HE GAVE HIM SIX MONTHS.
It is not often that a constable so far forgets himself as to import the colloquial phrases of the barrack-room into the witness-box, but a good deal of amusement was caused by an incident of this description (writes the Melbourne Argus) that occurred at the City Court recently. The sub-inspector had just read a list of previous convictions recorded against a prisoner who was about to be sentenced for vagrancy, when a voluble constable stepped into the wit-ness-box and began telling the Bench that the officer’s list was not complete. “You see, your Worship,” said he, in quite a familiar strain, “ I gave him six months myself about a year ago, and before that I gave him twelve months.” The laughter that ensued was intensified when Mr Call, making a polite bow to the judicial constable, quietly asked, “ And pray, how much do you intend to give him this lime ?” The policeman blushed, and in an apologetic tone explained that the phrase was commonly used in the force to imply that an arresting constable had been successful in getting such a sentence passed on a prisoner by the presiding magistrate,
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Bibliographic details
Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1135, 7 January 1884, Page 2
Word Count
195HE GAVE HIM SIX MONTHS. Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1135, 7 January 1884, Page 2
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