A PECULIAR CASE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1653, 4 November 1903, Page 16

A PECULIAR CASE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) ; LONDON, September 11. ° At the South Western Police Court ora ' Thursday last the magistrate had a some- t what peculiar case to investigate. A ’ man named Herbert Lei chard t who runs ; the “Tasman Photographic Studio” inClapham High Street, charged a former employee named Merten with embezzlement. Merten's defence was that he had never received 1 the money he was charged with misappropriating and that Leichhardt wasi a woman niasquedading as a man, ‘ andi had framed 1 a charge against him 'because of threatened exposure. Thereafter Merten's solicitor addressed! the prosecutor as “ Madame.” The crossexamination of “Madame” was remarkable. . ,■ >LTi “ Were you not known in Tasmania, ' A the solicitor asked. “ as Ruby Sherwin Leichardt denied all association withm such a name. “ Will you swear you are a man ?”jhs pursued. “ I do,” was the reply. !*/ “I swear he Is not,” interrupted Merten.

Leichardt said'be had! a branch business which was carried! on by a Mr. Willder, and Merten's solicitor suggested that Mr. Willder was. in. fact, Leichardfs husband. and that Merten threw up his appointment in consequence of certain overtures made to him by the prosecutor. These suggestion® were emphatically denied, but Merten's solicitor made reference to a former employee, and asked if the prosecutor had ever • treated him. o tiierwise than as a mere employee. The reply was an emphatic "No." " Did you ever kis& him ?" pursued the solicitor.

There was a sensation in court'when Leichardt replied 1 V *es," and explained, that it occurred when saying good-night, and that it was a “Continental custom." The solicitor next suggested that Leichardt had •* made tip and posed as a man” since the age of ten. This was hotly denied, and Mr.'Harvey, for the prosecution, said he ‘had a- medical certificate showing that the suggestion of the defence was false, but the certificate was not read, as there were "certain things in it which ought not to be read ip court.' 5

And public curiosity remains unsatis-' fied. for the magistrate, taking the view that a. jury would! regard the matter as a mere debbcollecting affair and would refuse to convict, dismissed the case.