THE SEAMY SIDE

Opunake Times, 23 January 1934, Page 3

THE SEAMY SIDE

THE COURT OF CUPID (By R. E. Colder in the London Daily Mail). Cupid and the Negro monopolised most of the morning at Lambeth Police Court recently, when Samuel Albert Otto, a tail broad-shouldered, coloured waiter who is waiting for work, recited the old, old story of: “She loves me; she loves me not.” Samuel Albert’s unconventional courting had brought him to the police court before, and Mr McKenna, the magistrate, gave a sigh of resignation when ihe amorous Negro posed gracefully in the dock and demanded; Ts the lady or her deputy here?” “Never mind the lady; you a r s charged with using insulting words and behaviour,” retorted the magistrate.

“Kot at all, sir,” said Samu *1 Albert loftily, throwing back his shoulders and his smart grey overcoat.

“At three o’clock this morning,” said a disapproving constable, “I saw the prisoner having a quarrel with a woman in Bye Lane, Beckham. She appealed io me, and I asked him to go awav He refused, saying, ‘Where she goes I also go.’ She was jest about to hit him when I arrested him.”

“That officer mistakes his notebook for the Bible and swears on the notebook,” remarked Samuel Albert cuttingly. Then turning confidentially to the magistrate, he said: “You know about my love affair. Shall I tell you how we made it up?”

“Be quick,” ordered Mr McKenna. “This is my busy day.” Samuel Albert settled himself comfortably in the witness-bo:< and proceeded to unburden his love-laden heart.

“My fiancee punishes me and then forgives me,” he said. “Last night we made it up, and I was seeing her home because it was so late. We were walking- arm-in-arm, and then she suddenly changes her mind once again. ’ “She has a perfect right to change her mind,” declared <he Magistrate. “But think of me, sir,” pleaded Samuel Albert. “I was merely endeavouring to restore her to iht gracious mood she had displayed earlier in the evening when the officer with the notebook rudely interfered.”

“She said there was nothing between them, and she did not wish to have anythin# to do witTf him,” interpolated the constable-. “Yes. she {rave me in charge,” sighed Samuel Albert; “her mood had changed again.” Mr McKenna gazed searchingly at the smitten Negro, and then remanded him for a mental examination, as Samuel Albert is rapidly turning Lambeth Police Court into a Court of Cupid.