LAUDER'S LAPSE.

NZ Truth, Issue 103, 8 June 1907, Page 6

LAUDER'S LAPSE.

RUNS AMOK IN A LAUNDRY.

The Evil Effects of Mixing

Drinks,

There ought to be a. law. especially designed to prevent persons mixr ing their drinks. A great deal of crime is due, not to drunkenness, but to the assimilation of assorted poisons by the temporary criminal. James Lauder, a young, man of respectable appearance, who doesn't drink— or haxdly ever— was foolish enough to mix 'em at a little social on Saturday -night, and he picked Up various things while m a state of torpor. '

, Appears that • Mrs Harriet Ad-sett has just disposed of her laundry m Alielaide Road tb Orlando Okiham, and the circumstance was celebrated by a social on the premises. -Lander was invited by.ons of the girls* and lie immediately, acted the unmit- ! i gated' goat by dr'arcing everything tlm.ii crime his way. Beer, whisky, wine—they -weare all one to Lauder, who can't sta-M 'drink at the best of times. iVml-'w; pera-nvbuiated -,Ih.c premises* like an animated, lunatic .asylum. He was put m a s'ds room -co cool walked. o.f£ with a. parcel of' 'washing that happened Xo be j there. Also he picked up Mrs Ad- i sett's: brooch somewhere, r* ri-ri putting it carefully away "for Safety' forgot about, it. A- much worn table knife, mended with co'ttoi. 'attracted his attention and was stealthily pocketed for future e-niergenci'ss. He t-ben stole out of tlie< house .with the i silence and gentleness of . an elephant walking ■th-rciKiih 'broken crockery, mrd reached i-be street. Here he crouched behind his "own shadow, and ■Jpo-kcd" so suspicious . that . Sergeant Beattie .'.-'. „' > LOCKED HIM UP." Charged with' the theft, Tuesday, it transpired that ho was really a respectable young man, "honest and hard working. Representatives of Briscoe, McNeill and Co.|, -P. Huison and Co., and the City Corporation tes-tifi'e'd to the fact, and - the only explanation appeared to be mixed drinks and to rain paralysis. • Lauder' s' mind on tlv? subject was an obvious blank. . ; Solicitor Wilford remarked that he would probably hive taken tho- bread plate, too, had itlbesn about, and claimed that although drink was no excuse, a man could be so irremediably unsober as to be unconscious of crime. Counsel belLsvet] , on the evidence, that the. Bench would readily convict and order- the young man to come /ud for sen4eii.ee when called upon ; they '■desired to avoid the stigma of conviction, not on accountof the present, but because ' of the future— say, twenty-live years licvnos— when if ever Lauder was called upon to give eyidence m any court, a lawyer might ask, "Did you not do some sneak-thieving m a laundry once ?" ' , The int&nso rcavscta-bility ;bf Lauder at ordinary times was' testified to by respectables witnesses, and ,Ins. Worship, Dr. McArthur, .seemed surprised at ..the variety of drinks absorbed... Ho said eyi«'lrn.rly the man .was m such ,a..st,a,t3 ( that there' rouid 1 -.nqt. have: T;ceTT "any intent; -//Arid 'he' would therefore- ■'' l--e discharged upon returning "the goods. '