IDLE AND DISORDERLY.

NZ Truth, Issue 130, 14 December 1907, Page 5

IDLE AND DISORDERLY.

■ . » MAGGIE ON THE MAG. Would Not Sweat for the / Salvarray. Preferred Prison to Penance m a Home Whether the cursed der-rink is the cause of harlotry, or prostitution is the unnatural condition which causes drink",- or both are due to poverty, hasn't been accurately ascertained by philosophers, but both vices go hand m hand and are usually found together. When Margaret Webb was asked at Wellington Magistrate's Court the other day to enter a plea on the good old charge of idle and disorderly, and , with having insufficient lawful means of support, she protested violently that she had plenty of means and was residing with a most respectable family. Broadshouldered Bobby Stewart, whose beat isn't m the aristocratic quarter, is a walking encyclopaedia on the subject of black angels and their sinful domiciles, and he was called to damn Margaret and all her works. At 10.30 on the previous evening the vigilant policeman saw the woman m Lprne-street, off Cambridge Terrace, arid she was clinging affectionately to a man. There is nothing undesirable about this circumstance, but a halo of beer enveloped the pair, and Margaret's reputation impelled the constable to the belief that something very improper was meditated. The accused person at this stage loudly vociferated that the inebriated man mentioned was her son. Undeterred by this interruption the" police witness said he had on . several occasions seen the woman accosting men m the vicinity of the Terminus Hotel. Sub-Inspector O'Donovan : What is she ?— SHE'S A PROSTITUTE.. . The bobby stated further that Maggie's husbland had cleared out from her owing to her bad behaviour, and during the two months Stewart had known her she had done nothing virtuous to earn an honest living. "I am stopping with Mrs Mellis," Interrupted the accused, "the young man you saw me with was my son," The Sub-Inspector : Do ' you know her son ? The bobby said he did, but the man he had seen m the embrace of the. prisoner was a big, burly person of forty years or so and wholly unlike Margaret's miserable offspring. On the previous Monday the stern guardian of the law saw the woman drunk, and solemnly warned her that he would bring her before the Court if she didn't mend her ways. ' Constable Wright also saw Maggie m Lomerstreet, walking m a very groggy fashion with her arms around a brute's neck. She was m the habit of frequenting the bouse of one Tyndall, and. once the peeler wen! through the abode with Sergeant Beattie, when they discovered Margaret lying around on the premises m the company of drunken men. Mrs Tyndall was a person of beery habits, and had been m bed four days suffering; from the effects of swankey. Tyndall also was no prohibitionist and might be mistaken for a brewery by a short-sigh ted person. Maggie was eontihually on the move between the Cambridge drinkery and Tyndall's, and she was m the habit of bringing men there for the purposes of prayer or some other regrettable object. Margaret denied the impeachment that she bad brought men to Tyndall's, and, got rid of a long string of inaudible chatter m her own defence. She claimed that she was the proud possessor of £10, realised from the sale of furniture left her when her unnatural • husband cleared out with the cash profits of the business. A friend was looking after the ten quid for her, and she was thinking seriously about putting the coin m the bank. She was .not without an occupation, as she had been EMPLOYED AS WAITRESS at Bellevue G-ardens, and also served m the capacity of pantrymaid at the Hotel Cecil. She stated that her husband had run away with another woman, and she had brought him back under summons for maintenance. Riddell, S.M., suggested that the case be adjourned to permit of inquiries being made respecting the alleged .1:10. afso witn rrgard. to the employment at the Gardens and the hotel. The Sub-Inspector remarked that he did not question the matter of her employment, but she had been unable to keep her billets owing to intemperate habits. The police raked up the woman with whom Margaret was supposed to have deposited £10, and she denied being the lady's banker. The Hotel Cecil, too, didn't seem to know anything about her. His Worship asked the unfortunate female if she was willing to go into the Salvarmy sweating shop, but the woman vehemently asked to be permitted to go out and work for herself. She would have none of the pious Home. Sentenced to two months' with hard labor