HISS-T! HERE COMES THE TANGNEY MAN

NZ Truth, Issue 1177, 21 June 1928, Page 3

HISS-T! HERE COMES THE TANGNEY MAN

Objectionable Attentions To Pretty Typiste Land Him Back In Gaol HISSED AT GIRLS AND CALLED THEM NAUGHTY (From. "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) What do you a\noW about it ! Maurice TangneyX whom readers of "N.Z. Truth* will remember as the Irish* landlord who put the "tang" into "tangle," has had a love affair. A real little love-at-first-sighl romance. And to think l nQ t the two damsels of his choice were ignorant of the fires of infatudtion their charms had kindled within the Tangney bosom! Love is so cruel

ALAS, poor Maurice! For the last six months he has been worshipping at the shrine of fickle. Cupid, only to find that the maids were nonreciprocal to his overtures. Worse ... . they thought he was mad! Maybe, they had heard of Maurice's playful methods of courtship which earned him six months' gaol m Wellington some years ago. • Tangney is a big fellow,: and though he has. been m gaol a couple of times, his somewhat livid spherical features look no more than their thirty-two years. To be seen any day m Queen Street, Auckland— sojourns at Mt. Eden excluded, of course — his appearance strikes one as being more or less picturesque. It is not his clothes that catch the eye, for they are just an ordinary well-worn suit with sometimes a flowing overcoat. It ia the howler hat and the hoots which give Tangney that "once seen . . ." indefinable peculiarity, for the tonsorial lid looks . like the grandfather of all the smaller and later buns of fashion, while the hoots are like miniature rowing-boats. With a rollicking Irish brogue, Tangney is what might be termed a "character." Form At A Gtftnce '■■- •■■■'■'■■' i Whatever might be said deprecatory of Maurice's mode of courtship, there is nothing askew with his choice of the fair, sex, and apparently he was unable to resist looking into a certain business office m Victoria Arcade whenever he had the chance. And, m turn, that is what gave a young typiste and a girl clerk the impression that something was loose imriiediately beneath the large howler. Subsequently this led to their pre-, aence m the witness-box at the city police court to tell Magistrate Hunt that Tangney, on the afternoon of May 28, had assaulted them by expectorating on them. They did not know that it was just Maurice's way of opening the flood-gates of his affections. But hiss-s-stl— -here comes the Tangney Man! _ Into the dock stepped Maurice, and while everyone fully expected one of his - characteristic outbursts of oraglous oratory, • ho replied to the charges with a soft-murmured: "Not guilty." Sub-Inspector McCarthy rose to remark that it was "lucky for Tangney that none of the girl's friends was present during the alleged offence," and then introduced to the witness-hox the fdr-coated girl cleric whose good looks had enamored the man m the dock. She was, she said, outside the "Star" newspaper office about 1.45 p.m. on the date m question, when. Tangney came out of the building and "spat all

over my coat and face and passed a rude remark." Inspector: Did you speak to him?— No, I never looked at him. He has a habit of corning into the office .where I Work, three or four times a day, and making a general nuisance of himself. The first time he came m he made a hissing noise ahd put hts hand out. 1 thought he was mad and left the office, j Magistrate: Wh.at did he say to you? — Something about us being "naughty girls." If the desire of Tangney's heart was to get into conversation with the bewitching young nymph before him, their meeting m court afforded him his opportunity — and the girl had perforce to hear his crisp tongue. "What was it you said I said to you?" asked Tangney, commencing his cross-examination. "About us being naughty girls and something else," replied the witness demurely. "Will yoii swear before God that was it?" ■.:■■■■! The girl intimated that this was her , object m taking between her dainty fingers the Book of Truth. Didn't I only hiss at you?— You spat on me. , . "I only hissed at you!" Tangney reiterated with gathering indignation. "Don't answer him again," ordered the magistrate, no doubt • sensing Tangney's hidden horde, of eloquence. "Well, I only, looked m your office?" was Maurice's next query, which witness quickly disposed of by reminding him most emphatically that he "more than looked m." Your boss— Mr.- Graham— was always there?— -Excuse me, he was not. Your office caii be seen from the street and you say I actually came m?

— Yes, and you made a face that no man with sense would- do You often smiled at mo," suggested Tangney. with a tone of diminishing hope. . ' . "I did not," answered the girl,, "I wouldn't smile at a who wai* acting Hke a madman." "Last Friday you pulled a long face, at me . . .". '• „ ,<.•'- ' But Tangney's sore heart was not to get the court's sympathy. "Step down! " commanded the bench, relieving the young girl of further unsavory insinuations. '•■•_■'■ She gave her place m the box to her typiste companion,- who, unknowingly, was the second string to Tangney's enforced love-bow and a further- con-, •firmation of her queerly disposed admirer's eye for neatness m skirts, "He was a general nuisance and came to the office many times," •said witness m telling the court' oiF Tangney's unusual behavior. - The sub-inspector asked witness if she had seen accused behave m an objectionable manner to her companion. "No," replied witness. "He made; a hissing sound w:hich I suppose would j be the same . . '.."..-• , "Bid he spit on you?" asked the S.M. "No, but he walked round us and addressed both of us. He made a ss-s---ssing noise, at both of us. About five months ago (he spoke to a friend arid hie." ' ' ■ Tangney cleared the decks for crossexamining action. "What you have told is more like the truth than the other lady" he observed with satisfaction. He then asked witness if she had seen him expectorating on the other, girl, but she replied that the noise he made was certainly suggestive of that objectionable practice. "Well, hissing isn't .spitting," was Tangney's final retort. "You're only exaggerating and rnbbing it m. Now, was it a hiss or a spit?" "It was a hiss," she answered. A constable, who a few days later observed the complainants' employer Stalking to accused m a hard voice qn the footwalk," gave evidence. As the officer was inquiring .what the' trouble was about, one , bf tha girls \amsm oui fifiJ* i-saertfld tha^ 3^gn9y

had just beerf m the office and ."pu&JJ his fingers to his nose at her." JJJIn a statement td the; police officer, •...■. Tangney denied the- charges against ' him and declared that he had never been an annoyance to the two girla "I maket my living hy: arranging mortgages for people," ran the screed. "Once a week I go to see j_4r. Owen W. Bayly, a solicitor, on the third floor of the Victoria Arpade. My business with him is to pay money on beY ' half of mortgages.. } "Sometimes, when I am going ..to see Mr. Bayly, I look into Mr. Graham's office, which is on the ground floor, to see two girls who work there, i I have never spoken to them, "but. acknowledge them as t ; ' pass the door. .V "1 do riot know their names; but I; know them well by sight. I noticed them six months ago when Graham opened his office . . .. '1 go everyday to the 'Star* office : to get replies to my correspondence." Tangney listened intently to the ' constable reading the statement and ; then. stepped round to the witness-box; to add oral corroboration. ; "I might have been there," he de- Xclared, referring td Shortland Street on the date of the complaints, "but I never spat oh . any girl m my life." ;';;-;■. .' ■. ' -JJ J. '. s -. . ' ■'< ' ' Magistrate: "What's the good, of '-X saying that? Why, I gave yon six / Sonths m Wellington for the same' : ing about eight or nine years. ago!" ; "Well," replied Maurice with ; gathering excitement, "I might haye hissed at thi m to draw their.!. \jj attintion. Pve known thim for* a long time and thought they were V frindly '''"<.. . ... '.arid this is how : .they treat me. .. ,' : '. "They've ' always shown me a i plisant face— arid thin they put on ai ; ' long face and snubbed me, which ia to say: 'Hojw dare you look at me?"' Maurice's itone now bespoke deeplyinjured pride arid shattered yearnings. 'T told her employer,"- he. continued 1 , ashe mentioned the name of one of hi* lost 'loves," she was a dangeffjy bus woman and that I would have no ' more to do -With her. I never do this sort of thing : . .'.."■ . "Step down!" His worship cut him: short. "You are convicted ahd sen^ : tenced to two 'month., on each of the . ... two charges. • Terms; to be cumulative. -; We must .protect our girls from this . sort.of thing."' ; , Exit Mauric-', back to the cell at: Mt. Eden gaol which he. quite recently-:. ,' occupied ,fpr a couple of weeks thrdtigh i giving fistic outlet to his feelings regarding one of his tenants. r r , Maurice will- find; the. grey walla of ' his! prison &■ lasting monument upon Which to engrave any sad -lined son-: ;nets of treasured ; sentiment \ ;his y wounded heart may Inspire. iniiiniiMnnmiiiiiiiiiiiiinifniniiiifiniiiniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuimiiiiiiiiin ; .