THE OATH UNJUSTIFIABLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10075, 22 June 1910, Page 4

THE OATH UNJUSTIFIABLE.

Is a man ever justified in using bad language? Rigid moralists answer no, but the world in general holds that there are timee when it is scarcely law to put the strain of abstinence on weak human nature. Du Maurier, if we remember lightly, drew a picture of an old gentleman arriving breathless at a railway station to find the platform gate shut. A whole-souled oath from his highly respectable lips drew from a fair fellow sufferer beside him a heartfelt, "Ob. thanK you so much!" But some people would be pro foundly shocked by s ich an outburstAmong such tolk are tb£'Justices of the Peace who sat on the Ivybridge, England, bench the other day and dealt with the Hon. Francis Lascelles, charged with using offensive language. Mr Lascelles had cycled into a carriage, had been violently thrown from his machine, hed hia ear badly cut, his collarbone broken, and one of his legs considerably bruised. In the commotion which ensued he had so far forgotten bimself as to emit the word «D—and, as a result, he had been haled before the Court. Defendant admitted tbe use of the word, but pleaded that owing to his injuries he could scarcely be held responsible. "Well, that 13 what you are charged with," said the immovable police superintendent, and tbe bench held the case proved, and fined the unfortunate, cyclist a pound ! As a London paper, remarks, the case is - too astounding for comment—one can only laugh. In all tbe vagaries of the Great Unpaid in England, it would be hard to find anything stranger, than this.