LOST PRESTIGE.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3760, 15 January 1881, Page 4

LOST PRESTIGE.

The prisoriefjn cell No. 1 was" making a great noise as Court opened, and he was therefore brought out first. lie was a Stout,-thick set man, with short; hair and milk white eyes, and he believed himself to be a mountain lion of the fiercest order. He came out on the dance, with a half concealed war. whoop in his teeth, and Bijah rather expected he would raise a fuss; "Is your name William Hill ?", softly enquired the Court. . "Old man; you bet!" was the ready reply. "See here, William/ continued His Honor, •' this Court is not an old man — neither doth he bet. Don't make use of any more such language. Now, then, you Were drunk yesterday ?" " You bet I"

"' Prisoner, this Court doesn't bet, and if it has to inform you of this fact again, it may have to add sixty days to your ■entence. Do you plead guilty or not guilty 1" " Judge, I was drunker'n a beer bar'l. I was fighting drunk. I was just in the oondition to chaw up half the police force of this one-horse four-corners. Judge, let me out long enough to flap my wings and give a crow- that can he heard four miles again a stiff wind."

" William Hill, I think I know what ails you," quietly 'remarked the Court. " You are aching to fall against some consumptive Detroiter about five feet high who will -mash you flatter than a soleleather. You evidently think yourself a tarantula, but you are nothing but a rabbit. Instead of being a terror you are a nuisance, and I shall send you to the Work-house."

" Judge, I'm from Arkansas, and I tell you I'm dangerous." "Pooh! I shall send you for thirty days, the same as any common drunkard." \ " Don't disgrace me, Judge. Make it six month's at least. Think of the story going back to Arkansas that I was sent up on a hosa fly sentence." But his Honour was obstinate, and the prisoner sat down on a nail keg in the corridor and said he'd have to kill one of the guards at the Work-house to restore his lost prestige.