THE SOUS OF THE SHIRT.

NZ Truth, Issue 106, 29 June 1907, Page 8

THE SOUS OF THE SHIRT.

THE BEEF'S IN AND THE WltS OUT.

Rerlihy's Hard Luck*

Does heei bring ; out tHe charac^er^ , of a man, or Is it merely a destrpyr ing agent which . changes a man's character when he takes it-?, •Recently solicitor Wilf drd argued . before ■jMagistrate;ocArtliur that th'^-man 1 who stole ij^bac laundry material was ; so inconte'st'a,bly uhsober that it was vmppssi'ble^fdr him to distinguish f etween light and wrong. Dr. Ivlcagreed that the individual, *#ho is respectably employed, and Whose name it is obviously unnecessary '-to; .'repeat, wasn't capable of understanding the term * 'intent" io defraud on : the night m question, and not only did the Magistrate refuse to convict him, but discharged him without a stain on his character, and as spotless as the laundry articles which he temporarily found m. his possession. On Monday* last Mr. Wilford's firm found itself again 'defending - a drunk under similar circucnskaiccs, hut Mr. WiifonTs first lieutenant, Mr. Jackson, put forward the same .justification under a different Magistrate,, namely Ri'didell.. , Michael Herlihy,, who was charged as Harley, and gave the name o£ \Qudnn at the station, got full of .beer on "'Saturday, and lifted two piles of colored shirts from outside the shop of William Meston, m Ingestre Street. The habit of extremely, drunken people to lift wearing apparel will be herewith remarked. . They ; ■ DON'T GO IN 'FOR 'JEWELLERY or valuable ifcrimlcete which are niore easily concealed, nor hearses, nor similar things whose doubtful possession would not be suspected m the street. They go m for something that everybody can see doesn't belong to them, and they would be astonished- to find it m their possession m the morning. In the meantime they are arrested. From the evidence of Meston,, Herlihy appears .to have taken the shirts quite openly about 8 o'clpck m >the - evening. ' ' He only saw one bundle m -the possession of the beery accused, but as two bundles were ultimately recovered by, his cutter, Thomas Francis Mangan (who merely went and took them from Herlihy, down the street) it is surmised that both bundles o£ shirts Weie^ taken at one time. . Herlihy stated himself that he' 'was grafting at Karori, and knocked off at noon* Had four pints on the way home. Then went and h"ad dinner, and dressed to go out. The number of drinks tlience onwards was uncertain, bwt Hepiihy distinct; y recollected nine up to six o'clock. After that hour, he "went cjui to the bulls, 1 ' so to speak, and might HAVE HAD FORTY DRINKS. \--\ He didn't remember anything about the shirt business, and his first intimation of it was when he woke up m Mount Cool- station on Sunday morning. ■ '•■ , Patrick Skelly gave/ evidence describing. Heriihy.'s absolute hopelessness on Saturday night A humane beak imposed a fine oi 20s, m default seven days.' <