Alleged Extraordinary Feat.

Manawatu Herald, 25 June 1892, Page 3

Alleged Extraordinary Feat.

At the Old Bailey, Thomas Wood, 62, described as a hawker, and Elizabeth Clarke, 40, described as a ;'-;' dressmaker, were indicated for having uttered counterfeit coin.— The case in its general aspect disclosed only the ordinary features, the prisoners being suspected by the 1 police, watched, and, it was alleged By the police, detected in trying to pags a counterfeit shilling ; but the question of the male prisoner's guilt or innocence turned largely, as coun- ' gel for the defence put it, upon the possibility of a man, under the very eyes of the police. " licking from his hand, and swallowing at a gulp, six separate shillings." The police were firm in their assertion that prisoner performed this extraordinary feat, and in substantiation of it averred that they not only saw the impression of the coins on his throat as they ' passed down, but that six counter- - feit shillings were subsequently discovered concealed in the cell in ■ which the prisoner was confined. 80, said counsel for the defence, the money passing down the prisoner's throat, and that he carried it thus into the cell of his stomach He wondered they had not gone a little further, and with equal gravity and confidence described the very impressions, heads or tails, of the various shillings in their passage " through the thorax. (Laughter.) — After hearing the evidence the jury intimated that the question for dec. toision could not be determined by them offhand, and that they wished .to duly consider it in private. After deliberating in private for a considerable period, however, they found the prisoners not guilty.