COURT SCENES

Hokitika Guardian, 17 January 1929, Page 7

COURT SCENES

LONDON, Nov. ‘JO. Clinics of passion and crimes of Kioed are increasing throughout the country. But because there are more abnormal and scientific- criminals does not mean that the nation is going to the devil. The nation as a whole is clean amt healthy hut i must admit, that sins of sex and. to a lesser degree, studied larceny arc making a balance on the wrong side. By sins of sex I mean everything from ordinary domestic problems that involve a bad husband or an unloving wife to elemental passions that bring a man beneath the shadow of the gallows. * * * w » Take Clerkenweil Police Court yesterday. The very first application for advice had a serious appearance. Jealousy was the motive that brought a young and pretty girl to the court. She is a young girl, and does not know her own mind. Most probably she flirted, as every flapper is entitled to flirt, and a young man who bad lost bis head as well as bis heart said lie would kill her is she looked at another man. That is the sort of thing wo all said in the glorious day when we wore 21; but the worst of ns did not choke our girls; we merely sulked. Now the jilted young man becomes violent, and the police get a warrant against him when all lie needs is a shower-bath. ******* A sense of humour will always shorten a sentence. The last time that Ethel came before Mr Dummett. the magistrate at Clerkenweil, he told her that il she persisted in drinking she would have to- find expensive sureties or go to gaol. “Ethel came hack yesterday, and the gaoler, as in duty hound, read out her record. “Co on,” said Ethel, “don’t mind me. “Dig up the past. What a diary you’ve got—l 92-1, 1925, 1926! Bring a •shovel and dig it up properly.’’ “I told you last time that you would have to find a surety,” said Mr Dummett, “and that is going to be difficult.” • “Difficult!” retorted Ethel: “Jt will be absolutely impossible. But Ethel had made Mr Diimmelt laugh, and he gave her another chance, which cost her a guinea, and she promised to be very good in future. * * * * “The only way to stop a woman’s tongue,” declared William, “is to hit her with a hammer.” “Certainly not,” said the magistrate; “it is very wrong to hit a. woman with a hammer.” “I did not really want to hit her,” said William, “T wanted to frighten her. She has said terrible tilings about my wife, and as you can’t talk to ’em you’ve got to frighten ’em.” William, 1 say in all sincerity, had the- right idea of the provocative sex. A hammer properly applied does restore harmony when one woman is taking away the character of another. If anybody had said against my wife what Catherine, the complainant, said about tbe wife of William I should have chosen a steam roller in preference to a hammer. Mr Dummett, one of our best magistrates, just hates the idea of a man being cruel to a woman and makes him suffer for it. hut really the best of women can lie very provoking. ******* All “drinks” are not funny in the courts. Frances, a middle-aged woman. was locked up for drinking too much and then annoyed people by singing and shouting. Frances did not annoy anybody during the Great War. She was a V.A.D. nurse and got very badly wounded at the front. What lias happened to her since only she knows. .But there is a painful story behind it 1, am sure. “I can’t punish a woman with a record like yours.” said Mr Dummett. “I thank you,” said Frances quietly. War tragedy did not end with the Armistice!