"MY FUNNIEST CASE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81889, 16 November 1906, Page 4

"MY FUNNIEST CASE."

First the Yiddish interpreter laughed, and then the jury and the bar, and finallv Mr Chester Jones, i»id Judge at the Crelkenwell Session*, where Rachel Neuhaus, a Russian, looking a typical gypsy, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment and certified for deportation for obtaining money uder false pretences. Mr Chester Jones, who tried t|o> smother his mirth with his handkerchief, but had to "explode' with the remark, "This is the funniest case I have ever had before me,'' was thus highly amused at the evidence of the East End dupes of the reputed witch in the dock. Mrs Samuels paid the gypsy money to have her runaway husband restored. Part of the spell employed was clipping" from the back of a black cat. A nightdress and pillow ca<es were treated so tha"t Mrs Samuels! would wake up and find her husband by her side, while the "something" on the pillow cases would prevent him from ever running away again. But though £s 14/ were paid he never came back.

Mrs Samuels' daughter was asked, "Did vou see the performance with the black cat?'' "Yes,'' she answered. "She threw something into the fire and it came out with a squeak. I had a fright and I ran away." (Laughter). Did the black cat frighten you— I can't say what she did with the cat. Something was put in the fire. Dd the black cat frighten you?— The squeak did. (Laughter). Rose Silberberg, a young Russian servaHt, said the prisoner gave her tw.) curiou* powders, with instructions that they were to be placed on the end of a hairpin and consumed In a flame, the object being to show her Russian sweetheart's love.

Eventually Rose was told by 'he prisoner that she must get nine eggs. The prisoner would then writy orj them, and they must be burned in the fire. The witness then produced a common, rusty padlock, which tht prisoner had said was an emblem of her lover's true love. (Laughter).