AUCKLAND ITEMS.

NZ Truth, Issue 71, 27 October 1906, Page 4

AUCKLAND ITEMS.

(l^rom Our Auckland Correspondent)! FEDERAL-STREET FUNNY BUSINESS. About 11 o'clock last Wednesday night a lady named Maggie Foster, residing m the sublime locality known as Federal-street, retired to her virtuous couch. She was not alone. As bed mate she had her sister-, who was honoring Auckland with a visits The nifrht was dark ; nothing stirred— not' even a dog ;•* and Maggie and her relative were busily engaged wooing sweet sleep for all it was worth. In Tact they were just' entering upon jihat critical period known as the beauty sleep when bang ! bang ! came a shower of violent blows upon the chamber door. The Fbster ladies gave up wooing slumber! for the (time being and assumed a sitting posture m their bed. • Again the hammering was heard,' and. as if to assuage the fair one's alarm, a voice,, unmistakably that of a male, breathed . what was meant for the reassuring pronouncement "It's all right, Mag, it's only me." As Maggie wasn't too swift m acknowledging this undoubtedly tender passage, her sister hopped out of bed, and supposing, so she said, that her brother stood without the sacred portal,, opened She door. She was; mistaken as ( to the owner of the voice, however, for no sooner did she turn the key than there' ensued a;| mad rush, and, loj instead 6f the beloved brother, bless him, there stood m the room two most unexpected specimens of humanity. They were.Thomas Webster and John Sheenan respectively, and, as the sister didn't fall m with their idea of the fitting time and place to pay calls on their lady friends, she made a wild rush for the street, and, happening upon Constable Hammerlev fetched him along so survey tjhe scene. The upshot of it was , the appearance of the nair of ardent, unauthorised lovers at the Police Court reception. They gazed reproachfully , on the simple sister from the country as she spun her yarn as to theiir dramatic appearance m hpr bedroom. Then Maggie Foster stepped up and told the beaks her version.. She added a iew interesting allegar tions, which were torrid, if' true. Shortly after her dear departed husband's death, 1 she said, Webster made her- drunk AND THEN OUTRAGED HER. Her own mother was m the room, she said, while this interesting sideshow to the mournful period was progressing. She admitted that drink was ra. weakness with her and that she was frequently drunk. Lawyer Lundon, who defended the precious pair., set up the defence that Webster was employed by the fair Maggie; Another man was required at this establishment, and Webster, whilst strolling out that night, dropped on Sheehan. Thinking him justr the "fel r lar," Webster took him home and wished to introduce him to the missus. Tne fact that it was approaching the mirk and mystic hour of midnight did not seem to trouble Webster. '. When Lundon sat down, the Bench! wjagged their heads and softly murmured that accused we're discharged. They did not want to hear the witnesses for the defence, having, although -they did not say so, apparently arrived at the conclusion that the fair Maggie's establishment is not conducted on lines that would meet with the approval of the Y.W.C.A,