AN AMUSING INCIDENT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9690, 25 February 1910, Page 5

AN AMUS ING INCIDENT.

MARTON COURT. Recollections of comic opera were revived by a little unexpected drama that enlivened yesterday’s™prooeedings at the Marten Magistrate’s Court. Thera was being heard a charge of cruelty to a horse. Constable Fitzpatrick: was crossexamining the defendant and was plying him closely with questions as to the method in which he had administered to the horse the chastisement which was the of the charge. It had been deposed by the witnesses that the defendant had caught hold of the horse by its ear and dealt it several blows with his fist. The defendant alleged that he had not used his fist, but had used his open hand. Constable Fita» patriok was dissecting every detail and the defendant (who had in his evidence displayed an aptitude for dramatic illustration that should have ensured for him, before the footlights, a reputation equal to that of the late Sir Henry Irving, had he followed the profession, instead, of the less exciting occupation of carter) was answering with considerable verve the queries addressed to him. At last the climax came. The constable inquired the manner of the blows and the force with which they were delivered. The defendant is tall and long of leg and arm. He answered patiently, but apparently at length came to the conclusion that words alone were not sufficient to convince a constable. Suddenly and with one huge stride be advanced towards the official with the words “I will show you how I did it; now suppose you were the horse,” and before the constable had time to even imagine such a position as hia descent from official dignity to that of a puller of a dray, the de» fendant’s length of arm had enabled him to nearly grasp the tar of his interrogator in the manner in which it was alleged that he had seized the ear of the horse. With a smart official movement in a backward direction and a dignified protest, Constable Fitzpatrick withdrew himself from a position, that to one of less experience, might have resulted in considerable embarrassment. The taps from the hand on the neck of the horse did not receive their .apparently Intended illustration, on the nock of the constable. But the scene was one so ludicrous that the crowded Court was. for the moment, convulsed with laughter. The pen of Charles Dickens alone could worthily have depicted the extreme humour of the situation.