SUCH A NICE, KIND MAN!

NZ Truth, Issue 1061, 25 March 1926, Page 10

SUCH A NICE, KIND MAN !

Carl Was Lonely sand Asked the Girls .to Slipper FISH AND CHIPS FOR THREE

(From "Truth's". Special Auckland Representative.) Retailers of goods who invite their customers into the seclusion of their back premises and offer to regale them with fish, chips, and beer or stout are few and far between.

IT was a pitiful story that • Carl Angex*, who keeps a store to provide coverings for the pedal extremities of his fellow-creatures, unfolded to the patient ear of Mr. Poynton, S.M., last week at the Auckland Magistrates Court. His English was somewhat broken, but what he lost m meaning he made vp for m loquacity. Leaning over the rail of the dock, giving great attention to his tale of woe, stood a girl of 17. This girl, Carl told the Bench, had come into his shop with a girl companion one day last month. They had been looking into the window for about five minutes. After looking into \ the window they came m, and tried, on ehoes^ ''but they say too much the price, not the mu hey to buy them. "The one girl she like this pair, the udder girl she like this pair." Later he found a pair of shoes missing identical to those they had been looking at. On board one of the Japanese warships he met the girl wearing them. i ; Mr. Poynton told the girl that she •; could ask any questions if she wanted to, but warned her not to ramble off into a statement. - AN INVITATION TO MA To ; commence with; she looked like n.aking a poor job of it, but getting warmed to the, game she proved herself a fair advocate. . . "After we had passed your shop you called us back and winked at .-;■ us— didn't you?" But Carl denied such boldness, which only served to warm up the young examiner to her job. "Yes, you did!" , . "When we came back you talked to us, didn't you? Yes, you did! You asked us to go into the room at the back, > didn't you ? "Witness again denied the suggestion. "You left us m the back room when you had asked us if we were hungry, and went for some fish and chips. Yes, you did; You and the cat ate it. "You didn't want my friend, you ' wanted me, didn't you? "Then you got some stout and cigarettes. ... "You got what you wanted out of my girl friend. You asked us to come back again— but we didn't, Carl, during his examination, was m turn' leaning on the rail of the, box. His . replies were chiefly slow shakes of the head! , He displayed no enthusiasm whatever. In fact, he did not enter into the spirit of the game.

"You stuck my mother up m • Karangahape Road, and asked her why she had not come to see you," was the girl's last shot. When Acting-Detective Power called on the damsel about the missing shoes she made no bones about it. Anger had promised her them, but had not given them to her, so she took them! The girl's mother went into the box. The Magistrate asked her if 'she knew Anger. - "Yes, I know him; he stuck me up m the street himself; he says to me: 'You didn't- come to my shop m Victoria Street. I've a • pair of nice boots' to give you.' "He followed me home. He told me the number of his shop m Victoria Street." • . Anger was called up from the back of the Court to ask if he had any questions. He had none. ■> The S.M. asked: "Is. that the man?" "Oh, yes, that's the man; he saw . me m the passage and walked away from me." Carl said he'd never seen the v;oman before. "That is the man!" said the witness with emphasis, "he went 'hum-hum' to me as he passed me m the street. - The Magistrate ordered the girl friend of the accused to be sent for, and stood the case down till her arr'val. On resuming, the Court was cleared. HE LOST HIS SHOES Mr. Poynton asked the. new witness, a bright, clean-looking girl, if she knew the man Carl. She knew him, bilt not; his name. On the dny that they passed his shop he was standing outside, and he called them m. ■ "What took place?" , \ "He started talking, then asked us into the kitchen." ■•■ Did you know him before? — No. -■ They, talked quite, a long while, and he promised them both a pair of shoes. He went' out, bought some fish and chips and ale. "He eat, we wouldn't, so he started swearing at us. We took the shoes into the kitchen, but he wouldn't give, them to us." Questioned by the Magistrate, she said nothing else „ happened. Several observations were, made by. j the .. Magistrate, among others that he thought some promise had been made to the girls. The charge was dismissed, and the shoes were ordered to be returned to the girl. S.A. Major Gordon rolled the cause of all the trouble- up m their paper cover, and the girl and the shoes left the Court. ,