SALLY BROWN'S BROTHEL.

NZ Truth, Issue 75, 24 November 1906, Page 6

SALLY BROWN'S BROTHEL.

A " Respectable "Assignation 1 House.

An axiom so old as to have whiskers on it is the one which declare th "There is one law for the rich and another for the poor." But despite its great age it showeth not the slightest trace of feebleness, or of expiring ; and at the Police Court t'other day it bobbed up m quite a fresh form. Everybody is used, of course, to the bumptious beak who lets off the drunken swine : who has made a. beast .of himself because his people are so "respectable, you know, chappie," while almost with the same breath he sends some other poor devil up for 14 days for getting drunk on exactly the same beer and just as incapable and no more, just because the secpnd Johnny makes the drastic error of wearing a coat the worse for wear, and not having connections who are so "respectable." That's the way the world wags. The fraudulent company promoter robs the community of thousands and ■ gets made a Knight or something ; maybe, a Jay Pee, and then he wades m to lecture a starving wretoh who has stolen a loaf of bread, prior to giving him three months' quod.

But the latest rendering of "one law for the rich and another for the poor" is somewhat startling m nature. To wit, it hath to do with houses of 'assignation, m common par-i lance, brothels. A lady bearing, the prosaic moniker of Sarah Brown responded to an invitation to appear before S.M. Dyer to answer a police allegation that her domicile m Nel-son-street wasn't all that it might have been m the way of : respectability. Senior Sergeant Hendry told the beak that there had • for a- long time past been a> constant stream of male and female visitors to the house t>f Sarah, and the pblice had , collected sufficient' eVidence to make it qjnite plear that- .this influx; wasn't for the sole purpose of taking afternoon tea or to play bridge. Sarah Brown did not deny the allegation.

SHE HAD KEPT A BROTHEL ALRIGHT. But Sarah is -business— and business to the backbone. Nothing daunted she, on receipt of her summons, hied her to Lawyer Martin, and now J. C. got on his pegs and breathed a beautiful defence into Beak Dyer's lv" He didn't deny. he said, that the house of Sally Brown had been used for purposes of illicit love, but still', it had been conducted with great respectability The law had always been inclined not to treat such a house as an offence against morality. but as a nuisance, • and the nuisance m this case was very small indeed. He appealed for the matter to be settled by the woman being ordered to leave the house within a week and to come up for sentence if called upon. Lawyer Martin ulaintively added that he assumed the police did not wish to crush this woman, but would be content if she gave up the brothel- keepire- <rame. This novel defence of a "highly repectable" brothel had the desired effect. Serjeant Hendrv looked almost sorry he had brought the chaise (forward, and as for Dyer, S.M.. he

fairly leapt at the lawyer's suggestion ; m fact he was almost apologetic m asking the fair Sarah to pay the costs of the case. Whether the lady, as did her namesake of old, laughed within herself at the gullible prosecutor's climb-down isn't known. Anyway, to anyone anticipating; setting up m business as a brothelkeeper, the lesson should not be lost. Be respectable t and fear not.