A MATERIAL GHOST.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 3

A MATERIAL GHOST.

A lad named Gccirge Balcomhe, a re- ■ ileu t. ill' Brooklyn, was charged hefon Os McArthur, 5.. M., yesterday afternoon, with being an idle and disorderly pel'-on, in dial ho had on him an article of disguise at Brooklyn on .Monday, Kehrnary LBtii.

Snli-inspeetor Wilson prosecuted and .Mr Ilislop deifended. .Joseph Sutherland said ho was a labourer. He remembered leaving town at. 11 o’clock on Monday night last for llrooklyn. Hr was goitig in the direction of Brooklyn in company with some v. omen who had been to tbo theatre with blm, when be saw a white form. One of the women fainted. Witness pursued the figure and caught it. It had a white sheet on its head. The person he caught wins the defendant. .Mrs IVarco deposed that in company ivith the previous witness and a female friend she encountered the defendant disguised as a ghost. The effect on her was a severe .nervous shock. She was terribly frightened.

To Mr ilislop : The “ghost’’ made no noise to attract her attention. Did not see it until her female companion scream-

Tho witness was removed from the Court in a state of nervous prostration.

Ada Davis deposed that she saw the defendant walking towards the' fence disguised in a white sheet. Uitness was very frightened. Mr Ilislop said it could net be contended that, the present defendant was the person who had beien going about on spring heels. What the youth had done was done in a moment of regrettable foolishness, lie placed a, tablecloth on a post, in order to frighten people. Ho was in the act of removing the cloth so (hat. lie could go home when the people came along. The Magistrate, in dismissing the information, delivered a severe homily to tlm defendant, pointing out to him that the consequences of such foolish acts as his might, ho exceptionally serious.