"GO TO GAOL!"

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 79, 3 April 1911, Page 6

"GO TO GAOL!"

JACK JOHNSON'S SENTENCE.

BAN FRANCISCO, March 28.

Jade Johnson, who has been sent to gaol for 25 days, conducted his own case, and when his punishment was recorded by the judge he appealed. He had been smiling very broadly during the hearing of the police-officer's evidence, and ii£ cautiously, had pleaded guilty, meanwhile ostentatiously displaying a bundle of notes with which to pay his fine. When he heard that he was to. go to gaol the smile came right off his face, and his mouth closed with a snap. Johnson was an extremely mad man for a moment or two. Then he said to the judge: "Can I appeal, air!" "No," replied the judge, who was now doing all the smiling. "You conducted your own ease, and you advised yourself badly. You cannot appeal after pleading guilty. More than that, you have violated all your promises to desist from speeding. Go to gaol." The coloured pugilist departed from the court a sadder but a wiser man. He says he will never plead guilty again. Arrangements have been made by hie wife and other friends to get him special accommodation at the county gaol, and his food will be taken to him from an adjacent restaurant. Chickens, champagne, and water-melons will comprise the major part of Johnson's diet. He says he'd have been unhappy without chickens, and he means to pass away the time by starting on a work which he has long thought of writing, dealing with his experiences in and out of the ring.