A WILD IRISHMAN.

NZ Truth, Issue 75, 24 November 1906, Page 4

A WILD IRISHMAN.

Mad Man-eater at a Mushery.

Horrible Hart Tries to Chew Off

Opponent's Nose.

Tipperary Tough from Texas m Trouble.

Nose-biting, even m self-defence has not got much to commend it. A man who would so hideously disfigure another for life is a dirty swab of a coward, whom the Law does not waste much time over.

Francis Stephen Hart, a wildeyed Irishman, is a nose-biter, and though posing as a clean athlete, an expert boxer and fencer, he is a cowardly brute, and such was the verdict of a jury at the ■ Criminal Court on Wednesday last. That day Hart stood his trial on an indictment of three counts, viz., that, with intent to do grevious bodily harm to Arthur Ware, he did actual bodily harm ; assault, so as to cause actual vbodily harm ; and assault. It was on the second count Hart was harpooned and on the evidence nothing else was expected.

Hart's onslaught was A PARTICULARLY SAVAGE

one', and on the- 'night, ot August 10, skin and hair flew properly at G-ib-son's boarding-house m Courtenayplace. According to his own account Hart has h?d a varied Career. He has been soldiering m seVbraj; of the South American republic^ and judging from other remarks he.tisvno stranger to some of the lawless States of the U.S.A. For the past 20 years he has been wandering on the face of , the earth and as far as is known in' this country this is the first time he has come p cropper m a criminal court.

On the night of August 10, he was drunk, and having located himself m the scullery of the Gibson caravanserai, he was requested by Airthur Ware, who was deputed by the landlady to -make the request, to go to I bed.. "If it's fight you're looking for," said Hart, "you'll get it." And he plugged Ware hard, and proceeded to bans' him over the head with a roli; n«- 'tin. They closed and struggled on" the floor, where the infuriated Irishman bit one of Ware's fingers, and next grabbed his nose m his teeth and inserted his sharp fangs into Ware's bugle, badly lacerating it on the left -side. Other boarders came to Ware's assistance, and one, a man named- Thorpe, got,, a vicious swipe across the jaw from the -.inebriated Irishman which sent him reeling.. When ■ the smoke lifted it ' was found that Ware was m a bad way, and he was taken to Dr. Mackin, who treated the injured boko.. It is now alright,- excepting that it still shows the scars of the man-eating .savage, Hart's 'fangs. ; Even then - THE BRUTISH RUFFIAN was not satisfied, for the next morning he was on the warpath again and sou? lit Ware and incited., him to come down and finish it ; assuring him that had not others intervened the previous evening he might have found his head m one place awd his body m r.nother. This story was supplemented ■by the version of another, who., sai4 that Hart 6bserved thaV if he was m America and had a revolver he would have fixed the lot of them. When Hart was arrested by Sergeant Hutton he said all the other boarders had a set on him because he wore a decent suit of clothes.

When it came to Hart's turn m the witness box, that worthy set off at a great pa.cc and tried to make the jury believe that he was a harmless, goodnatured chap who would noit do a fellow creature a hurt, unless forced to m self-defence. In order, to offer some justification for the cruel assault he endeavored to brand Ware as a would-be thief, saying that he nushed Ware off him ; but he came at him again, grabbed him by the throat; and forced him to tile ground. There he pounded his. head on the floot, knocking him almost insensible. His hands were m his overcoat pockets, he explained, and he could not get them put to defend himself. Thus he was forbed to use his teeth. He ttied to bite Ware's chin, he admitted, but missed and got his nasal organ m his, mouth instead. "I wouldn't tell a lie to save my life," was the dirty cur's remark, m answer to a question the Crown Prosecutor put to him about being m America

AND USING A REVOLVER, He denied having used a rolling pin, and, with fine effect, when -denying that he. had done so, added "as true as there is a God above me," which brought from the Agnostic Judge on the Bench the quiet remark "You had better not use those imprecations." Right through his evidence the mad, man-eating Mick harped on the fact that he had travelled all over the world ; but the chief effect of his globe-trottings seemed to have made of him an ignorant brute who attempted to hold m contempt his fellows of the laboring class. "I was studying for an examination," he went on, as a prelude to his protest that he had been disturbed by his fellows, who had as much right to the house as he. All his fellow-lodgers were low men, and their language did not suit this boko-biter. The fellow Eihowed that he is a cowardly dastard, by the way he talked of his fellow-work-ers, and m the witness box he cut a deplorable figure as he tried to defend his cannibalistic action. Hart's was altogether (too weak a tale and the jury did not take very long to convict him of assault causing actual bodily harm. It was a crestfallen, cowardly, dastardly soldier of the Republic that went under to await sentence till Friday.

With a wild look m his eye Hart stood m the dock yesterday morning to receive sentence. Asked for a reason why sentence should not be passed upon him he repeated his assertion that he had travelled over the world and had never before done a fellow creature any harm. N o excuse, however, was forthcoming for his disiiistirinr and brutal assault o n Ware, and the Judge, cynically observing that there were no previous convictions known against the prisoner, passed a sentence of 15 months' imnrisonment, a lenient term, as His Honor remarked. It was ; a term totally incompatible with the dreadful offence of the cannibal.