A FOUL-MOUTHED BRUTE.

NZ Truth, Issue 65, 15 September 1906, Page 4

A FOUL-MOUTHED BRUTE.

A well-earned . .sentence of six months' imprisonment was imposed by a' Bench of Justices at the S;M. Court last Wednesday on a young man of the loafing vagabond type named Maurice Costello, who on the previous afternoon grossly insulted a number! of respectable ladies,- who stood conversing; m Manners-street. What frpe of skunk Gostello is can be gathered from the fact that he is an individual of the bludger class, who will never attempt anything m the form of . honest hard work, and against whom the detectives are constantly engaged m war. Detective. Cassells said that he had seen Costello m Manners-street on the afternoon m question. He was a stranger to work, was the constant associate of thieves and low characters of both sexes, and had been warned on other occasions to leave the itown. Moreover, the officer said that Costello was sober when he saw him. This last assertion was a rebuttal of Costello's statement m answer to a charge of using disgusting language that he was drunk at the time and did not recollect what happened. So disgusting and grossly insulting was the language used that long dashes and blanks would fail to give any idea of its nauseous nature. The three ladies were conversing together when Costello impudently interrupted and took foul liberty with one of the ladies by chucking her under the chin. Such being resented he turned to another lady and used expressions whioh would have justified any man taking to the dirty dog and thrashing him within an inch of his life. Indeed it is not improbable that a, verdict of justifiable homicide would have been returned by any sensible; jury had any one of the ladles or any male drawn a six-shooter and sent the skunk to his last reckoning. What is most surprising is that the

Bench should have used half-measures with the cur, as the maximum penalty prescribed is 12 months' imprisonment, and if ever a polluter of the public ear, let alone the orrerer of gross insult to womankind earned such a penalty, the malodorous Costello did. There are far too many brutes of the Costello kidney roaming about Wellington at the present moment who will not allow -a female to pass or come' m sight unless they give vent to the dirty thoughts of a diseased and certainly disordered mind. An occasional oath is very often justified, gross insults to women never. "A bird is known by its note and a man by his language," and the police of Wellington will be failing m their duty if they, do not succeed m gaoling every foul-mouthed brute who wilfully persists m poisoning the atmosphere with the dispusting verbal ordure that slaps from their slavering chops.