A WICKED UNCLE.

NZ Truth, Issue 152, 16 May 1908, Page 6

A WICKED UNCLE.

Seduces His Half-Witted Nieces

Phe man xvlio- wouia take advantage" offIP halfc-witted girl isn't a man at all— lie 1 , is an animal of vicious habit who ought to be put under restrain*.. John Sfeven--son, a Oourtenay fainner, is sixty-nine years of age, and on Tuesday was-adjudgr-ed tnc putatixse fasher of Margaret Keltae's illegitimate child, by Magistrate ßlsItdp m Christclua-ch £.H.. Count... Margaret is one of the vaeaivWaccd girls ■whom the Scotch call "satt," andoEdin-^ ttiy people call plain. loaney...She is twen.-ty-seveji years of age and daughter of Ro-. lert Eelfcifl, a Couctenay fanner... Piloted! By Eaivyer F. lesher, she stated that om October £Sth of last 3sear she- gave; birthi to a male child, of which her elderJ3jruni». cte (by inar-riage) was the ftcther;. In reply to ■ Eric Usurper, fcd&!rfcar,,t&e? prirL gaye a dull negaifivato I all quesies.. She hadaH spafcsn iS the Bnraham hoys m the neighborhood, and was not acquainted with Walter White. She fingered a. white handkerchief with nervousness throughout the ordeal. 'Young man. were not m the habit ofcalEng at her place m the evening. In answer to a question she tolffi where inproper 'relationship had taken place.. The giri subsequently adawjwJeflgcd that she had. snofeen to' the Burnham schootboy, Walter White, on , one occasion, o^ver tlic sate of Mrs Mkwro, a lady whom she j was. m the habit of visiting.. When she J discovered .her condition she didn't tell Stevenson, \iiat Walter White was the father of the child.. She said Ha him-, ''Ton are tlie fattier o! the childy"* Maud Keltic, sister of Mag: r arnf a nisrhly intelligent young lady— a contrast to her sister— said that Maggie went' to work; -'at Uncle SteveD3on > 3 between Jan- j uaxy' and Eebruary of last year, and two or three months later something was no- j iiceable. The circumstance seemed to j occasion alarm to uncle, who frequently inquired about the gjrl?'s feeatth- On August Ist the appearance of Margaret was , so imnsual that her father ' decided to ' consult a doctor, who^ diagnosed, that, the girt" was eneierite. ,

SHE MADE CERTAIN. ADMISSIONS while the doctor was examining her, and nncle T s extreme anxiety about- her health Was", thereby explained- Stevenson came to the house to hear the medical vendlct, and Maud asked him, point blank^ "UtiA you insult Maggie ?" whereupon the visit-'' •or put up his trembling hands and renlarKe*?, -i -f&rough* ■ a£~ nittcti-^-eha+. -- jrau would blame me." He trembled vioitently during the interview, and Maud obsjerved, "I am not blaming you ; she tol)3 the doctor it was you." He rejoined, wflj ask Maggie if I insulted her," and forthwith he entered the house. "Did Einsnft you ?" asked the aged reprobate, shafcins like a hall-room jelly. "Yes," replied;, the darasel, "wheu I was up at yore,; place." Maud east a glance of wi&herjngj scorn at the old seducer, and said; "W you are not guilty, go and swear it to father." To this he replied, with quivering accents, "If I thought you wotdd have insulted me like this I wouldn't have come here" ; but the girl called him a nog or a dog. or something equally opprobrious, and, lifting her well-shod 'trilby, kicked him on an unspecified places and. he retired like a whipped mongrel. The mention was made of the Burrfliftm boys then, but at a subsequent gathering of horrified persons, who assembled on the premises, Stevenson made dark and mysterious remarks about the industrial school individuals. '■■ To Mr. Harper : Only one boy cama to Moore's while she was there ; "that was Walter Wlijte, who talked astronomy or something over the gate to Maggie for upiwards of an hour. < . Magistrate Bishop : Has the girl al- • jwaysTjeen m that state-rBOt quite tulliwitted'?—Y,es, always. Mr Plesh'pr : Your mother is m the asylum ?— Yes, ever since I was a little girl (—religious mania. Robert KeLtic, father of the girls,^stated that Stevenson had been inquiring about 'Margaret's health to an abnormal extent, and his suggestions that a. doctor should be consulted were a revelation an thejjlight of subsequent events. He wasn't m the habit of permitting his girls to go out' at night, and no young men came about his place after Margaret. He'couldji't say exactly what his own age was but

SUPPOSED HE WAS SEVENTY. Someone had warned him about permitting his girls out at night, but that was I eighteen months ago. Mr Harper, m opening the case for the; defence, made reference to the age of; Stevenson, hut his Worship commented ! that • there were cases of men over 80 who»i had fathered children. It depended on a j man's virility. Stevenson is a person whose untrimmed ! heard embraced his dial like the ragged • invasion of a neglected gorse hedge, and \ didn't look sixty-nine, bait looked anxious instead. He said his wife had been dead over three years, and Mag. was m the - habit of coming to his place to clean, windows and do the service, but -she aliways got away before dark. He never sinned with her, but had seen her with ■ .George Reid and Walter White, Burnham school-boys boarded out to a neighboring farmer. The girl never slept at his place. The interview graphically described by Maud, when he was alleged to have been rtrembling like a debit-collector deprived of his commission, didn't take place, and the 'details were the children of Maud's fervent imagination. He didn't get hold ,pt Margaret while she was cleaning the •wfendows and pulj her down on the sofa. "He certainly had remarked to the girl's father, "Mag is getting fat," but he had then no suspicion that she was about tp increase the population. Charles Addington, another Ce/irtenay farmer, recollected going to Keltfe's once iwith letters, and whist''gij|j|kj^jgfche saw a man tl<&^i, lvstilv, J-^^w^iS^ipor I ! «

Itport", together with £5> confaemenit exiSpenses, and desired that ne.snauld-TUKUse*-jlcurity/ amounting to £lt)0..