He Was Tempted.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 49, 10 May 1884, Page 4

He Was Tempted.

"Why," asks the "Sheffield Telegraph," " should the prisoner, as well as the Bench and the Bar, not have his little joke ? But of all jokes which occupants of the dock have ever attempted to palm off on naturally incredulous judges, commend us to one attempted at Birmingham the other day. The accused in question was charged with having "disposed" of a sofa which by no stretch of ingenuity could be called his own. His account of the manner in which he had come into possession of the "household god " had the merit of extreme novelty. He admitted that he did pick up "the thing" in the street. He endeavoured to dogde out of " it's " way, but failed to do so. It blocked the road, so that he could not pass in the dark. Pie tried to get round one end of the barricade but could not manage it- Then he tried the other end, but failed. He tried to got over it, under it, "any way, any way," out of its road. But it was all of no use. Naturally enough, he was not going to be nonplussed by a mere thing like a sofa, so he hoisted it upon his shoulders, and parted with it in the next street for a trifle. It was a novel line of defence, but the magistrates, used to all sorts of astounding yarns. committed him for trial, although immensely tickled with the pleasantry. "