THE SEAMY SIDE.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17579, 19 March 1929, Page 6

THE SEAMY SIDE.

TALES TOLD TO MAGISTRATE j (Bv R E CORDER, in the London ' ’ Daily Mail.) Valiantly competing against the vigorous cries of lour healthy babies, Mr. Clarke Hall, tho magistrate at ( »«- street Police Court recently heard the I lament of the lonely wives. ! Some had been married ior lorty ■ years; (Others had been tied for fitteen months; but all agreed that man was the common enemy of the female race. * * * * A grandmother aged 74 had married a second husband aged 05. “1 ought to have known what I was letting myself in for,” she wailed. “These young fellows will sow their wild oats, but Tm tired of forgiving him. He gives me much more trouble than xny first could think of.” “You are much older than your husband.” remarked the magistrate kindly. “I know,” agreed ’the grandmothei , “the younger they are the worse they are. He ought to be ashamed of lumself at his age, but that man does not know what shame means.’ * * * * I knew it would come. So kindly are convicted criminals treated that their first visit upon coming out of gaol is to the magistrate who sentenced them. Men who "would and do starve sooner than they would beg or steal are ignored, but a man who commits a crime is immediately provided with a job. * ' * * * The limit of the cherished criminal Was reached yesterday when a youth, having been fined 15s, had the nei\e to apply to the magistrate for the money to pay his fine. These people know thaf crime pays. Live a straightforward, honourable life and you may never get a job; break the law and a iob is immediately waiting. This statement hiay sound cynical, but it is perfectly logical. Policecourt missionaries and magistrates can help only the cases that come before them, and, deplorable though it may seem, it really pays a. youth to go wrong in order to get right. « * * * A worried housewife protested against the children of her neighbours playing on her stairs. * In the slightly altered words of Wordswprth she complained that:

And often after sunset, sir, "When it is -light and fair, . They take their little porringers And eat their suppers there. Personally, if I found a small child complete with porringer on my stairs when I arrived home for dinner I should sympathise with the woman who-objected to the “We are seven crowd using the 'stairway as a communal dining-room.