ANGRY ANDREW

NZ Truth, Issue 1192, 4 October 1928, Page 9

ANGRY ANDREW

-A A Martyr He Wanted To Be (From "N.Z. Truth's" Dunedin Rep.) Young wives, beware of the . topsy-turvy ideas of sex equality. Docile husbands are not always sin-proof, and though you may have charge of the latchkey, the key'of the bedroom is more important. ÜBRE'S an example. Andrew Ronald **■ Sutherland, of Anderson's Bay Road, allowed his spruce young wife •to do the.gay rounds bf the city whilst he stopped home, ostensibly to rock the cradle. t But when Ivy Margaret Sutherland unexpectedly arrived home the other Friday night, she reckoned she had good reason to suspect, that Ronald had been rocking somebody else besides Hl-eir infant. l . Ahd if Ronald was really straying from the garden of goodness, he considered he had just cause to roam because the tendrils of his Ivy's affections had. ceased to cling to its wedlock walls." - Furthermore, he suspected Ivy of creeping over the fences bf flirtation to cast her amour upon other men. So he decided upon a counter-stroke and warned her that he would "get another woman." If his wife caught him m the act of carrying out his threat, he was not at all anxious to let her know who had been chosen to supplant her. • But Ivy, it seems, was not to be brushed aside like a fallen leaf of autumn. She sought an introduction to whoever her husband had secreted m the bedroom. .''"..■' Ronald, however, was not keen on linking up an acquaintance, and the unexpected arrival of his wife apparently robbed him of all his social etiquette. *' Of course, it was extremely embarrassing for Ronald; even m the light of his own story that-the bedroom harbored nothing more mysterious than a spooning couple, m the persons of a male friend and his girl companion. So Ronald thought it best to keep his wife out of the bedroom, and also, to let her forego the pleasure bf meeting his "visitors." Thoughtful Ronald! Even at the Dunedin, Police Court the following morning, when he pleaded guilty to a. charge of behaving m a disorderly manner, he still maintained his reticence by keeping any names dark. Ron. would npt admit that he had knocked his wife down and blackened one of her eyes, so Sergeant Isbister, of. South Dunedin police station, told Magistrate Bartholomew something about it. How Dark It Was -———•—"—~~~——--—* Shortly after 9 o'clock on the Friday evening, the police officer told the -court}-; Mrs. -Sutherland; called-at the police station to"complain thatshe 'arrived'home to find her husband m the bedroom with another woman. When she endeavored to get into the room, her husband assaulted her. Two constables. were sent to the house, and on their arrival Sutherland wanted to fight them and "caused a disturbance m the locality," which constituted the charge of disorderly behavior. "I came.home'at about five minutes past nine. last night unexpectedly," said Margaret. "I knocked at the door and my husband.let me m. I went to the bedroom door to put my things m, but my husband took me into the kitchen and asked me to have a cigart,Ue. "I asked Him who was m the bedroom, and *he said: 'Oh, Norman and his girl friend are m there,' and I asked him to bring them out and face me. My husband then said: ■ 'They would not like to face you after being ih the bedroom.'" Witness followed her husband to the bedroom and switched on the light, but the. bulb was not m and the room remained m darkness. However, she endeavored to stay and investigate who it was m the room. Magistrate: And who was it?—l don't know. How; did you get the black eye? — Sutherland gave it to me when we were m the kitchen. He got me on the floor, and as I got up I received the black eye. . —- ' Ronald's version of the affair placed himself more m the light of a suffering martyr pledged to the shield of silence for the sake of a friend. But the informing police-sergeant rather exploded accused's story before it reached the "burnt-at-the-stake" stage. So far as Sutherland was con* cerned in 'the matter, he had only been accommodating a love-sick friend by converting his oWn bedroom into a little salon d'amor. He .vas going to the bedroom to let "them'? but, and discovered that the young fellow had "cleared out." The lady visitor, however, had.not been so rude; m fact, she wouldn't entertain the idea of leaving, and steadfastly refused to leave Ronald m the lurch. Accused had not attacked his wife, the boot was on the other foot, and it was Ivy who had attacked and struck at him. Bench: How did she get on the kitchen floor?—I laid her down gently-— didn't I? (the latter query to his wife.) . "Don't be so silly!" Ivy rapped but with a snigger. It may have been unfortunate for Ronald, especially when his tale seemed to be taking so well, that Sergeant Isbister had something more to say. It was to the effect that Ronald's friend "Norman" was just a myth, so far as his being a party to the bedroom scene. This the sergeant knew, because the woman who had been m the bedroom had reported to the police station that she was unattended by any gallant other than Ronald himself. Undaunted, Ron. came m at another angle. "She's been going to dances and coming home early m the mornings," he complained, speaking of his wife, "so I told" her that if she didn't knock it off I should get another .woman." ' S.M.: And this is the result? Sutherland either failed to catch his worship's • observation, or else was too engrossed m his further objections regarding his wife's dancing appointments. Ivy, he concluded, had been "coming home m taxis with men." "If this had been a deliberate assault," remarked Magistrate Bartholomew, m convicting Sutherland on the assault charge, and ordering him to come up ; for sentence ( within six months, "I should have taken a more serious view of it. But it seems to have been more m the nature of a scramble between the two of them, and 'm" tfie. course of which the wife sustained certain injuries.' I am not satisfied m regard to the position between them." On the other charge Sutherland was fined 23/- (including cab-hire) or three days m default.