THE FRUITS OF LOVE.

NZ Truth, Issue 168, 5 September 1908, Page 6

THE FRUITS OF LOVE.

The Rashness of Donald Ritchie.

Donald Ritchie belongs to Palmerstoa jSouth, and it was; during a trip to Ghristchurch that he taught sinfulness to ; a nice-looking girl bearing the singular name of Elizabeth Adcock. The banks of the dreamy- Avon and the public parks lend themselves to that sort of thmg, and if the trees could only speak • there would reach ttie shocked, ears of ttoe populace yarns .that would make the average French io'vel look,- lite the , Bible— • not ;that- the Bible is a particularly moral ihook, by any means, but-rather-the reverse. . .Nature revenges herself upon the sexual experimenter, ,but the burden of punishment usually foils upon .the woman, who is least able to', hear It, and when we find the .man shirkirig reBponsibili"ty for the kid over whose birth there is a "oar sinister," the law steps m. and mentions t-lie matter to him with loudness and disrespect for his foelittgs. Liz's ]bye child,- as produced with difficulty m court recently, is a fine, bouncing urchin, with excessive lung: povrer itoat any. father might feel . proud , of, and necessity. for arresting Ritchie* in? Ms southern home on a charge of failing "to maintain tie youngster is a matter for surprise. When the young man was .;' CONFINED IN CLEARY'S CRIMINAL CASTLE > he sent for -the girl, without: the knowledge of Lawyer Donnelly, whom he engaged to get him out of the mess, and doubtless appealing to the love she , once bore him, if l she- didn't still -have a jfaeaking regard for him, obtained a promise to accept six bob a week without any order of the Court. Solicitor Flesher; who appeared for the girl and was also m ignorance of this development, represented to the Court later that Ritchie had misrepresented ."matters to the girl, whose interests' and the interests of the . child demanded that Ritchie should' find a hond pledging him to keep up the payments with regularity. Mr Donnelly called the girl, who said, she preferred an order of. the court to Ritchie's personal assurance that he would pay 6s a; week ; also, she decided that she would make him nnd security,; eVen though he might have to go to gaol because he couldn't discover; a bondsman. The young woman,, who is" twenty-four, probably suspected that Ritchie wouldn't go to gaol. Thereupon Magistrate Day made an order for. the payment f weelily of the six white coins already mention^ ed and fixed the security. -to fe« found fey' Ritchie at 4?50. .