HE SMELT HIS BREATH.

NZ Truth, Issue 141, 29 February 1908, Page 6

HE SMELT HIS BREATH.

' The Beery Troubles of a Tram i Troubador.

•Thp Qhristcimrcla ..-trams are pretty, hot'; .or their' engineers, or motoi-toen--are hot, and when the present writer, comes to think of it, there , is a wonder existing m the minds of the populace why there aren't more accidents. There is a .chap named Diumtnond, who riihs the .trams from the city to St. Albani and thereabouts, £,na who is said to have a tfliirst> He denies it ; he hasn't got a. thirst. Still* the woman, who has to be believed, says that the coot of a husband is no damned good, that he is a common nothing-worth-. mentioning about, and that he ought to be dead tor something similar. His wife, Elizabeth, applied for the issue of a prohibition order against her darling, and it waTs opposed, with much veliemencQ. "Lawyer Salter .appeared for i the complainant &nd -Mr; Hunter for the de£endAttt'. v " s The evidence was rather, strong,, and it just shows you wbat Christ--charch motormen get up to. m her. .testimony the wife told the tale 6i fright and fight— when her husband was the most drunken person on the premises. Tie missus, when she got m the ImXv: told: a queer , yarn She said that she had Wen married Z5 years, And' that, his .nibs, her husband, had ATTEMPTED TO COMMIT SUICIDE. . fThijigs v were y> only' > middling afterwards, Whenever hi came home drunk . he used to curse and swear and spit m her. -faces viV> v ...v •;■ .'.•" - : ;. ± . : Wheii was the last time h©, ;spai; an; .face mMaiiig at Hhe' breakfast table., . Hels a motorman on the tram, isn't he?— Yes '-'that vis so, and he gave me a document saying that he'd abstain from liquor for a year. ; brummohd admitted signing this; but said he did so under compulsion. Tfce wife told the Court that her husband said to her that she had no borne. It' was only a camping place. Aren't you jealous ?*- asked the lawyer.— No lam not. Not jealous of other women ?— Not at all. ' Isn't it the cause of the whole trouble ?— lt i's not ; I'm not jealous of any woman. What about your temper ; doesn t your husband cdmplain of it ?—Nobody else complains of it. . , 'When he"' spat m your lace' yesterday where was he ?—He was at the breakfast table! He had milked the cow and fed the pigs ? . Yes,: he always -does that. Margaret ' Mansfield, sister-in-law of the complainant, .. that the s de^ feadftnt's drinking habits) had led him to" perdition or' thereabouts. When be got wined, he was * something , awful, and kicked up beil, and used terrible language m front of the ' children, an*T . - „ > . ' T«ADE HIMSELF OBNOXIOUS ' GENERALLY. &re you a teetotaller yourself?— jNfo, I am not, , A son gave evidence, and then a «tu*sti©n was asked of young Drumlttend how he could, tell nis r father s hvw&. He replied, with all the m Bownce of youth, that he smelt it. "Could you distiaguisb any. partieur !ar kind of breath !" asked the lawr y*r.—^*No, but he was certainly un- ; d«r the influence of liquor," §aid the witness. ' ' "' '' H« couldn't , tell what particular •brand of liqiiSpr he had unites he wasi a Q©aaoisseur at the game," and the 'q,Uoßtion was a silly one, anyway. \ Tfcere was absolutely no;' defence, and J«hn Wood, who is 1 boss on the '• : !b*Mwways, and Constables Allen and j GofcSag, and Charles Gourlay step-| ped into the box and stated that •they knew about the defendant, and j 'In the end the lady got a pro. order against her husband. j