FORGIVE AND FORGET.

NZ Truth, Issue 91, 16 March 1907, Page 4

FORGIVE AND FORGET.

VERA GRUMWALD'S

GRUMBLES.

Pleads Guilty to Forgery and

Uttering,

f Htibby Takes Her Back to Home and Bosom. .

It is generally the case that when a wife, who: . has been bashed and bullied and broken by a brute of a husband, views hubby m the dock, charged with some crime committed on her, that she is melted to tears and her soft womanly nature overcomes her, and she tearfully pleads for his release and forgives him and takes the brute home, only to be bashed some more. Husbands, the general run : of them, anyhow, when wives do them' an injury are unrelenting and . unforgiving individuals who talk only of their honor, and theenorm ty of woman's wantonness, and prefer to. leave their erring women on the road she has chosen ; to take, or kindly helps her along THE SAME SLIPPERY PA TH. Such, however, was not the course pursued by one husband m the Supreme Court on/ Tuesday last, when Mr Justice Cooper had before him, on a charge of forging and uttering a cheque, a Woman named Vera G-rumwald. She is a middle-aged female, and wears spectacles, and has a sharp nose, like lots of lawyers have, and the Judge seemed perplexed as to what course to take with her, as no one seemed to want her, or have any time for her. Her crime consisted m forging, with some degree of resemblance, the name of her brother-in-law to a cheque for £4, which was her husband's (Robert G/otlieb Qrumwald) money. The brothers, it seemSi keep a dairy farm somewhere m the Wairarapa, and as the husband cannot -write his: name, brother Paul, - who has had some "eddycation," does the trick m the Way of scrawling a signature. The woman had been married twice ; and > the first husband is alleged to have committed suicide ; but whether the dame that stood m the dock had anything to do with making htibby number one seek a world where there is' alleged to be no giving or taking m marriage diid not transpire. The Judge, however, had a statement before him that Vera was not quite a model of what a wife should be. In fact, to put it plainly, she led an immoral life. She had pleaded guilty m the Magistrate's Court to the charge, and had been committed for sentence. She explained, through Mr Loughnan, that she had had a row with her husband and had come tP Wellington and had forged the name on the cheque and had uttered it to a Lamb ton Quay draper. She got £3 16s change, and her further'excuse was that she had committed

THE CRIME IN A RAGE.: The Judge did not seem to quite cotton to this tale, anil though disposed to grant her probation, wanted all sorts of guarantees that , the woman would be looked after ; otherwise she would again go to the devil and be forced on to the streets, which he (the Judge) did not desire. No , one was empowered to give that assurance, arid things looked a trifle dicky for Vera, when the Chief- Gaoler let-- the Judge know that that morning Vera's husband' had been wandering about the gaol like a lost soul and wanted his Wife, and that he was on . his way down to, the Court to see if he could do . ny thing. Vera was accordingly requested to await developments, and m the meantime the husband, whom she had left m a hurry, and m a rage, put m his appearance, and with tears swelling m his big, blue German and with a voice (hoked with .emotion he gurgled out his willingness to take his spouse back ,to his bosom. Vera was then asked if she would , go. "Will a duck swim," she said m effect,, and with all kinds of admonitions to go straight home and not let her temper get the best of her again, and to lead a happy life, and an additional • warning thrown m of what would happen if she ever committed crime again, the Judge ordered her to come up for sentence if called upon and released her on her own recognisance Of £50. ,