THE BOUNCING BRIDE OF BALLARAT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2010, 20 February 1890, Page 1

THE BOUNCING BRIDE OF BALLARAT.

There was a bride in the Melbourne City Court the other morning— not a witness, nor in the capacity o£ a •spectator, but as a prisoner. Like Solomon, she stood at the bar in all her glory, trying to catch the eye of justice through a rift in her veil. “ Call Madeline Thompson,” instructed the sergeant. And a stately looking creature? dressed iu blue silk, with white veil falling in graceful folds from a bonnet embellished with orange blossoms, carrying in her hand a bouquet of the same nuptial flower, while the daintiest of feet encased in white slippers, peered from beneath an embroidery of thick lace, stepped into the court, led by the am by a young policeman, It looked like a bridal party on the way to the altar. The lady bowed her head and blushed while the constable proceeded to get into the box and tell the tale of the previous evening. It appeared that the prisoner had come down from Ballarat the previous day on her honeymoon, which commenced under strange auspices. The groom drifted into delirium tremens and had to be looked after while the bride with one of her maids proceeded to see life in the city in a way fortunately not common with our country cousins. She went up and down Burke Street “flaunting her feathers ” in the face of society and making use of language of the most unconnuhial character. With her husband-beater l she scattered a crowd of newsboys, drove a number of gentlemen off the footpath, smashed a cabman’s nose, grossly insulted a lady, and wound up the performance by lovingly throwing her arms round the neck of a comely policeman. “Dear me,” said the bench in deprecating accents, “ what’s this? ” “Your Worships,” pleaded the subject of the query, trying to fascinate the bench with one eye, while a lachrymal waterfall trickled from the other

—“Your Worships, have pity on my condition. I was only married yesterday and took a drop too much. My husband is not well, and I would like to nurse him. Please let me go.” The bench: “ Yes, it’s a very sad affair, but these things can’t be lightly overlooked. You are fined 20s, or seven days.”

The groom’s deputy was somewhere aboqt, and the ransom being paid the festivities began anew, and once more all went merry ss a marriage bell.