FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 500, 1 November 1928, Page 8

FROM T HE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” WIN BY A NOSE There is alarm. in Fleet Street, London, over the South Australian cricket score; also be cause Geary (England) has broken his nose. It is feared, apparently, that Australia may win by a nose. * * * QUITE IN KEEPING There was no public welcome to the men of H.M.A.S. Australia. “W’y worry,” said Jack Snaggs, A. 8., “they gev us a sailor’s farewell w’en we left, an’ so we knoo we'd get a sailor's welcome w’en we come back.” TWINS A successful way of dealing with two obstreperous members of his audience was discovered by Mr. J. A. Lee a night or two ago. The pair, though separated from one another by the whole width of the hall, persisted in conversing loudly, and their observations concerning the candidate’s views were not complimentary. These tactics were eminently successful until Mr. Lee, in a moment of inspiration, dubbed the pair “Stiffy and Mo.” After That the laugh was on the other side. WHEN' ROYALTY VISITS One of the few direct and absolute commands issued recently by King George of England (says an American writer) was cabled to Santa Barbara, California, into the harbour of which steamed, last week, H.M.S. Durban, carrying Prince George, youngest son of their Majesties, in his technical capacity of a naval lieutenant. The command, really a prohibition, forbade Prince George to fly from Santa Barbara to Hollywood. So Prince George motored to Hollywood, and famous Douglas and Mary fed him there. H.R.H. (according to the Hollywood Press!): "Oh, yes, I like the navy very ■ much. They treat me just like the other officers, only I have a better cabin.” A Hearst feature writer, “Annie Laurie,” tittered fatuously: “Prince George—dear me . . .

young and good-looking, and heartwhole and fancy free. Do you suppose there is a girl In California who will have a moment’s peace while the Prince is here. . . . deep eyes, and such a voipe of mellow sweetness.’" After leaving Santa Barbara, Captain Coleridge of H.M.S. Durban, radioed to the Associated Press of America as he steamed toward the Panama Canal: “I should be obliged if you would note that all Press reports concerning his Royal Highness Prince George during the visit are without foundation, and are unauthorised.” Seemingly this “blanket” statement was intended to smother a thrilling Associated Press story that H.R.H. had split his trousers in Santa Barbara while performing the “varsity drag.” * * * ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO A deplorable series of murders in which women have been the victims calls to mind the famous case of Abraham Thornton, in which the right of a man accused of murder to “wage battel” for his Innocence was last invoked in an English Court of Law. This was in 1817, and the ancient law had not then been Invoked since the days of Charles I. It seems hardly credible that only a little over one hundred years ago it was possible in England for an accused man to step from the dock and engage in legalised conflict with his prosecutor. Thornton had been acquitted on a charge of murdering Mary Ashford, a handsome young woman, under particularly

brutal circumstances; but feeling ran high, and the girl’s brother was induced to lodge an appeal under the processes of the day. Thus Thornton again appeared in dock, and on being asked to plead threw down a gauntlet, in accordance with the archaic law, and offered to defend his innocence with his body. Among those legally exempted from the responsibility of Accepting such a challenge were the citizens of London, on the grounds that they had had no training in arms. It was provided that if the accused was worsted in the conflict, he should be hanged on the spot. If he won, or held out in the lists from sunrise to sunset, he would he declared innocent, while if the chief accuser (Ashford, in this instance) turned craven, he was to be declared infamous and deprived of his privileges as a freeman. In the case of Thornton the prospects of a worthy encounter were upset by the refusal of Ashford to accept the challenge, which was perhaps natural, as he was much the physical inferior of the accused. Thornton was accordingly acquitted, and later investigators advanced the theory that the girl (who was drowned in a quarry) died by an accident; but the presence of tell-tale male footprints was never satisfactorily explained.