THE DEATH OF JUNO.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 73, 22 February 1879, Page 3

THE DEATH OF JUNO.

" Pitty the sorrows of Mrs. Hall-Max-well !" This, more than the punishment of Mrs Garland, seems to have been the raison d'etre of the criminal prosecution of thatjfipffcetable lodging-house keeper, and the fcause of that " brilliant assemblage of ladies " which, according to our entousiaatjio reporter, graced the Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Monday. It is very questionable, however, whether the pity has spread much beyond the ordinarily unsentimental bosoms of the ProcuratorFiscal and the ultra-sentimental bosoms of the " brilliant, assemblage of ladies " aforesaid.')' The publio may have heard of Juno, the Queen of heaven; may have road of interesting female personages of that name in three volume novels; and may have seen a representation of the character in the burlesque of " Ixion." But never did they hear of a "Juno, 4 Bridge Street, Aberdeen," to whom epistles were addressed in life and for whom, on death, the Court of Dargavel, Renfrewshire, went into deep mourning. This latter-day and most wonderful Juno, was, however, neither more nor less than a fox-terrier bitch, belonging to Mrs. HallMaxwell, and alleged to have been poisoned by Mrs. Garland. We have readjand. heard much of the "coddling " of dogs Keep it for his Honour's pleasure ; but never, in the annals of petting animals, have come across anything so ridiculous and grotesque as the record of the latter end, lying in state, and laying in the tomb of Mrs. Hull-Maxwell's Juno. The question of how the late lamented Juno came by her end is, for our present purpose, one of comparatively minor importance. There is no y.oubt she was poisoned, but by whom is n mystery—the interest in which is not worth a pin's fee to the profanum vulgi s. To them the interest in the case lies in the extraordinary demeanour of Mrs. Hall-Maxwell toward a dog, and the very remarkable things in which she indulged in that relation ; particularly in so far as not only was the distinguished Professor of Surgery called in, but the Bishop of the diocese actually 9ent for. The last agonising moments of the " dear departed shade" are faithfully recorded by the page Sweeny, and constitute a most touching story—too affecting for repetition, but leaving us in no wonder at the page with the unromantic name of Sweeny, having dropped a tear, for which exhibition of feeling and other services in the matter he received a watoh inscribed, "To the memory of Juno." Then we have Mi's. Hall-Maxwell's solitary halfhour spent beside the dead body in the bathroom—a manifestation of grief on which no one would dare to intrude. And, finally, we have the removal of poor Juno's remains to Refrewshirc, and their interment at Dargavel, in an old coat of her mistress's husband for awinding sheet, and laid in an old charter chest of the family for coffin Mrs. j) Hall-Maxwell in a " letter to the Editor," blames the reporters for putting the proceedings in a farcioat light, but, really, after all, can they bo otherwise represented ? There is, indeed—if she will have it so —a serious aspect of the matter, but it is one not at all flattering to Mrs. Hall-Maxwell. Poople will be obliged to ask whether the affection lavished on this fox-terrier and the accompanying pups was not only extravagant but, as we have already hinted, positively grotesque, and will adopt the stern query of Tennyson, applicable t"> Mrs. Hall-Maxwell as much as to Lady Clara V'eru do Vere— Are thero no beggars at your gate, Nor any poor about your lands P —Abcrdeon Free Press