Five Pounds for a Pun.

Thames Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 10128, 9 December 1911, Page 5 (Supplement)

Five Pounds for a Pun.

A fine of £5 for a pun marked the resumed hearing on October 5 of the charge against Count Glesbert Wolff-Metternich of defrauding his

creditors. The count's defence is that he had a prospect of marrying Frau Landsberger, daughter of Herr W«*r- ' thaim, the owner of the enormous I Wertheini stores in Berlin. The day's proceedings were marked by much heated wrangling by counsel on both sides. Aifter much argument, the motion that the German Ambassador in London be subpoenaed was rejected. The count maintains that the Ambassador waM IFsted whether lie wish- ! Ed to intervene in the affair, but the ' prosecution denies this. i The defence put forward the assertion that the Wertheims only severed relations with the count because . their fortune was compromised, and . they could no longer afford a noble 'son-in-law 1. A number of women were called whose acquaintance the count had made in the - gilded pleasure haunts of nocturnal Berlin. ' One of these women stated that tlic count had given her his acceptance for '£-60 in return for monoy lent, but that the acceptance was not. met when it became due. Countess Metternioh, the wife of the accused, created a- scene by sobbingly declaring that people in Vienna were already saying that the court bad decided on the counts conviction. She then ventured on a pun by saying that the count was tried not by judges (richer), but exeeu'tioners (scharf-richter). Nob appreciating the pun, the court fined the countess .£5.