ARMS AND THE MAN

NZ Truth, Issue 1136, 8 September 1927, Page 7

ARMS AND THE MAN

Fisticuffs While The Band Played (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Rep.) Whether it was the martial strains of the Salvation Army band or the fighting spirit he had absorbed during the five-to-six rush cannot be said, but when Michael Joseph Patrick Kielty butted m on Bertie Eugene Ernest Leydon and his lady friend, he certainly met his Waterloo and had a hefty reminder handed out to him which some of his kind badly need. DUT it was Leydon whp stood m the *^ dock facing Magistrate Cutten on a charge of assaulting Kielty and with damaging his "strides" to the tune of 25/-. Kielty, when he made his muddled overtures to Annie Maud McDonald, may not have been aware that her companion and champion, whose right hand was innocently tucked away m his coat pocket, had one of the most hefty rights m the Queen City. Among those present was Richard Seddon Keith, a young man who had been drawn into the listening crowd gathered about the Army. He told the Court how he had seen a man (Kielty) on the outskirts of the crowd with his face bleeding; being a fellow of sympathetic disposition, he had wiped the face of the bleeding man with his handkerchief. Presently, however, another man had come up, according to him, and hit Kielty; a struggle had followed, but he had seen no provocation for the blow which was struck. "With his head bandaged and his face showing considerable damage, the husky Kielty was called upon to tell his tale of innocence rewarded. He seemed to think that he had a grievance about the medicine he had received, though as far as bulk was concerned he might have been expected to have put it all over the man m the dock. His story was that he went up to Miss McDonald as she stood beside Leydon and said to her: "How are you?" She replied that she did not know him and her escort took a hand and remarked: "You're one of those!" "I said: 'What's the business? 1 and he flogged ,me," stated, the butter- in. "Then he knocked me down and clouted me with his wooden arm.". Kielty denied to Lawyer Sullivan that he had provoked the assault m any way. "When the lady said she didn't know me I only said two more words when I got whacked. He didn't tell me to go away. I was listening to the service and not picking anyone up." ENSIGN'S' EVIDENCE "You said she had given you a cup of tea m Howe Street?" asked Lawyer Sullivan, for the accused. "She told you that she didn't know you, but you persisted?" And the bandaged man replied with some feeling: "I never got the second up." He went on to say that he had not hit the accused with any power, but just touched him on the back — "and down we both went." A constable who was called, but whose name was not audible, could just be heard to say that the accused had told him: "I struck him all right, but I did it m selfdefence." He then proceeded to read a statement which Leydon had made, but it was only audible to those who were m his immediate vicinity. The accused's story, which related to the actual "stoushing," was that Kielty had made a movement to strike him and that he got m first with his good hand. Afterwards he used his dummy arm; as he said: "What else could I do? We were down and he had got me by the throat an 4 hurt my buttocks." Kielty had torn his shirt and this visible evidence was produced. Lawyer Sullivan asked him to show it to the bench, saying: "You know more about your shirt than I do!" Leydon said he had given no provocation and he had never been before the Court before. An ensign of the Salvation Army gave his testimony. He had heard Leydon say to Miss MoDonald: "Do you know .this man?" He then turned to Kielty and said: "You have insulted this woman." The Army man had taken a hand m things as a peacemaker, but his efforts, it seemed, had resulted m him taking a roll m the gutter with the other two until the constable arrived on the scene and sorted them out. Senior- Sergeant Edwards had not made a very vigorous effort to prove that Kielty was an innocent lamb at the slaughter or that Leydon had made an unfair use of his dummy limb. Perhaps he had taken an eyeful of the two men and decided which was the most likely to have gone over the fence. The decision of Magistrate Cutten was prompt and to the point: "I think the trouble was created by Kielty — dismissed." Kielty, whose big frame had been holding up the doorway to the prisoners' room during the latter part of the case, showed no visible enthusi- . asm over the bench's finding, and was content to remain m his Atlas-like attitude until Leydon had ample time to leave the precincts of the Court.