TRUE STORY O AN IRISH JAUNTING CAR.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1611, 14 January 1903, Page 44 (Supplement)

TRUE STORY O AN IRISH JAUNTING CAR.

Patrick Kelly was the only man who owned a jaunting-car in the whole! village of L ,in Kerry, and, as he had the monopoly of the business, he made a very good thing by letting it out on hire to thei neighbours. One day (says ‘To Day”) .Kelly indulged too freely at the village inn, and as he became a danger to the community by violently assaulting anybody he chanced to meet in the street, he was taken in charge and locked up. The next day he was brought before the magistrate and fined forty shillings, with the option of seven, days. When sentence was passed, Kelly scratched 1 his head for a second, and uhen informed his honor “that if it was all th© same to him he’d be taking the seven days.” Accordingly, he was taken into custody pr eparatory to being conducted to gaol. Now, the prison was ten miles away, and the only possible means of getting a prisoner there was by driving. As Kelly himself bad the only car in the place, there was nothing to do but to hire it. For some time the constable and the prisoner haggled over terms. Kelly stuck out firmly for fifty shillings, to be paid in advance, and at last the constable had to consent to the extortion. Accordingly, they drove off, and without any misadventures arrived at the prison. When they had alighted, Kelly suddenly informed his eomparion that he’d changed his mind, f ‘as the prison wasn’t a dacent-looking place,” and would pay the fine. He thereupon drew out the) fifty shillings he had received, counted out the forty and paid them over to the inspector. Then, jumping back on his car, he drove away, leaving the constable to walk back. As he explained himself, it was the finest time he’d ever had in his life, and “I’d been as dacently drunk as a man can be, and ten shillings in me pocket for it.”

NELSON LAWN TENNIS TOURNAMENT.