LONDON'S MYSTERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9385, 16 December 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

LONDON'S MYSTERIES.

A MORNING WITH THE CORONER. " Oyez, Oyez, all manner of persons," etc., etc. The first part of the summons in the Queen's name (says a London paper) is clear and distinct, bub the remainder is lost to all eavo a few policemen and the keeper, who smokes stolidly and koepa a watchful eye on the row of coffins in Lambeth mortuary. There is the same air of repose in the Coroner's Court. The jurymen hove sottled calmly down, devoting themselves either to admiring the glories of a constitution that recognises their powers of discrimination, or otherwise to conjure up some excuse to get let off when their name is called out). Mr. Braxton Hicks sits quietly in his rostrum cleaning a pen on his fingernails, varying this occupation by counting the jurymen and calculating the number of absentees. Bub with tho return of tho officer to announce that the court is open the scone changes. Tho excuses of the unwilling are scattered, the oath is administered, the bodies viowed, and tho first witness brought in. THE BABY FARMER. Sad to say this first witness is nob unfrequently a "baby farmer;" but that is, perhaps, nob her fault. She is working out a destiny; for she and all her sisters seem bo have the same cold, cruel, bibulous faces, the inseparable crape hat and rusty-looking dolman. Thore is even a difference in hor manner of speaking. She knows it is war to tho knife with Mr. Hicks, for that is nob her first visit bhore ; bub sho has hopes in tho jury, and sho starts off with an outburst of sobbing, muttering, "Foor Willie! poor little Willie !" Bub sho gives this up when she finds herself confronted with Mr. Hicks' piercing black eyes, and the sharp question, " What is your name V" Anxious to escape tho ordeal as soon as possible, sho races off at lightning speed a pathetic story of motherly affection, incessant watching, and sumptuous living. It is no good. The poor dead child has a champion, GETTING AT Tilt TRUTH. You're a charwoman, are you says tho coroner. "Give me the names of some houses you have been to lately." " Oh, sir, it is the truth I'm speaking," and the unhappy woman writhes in her chair. I've noticed you generally do. Well, you can't answer that. Now then, how is ib when this poor child was shrinking to a fearful skeleton you never sent for a doctor?" " Well, I have a hard strugglo to live. And I know I've told you wrong before, but this time I did everything for tho dear little thing, and it's the truth ; don't bo hard on mo, sir." "You had no money, oh? And you're (ho sort of woman, aron'b you, nob to know of such a person as a parish doctor?" And the coroner turns to the jury, who have long before that been venting their honest indignation in sussurrous sounds. Then comes tho final attack. Mr. Hickw has all the witnesses before him who have lied and contradicted one another with every breath. "I shall have some of you yet at the Central Criminal Court," he says, and there is wailing and protestation. " Silence !" shouts the officer; and they relapse into semaphore signs to show their innocence. " You are a plague," ho continues, " but I'll pub a stop to it. Any child that dies in your quarter, where the cause is not as plain as a pike-staff, shall have an inquest held, and I'll have this case brought before the Children's Society." This threat silences them ab once, for they know all tho terrors of tho police court *, but there is a renewal of protestations when the longed-for "gin crawl" is quashed with tho announcement, " And not one of you will get a penny witness fees." The case does not end here. "Officer," ho says, "what state is this house in?"

"Disgusting, sir." " Just find out who the landlord is ; and write to the sanitary authority, and yet them to look at othor houses in the stroet. Some of those streets ought to be pulled down altogether. They are a danger to health," and he would not soften one word if they were among the charming residences the Prince of Wales provides in the neighbourhood.

Mr. Hicks brings his knowledge of the law largely to bear for the benefit of the poor in other ways. When a working man comes to his death ho will have every detail thrashed out; and many a poor widow who would have been baulked by the employer of any recompense has learnt that a law exists to help her ; and he has more than once suggested that fourteen hours' work a day is tolerably long, even though the man is "only a workman." ANOTHER CHARACTER. There is a second side to Mr. Hicks' character, and the next case gave him a chance of showing it. It is that of a poor woman whose husband has died as the result of an accident. With kindly questions he will help her through her evidence, and will calm some irrepressible juryman who thinks that the principal question to bo considered is as to whether the dead man drank. By the way, if the average juryman asks whether a man who was knocked down and run over drank, ho is sure to get two of his confreres to supplement this by such relevant questions as to whether he was in financial difficulties (they never say "in debt"), or whether there was a tendency to insanity in the family ? With somo unfortunate mother he is equally kind ; and, without censuring them or giving them the slightest pain, he will warn them of the dangers of certain practices, and will not hesitate to go into such minor details as the food and feeding of babes. THE LIGHTER, SIDE. It is difficult to associate death under any circumstanco with a touch of humour, bub in such gruesome surroundings the most trivial detail of lightness strikes the spectator. Such details are rare, and ib is only when the villadom of Sydenham or Norwood supply a case that they are to be found. On these rare occasions there is an audience of portly dames and perky servants, and a solicitor or two; for every witness then seems to imagine that her position is tantamount to that of a prisoner, and a solicitor must be present to fight any order of committment to gaol to the last gasp. WHY DID THEY DIE? So the court goes on. Case after case is heard. Fo"r every case that appears in print a dozen are overlooked. There is nothing of public interest in nine out of ten, but the coroners look at them all from one standpoint. There must be a powerful reason why any being should die suddenly and violently while millions of their fellows still live. That reason must be unearthed in spite of the prevarication of witnesses or the tears of relatives. Fortunately for society Mr. Hicks is only one- of many coroners who do nob regard as a matter of detail the cutting of the coil of life, which only ago or disease should decay.