THE PENITENT FORM

NZ Truth, Issue 890, 16 December 1922, Page 4

THE PENITENT FORM

AN ANCIENT PROFESSION.

On the charge-sheet at the Magistrate's Court on. Saturday laat the police designation of prostitute looked somewhat incongruous against the no me of Phyllis Ferraro; who had been, masquerading under the highsounder of d^ Fleury. Nevertheless, Madame do Fleury wras found at the witching hour sleeping sluggishly m the grass by the roadside near Kaiwarra. with 4s 9d m her purse. She was gently awakened, not by the fairy prince, but by a constable on duty m vLe suburb, and fras conveyed to the look-up on a charge of being idle and disorderly. In the morning she appeared before Magistrate Hunt and , protestea that she had not been before him for two whole years.,' "Fiddlesticks!" or something of the sort ejaculated the Magistrate on looking at her record. He remarked that she was before the Court ln April, ]J?2l. and for lis months of the ieiiod ' that had elapsed her non-appearance \ was accounted for by the fact that she hadubeen Jn gaol. , In. her-- 89 years of I checkered life Bhe had been convicted 20 times of straying from • THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Anyway, she reckpned that ahe had been earnestly looking for honest work, and that m the words of the dolefully pathetic old Tommy .Army song she was "poor, but ' she was honest." Magistrate Hunt determined to give her a chance and consulting with Mrs. Glover, the Salvation Army matron, decided merely to convict Madame de Fleury and order her to 'come up for sentence when called upon, conditionally on her remaining under the Army's surveillance until something turned up. ATTEMPTED SUICIDE., Tho man who composed that popular song "I'd Like to Live m Loveland," containing tho line "whero sweethearts are always true," must have been a Court reporter. "Truth's" rep. has nursed the memory of busted romances of his own In a heart that has known the depths of despair and the apogee of Joy; occasioned by tho wiles and ftckleneßa of lovely woman, but there is nothing like experience m the Courts to bring the observer m contact with the misery collateral to the transolenoy of human affections. In his opinion then (a very valuable one) tho man who pictured fairyland «.i a place where sweethearts aie always true must havo .had an experience m Courts. On Mother Jwirth sweethearts aro notoriously i fickle, both male and female. Jilted men srek solaco usually ih the cup that clears to-day of past regrets, and girls toss their pretty curls and seek forgettulness m the pursuit of other game. But some nurse, morbidly, tho memory of an affection that once was burning, and to them the world Is a cheerless place. Such was the caso with a young woman bathed Jn tears who crept into the dock at the Magistrate's Court on Saturday last and poured out her pent-up feelings m that relief which is peculiar to women. t»he was charged with having attempted to commit suicide. It was the oftrepeated story. This girl lived qt Karaka Buy with her sister and wras hippy m the attentions of a man wno had enslaved her heart. Karaka Bay was a very beautiful place to her then, especially when m the evoningf* she and her lover sat on the cliff? overlooking the Bay and gazed not Into the water, but he into the limpid depths of her pensive eyes, and «ho Into his not too earnest ones and Imagined all sortß of things that weren't there at all. By and by, ho jjavo her the cold shoulder and his eyes became as responsive aa those of a frozen fish. Knrnka Bay was not beautiful then, death was better, nnd frenzlcdly «ho drained a drink of dope. Death didn't ensue, however, i.rd It was the Court and not immortality she reached.A letter was then produced which the unfortunate woman had written to the Women's Probation Officer inrtlrctlner her intention to leave this world of filn nnd meet her friend* on Mgh. A* it v*n««, she met them In tho Court and was pent to tho Salvation Army Homo for three month?..