have these young husbands hustled. Solicitor, at Shoreditch Connfy Court.—What is your work? Debtor. —No work, I inn a commercial traveller.

“They should not have left the door open.”—A recaptured man who escaped front Portsmouth Police Court and was sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour for theft.

A, man at Shoreditch County Court: My wife always does all tlio talking, and I should like "her to do it now if you will let licr.

“I am tho eldest of eleven, so I can sympathise with you.”—Mr liingley, tlie Marylebone magistrate, when it

mother pleaded that her son, who wa: charged with theft, was the eldest' oi eioven.

Chairman at Stratford, E., to i young man who said he sold ice cream What do you do in the winter?— Young Man : I go round the street with hot dpgs.

When two men were remanded ii custody at AVillesden, one pleaded “Will you order that we are given r proper meal ? Up to now we hav: been mistaken for a couple of canaries.”

. Marlborough street magistrate, it disci,larging a young pian charged wit] theft' of a ear' after a champagir party in tho West pud: The story i almost as mixed as the drinks.

A widow appearing on a judgmew summons at Shoreditch County Copr! asked Judge Clucr "to have mercy oi her. Tlie Judge: Tam here to admin istcr the law, not mercy. I musl make an order against you.

Willosden Wife- When I saw my husband last night lie was watching two women fighting for him. Magistrate: Evidently a popular man.

“May I be sworn on my own hook?” asked a witness at Croydon Police Court as lie produced a Bible.