SHEARD THE SHICER.

NZ Truth, Issue 147, 11 April 1908, Page 5

SHEARD THE SHICER.

THE VALUE OF A GOOD CHARACTER.

«■ • - Boodle-Boss Bowron £peaks for a Scoundrel.

A Bigamous Brute's Lenient Sentence.

There was recently sentenced at Christchurch, on a charge of bigamy or something m the two-wives line, an individual named James Sheard. This miniature Mormon got three months' gaol for a crime that is often punished with, as many years, and Mr Justice Denniston, who at all times is an irritable, snorting sort of judicial person, was induced to inflict a lent; ent sentence because on wowser testimony, Sheard, who did not and could not deny his offence, pleaded guilty and threw himself on the mercy oi the Court because of his previous good character. Now we are permitted, without any intentional disrespect, to criticise Judge Denniston. His sentence of three months because Sheard. bore, a hitherto irreproachable character is one of two things. It is either an example of ludicrojs leniency, tantamount to weakness m a Judge, or else Judge Denniston has been wilfully misled into lightly punishing- an out . and out scoundrel, a dirty dog of a . woman duper, a wife-bea/fcer, a drunkard, : A VILE AND INHUMAN HOG, who, for the protection of . society, should be carefully segregated for years to come m the j, Lyttelton inferno. That, Justice Denniston should accept testimony of a man's previous good character from presumably reputable citizens is only just. and proper,; that he should be lenient with/ a prisoner is left tp his own discretion. Why, however* sijbh a man as Sheard, with a rotten,; .sordid family history of which the: police are fully cognisant, should be practically sent to prison a martyr, without the Judge being made acquainted with ' that black and sordid pastfvis, to ' 'Truth, ' ' incomprehensible.., This lpw lout, ' Sheard, got three •months , gaol for going through the form of marriage with a woman who is the mother of several children of which he is the father; while at the. time he was- lawfully married to a woman m England. Therfact- that the victimised woman is now faced with the awful truth that she was no wife and- that her children, now ... grownup, are/ liable to Be the butt of the sneers of so-called people .of respectable arid legitimate : -.birtfo, does not seem to trouble anybody. As usual, it is- the woman who pays the penalty, and Sheard 's victim is now paying that penalty ; on the dther hand.; the bigamous brute gets three months and will shortly be released with an almost untarnished name. One of the persons testifying to Sheard's good fame was no less a person than George Bowron, boss tanner of Woolston, outside Christchurch. This Bowron -is a religious Godfearing man, , who prides himself on his eminent and unimpeachable integrity. He is a respectable, gospel-gringing sweater, •_ a man who worships both God and Mammon, and without ,any blasphemous inclination, "Trutii" wishes to say that God seems to come a very poor second. Sheard might have been an excellent worker— no doubt Bow^ ron regarded him as such, because Sheard would become- a ■ scab if necessary. Sheardwas doubtless one of those spineless sort who ..- BEND THE KNEE TO BAAL, m the shape of a . snuffle-busting, sanctimonious employer, who sweated his men of their very life's Wood, and paid scab wages. Sheard seems to have been a pliable sort of tool, ever ready to do his greedy, graball master's bidding when it came to bullyihg and bouncing those forced by the stress of unequal opportunity and circumstances generally to work for boodler Bowron, who spent six days m sweating his fellow creatures and who on the Sab-bath, ■■ like the Pharisee of old, smote his breas-ir and thanked his God, m a voice choked with emotion, that he was not like other men. What wonder then that boodling Bowron should, .when the moment came, recklessly swear that his creature Sheard bore a good character, a good character '-'Truth" deliberately takes much pleasure 'm , blasting arid besmirching because of its hatrejd of humbug and hypocrisy generally. This man James Sheard is a dirty dastard whose crimes m the past proclaim him to be a fiendish hog' m human form. Twenty-six years ago he went through the form of marriage m New Zealand with Alice Spence, and a few tnonths of married life sufficed to show that she had tied herself to a debased, habitual drunkard. Two months after marriage he journeyed from Chrjstchurclv to Kaiapoi ostensibly to visit and give his mother some money. 'So drunk was he that the guard had to interfere, and the result was that the guard was brutally bashed by the dirty dnunkard, . who .was promptly locked up at Papanui. Drink was the curse ofthe man's life, ,and much as one feels inclined to pity arid even forgive tbe helpless and habitual drunkard, Sheard seems to have* gone beyond all limits of human He wasted his estate ; his home becatne that of the drunkard's. Everywhere was poverty and squalor. Lying on her- bed, his wife gave birth to a still-born child. Did that terrible thing bring the diseased drunkard to a sense of decency, and sobriety? No ;- there was . no money m, the home,,. no food,. no kindness NOTHING BUT MISERY AND DRINK ! . Next, at Woolston, when the eldest child was : three months' old, we find >Sheard dfinkdng with his employer, Bill Bowron.. They. had a quarrel m London-street, and the wife Venturing ; pn the scene seems to have acted on the infuriated maniac as a red flag tjp.a 'bull, He rushed at her, knocked her down with one hand, and with the other he seized the baby boy, and' 1 ' when the mother, who was knocked unconscious', came to, she beheld her beauteous, bigamous bride, still with the babe, m liis arms, holding a chair aloft and keeping eight men at bay. Next the ruflftan amused his drunken fancy by smashing everything m the house, and to show the sort of dangerous ruffian, tlftit he was. and is, he actually fired off ' a gun. The fact that his brutality \ was sufficient to keep his wife outy^ | the cold all night is just m^U-^ - ; * Ito show the reign of termor. *-t

exercised. The second child was born on May 26, 1886, m Dunedin, and for some time Sheard had kept comparatively sober. But he broke out again. He was worse than ever, and, coupled with his awful drunkenness, be became a gambler. Subsequent to a gambling fracas at the Royal Hotel he went to his . desolate home and started to smash things up, necessitating the interference of tho police, who arrived on the scene just m time to prevent the murderously inclined brute from clambering .over a partition into another room where his poor trembling wife had !' hidden herself from THE FURIES OF THE INTOXIOA^ TED BE.\ST. {£>•.'• bad did -the brute's, behavior become that a protection order was sought by the poor womanj and no wonder, when a low-down cur spat m her face. Such acts ■qf cruelly smashing her furniturey. squandering m shikker what few pounds she had saved, did not tend -to the -. keeping of a very happy home. He chased, her with a gun, forcing her to flee for her very life. He smashed windows, destroyed rugs, clothes and everything he could lay-bis hands on. Next he deserted her, leaving her to meet a bill of £15. Next he is found working for the beauteous Bowron at Woolston. He is joined by the woman who is the mother of his children, she having m the meantime sold the farm on wihieh they had- lived. Did Sheard reform and live as. any. honest, hard-working husband would do ? Not he. He got drunk regularly-,: the beast, and, the crown,ing sorrow of sorrows for the womanj who forgave arid forgave, was to have her furniture, valued at £60, smashed to 'smithereens, besides' "having her clothes and those of the children destroyed.,! With a guri he threatened to shoot the family/ cow.s, and on neighbors intervening the police were call-' •ed m/ and Sheard 'was arrested. Then the woman could starid.jio. more. She got a, separation order. His perfidy was discovered, but from the wretch, though separated from the 'woman he wronged, she got very' little maintenance. Then came the charge of bigamy, s , the testimony to his great and glorious good character*, winding up by Justice Denniston giving him the miserable sentence pf three months'.' Sheard's conduct, has inhumanity" to his children, is on a par with' the brutal treatment that he meted out to the mother, which, ' were it necessary, could be giFen m every detail. THIS IS THE BRUTE BEAS^r that Geo. Bowron gives a good character to. This man Sheard is a dangerous maniac, to "Truth's" way of thinking. He has blighted two women's lives, he is a depraved drunkard, a cruel cur of a man. -with not .one redeeming fpature. Here "Truth" takes leave ofthe brute, who, it is to be hoped, will, on his release, from gaol, flee from this country. IP ' he I persists m persecuting this poor wo[mjan "Truth" will Have, more to say. It is such monsters as Sheard who I are responsible for the domestic 'tragI edies' that we hear of .daily ; tragedies often expiated on the scaffold.