Just Too Good.

Manawatu Herald, 27 January 1894, Page 2

Just Too Good.

A professional ventriloquist in Lancashire has received what is perhaps as high a compliment to bis professional powers as ever was paid to one <if his tribe, and yet, as, Mr Toole used to say, "he is not happy." it appears from proceedings at the Wallasey pVtty Sessions that this ventriloquist prided himself greatly on his skill in imitating the | cries of a dog, and that one day, at Seacombe Ferry, he agreed to give an exhibitipn of this- sort of mimicry, and proceeded to do so hy beata handbag, from which the most agonising cries as of a dog, appeared to come. The first result was that | an old lady rushed at the ventriloquist and tried to hit him with an umbrella. She desisted when told it was a joke ; but a man named Scott, a meat contractor, then rushed across the road, took the ventriloquist by the throat, and struck him on thd face several times inflicting injuries which led to eryaipalas in the ear, for which the sufferer claimed damages. , In the witntssbox he repeated the iham dog-beating performance. For the defence it was contended that the defendant was genuinely deceived by the simulated agonies of the dog, and had simply seized the bag in order to prevent further cruelty ; and it was urged that any person playing such tricks in public must' take the consequences. Finally the^ magistrates dismissed the caße, but'** made no order as to costs.