A WEARY WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17031, 3 May 1923, Page 7

A WEARY WORLD.

ENTER, BELLA AND MARY. “ WISH THIS LIFE WOULD END.” “ Even the weariest river winds somewhere Mary M’Kegney, after battling through the world and registering 100 convictions for drunkenness and other rather harmless charges, has come to that stage in ’life where everything wears a sombre aspect. •* I will lie glad when it all ends in the grave,” she told the Magistrate pathetically in the Court this morning. Mary and her sister-in-trouble, Bella, were both charged with drunkenness. Mary was arrested in Hereford Street with £1 0s lOd in money on her, and Bella, who has now seventy-seven convictions for drunkenness had £3 0s lOd. She was arrested in Timm Street. Mary is forty-nine years of age and Bella fifty-five. First in the dock was Mary, looking ffeded, wearing maroon headgear, a moth-eaten tippet and sombre coat. Mary pleaded guilty. She said that she had been working in the country and for the last six months had been doing her best. She had come to the city with the idea of buying “a pair of boots and things,” and she took a drop of drink. After a pause to get more breath, Mary continued that .she was getting 10s a week. She had really been saving what she could and she asked for another chance. For a while Mary stuttered with the sheer exasperation of her situation. “ Have you lost your billet?” queried the Magistrate. There was a staccato succession of “Noes.” ”1 could have done with a rest,” she went, on brokenly* as she painted a faded picture of a big sheep station. “ I am tired. I’m a bit older now. but yet I can try to keep straight. I have to work very hard, and only for 10s a. week.” The tearful voice fell. ‘ ‘Oh! I. am sorry ; you know I am,” she went on after a little pause, directing her pleadings at the Magistrate. “ I’m nearly fifty. I’ve had my worries,” she said with extreme weariness. The Magistrate asked Mary whether the other Magistrate (Mr 'Wyvern "Wilson) had not warned her when she had last been before the Court that that was her last chance. The question took the wind out of the defendant's sails, so to speak. But she had a parry left: ‘‘He meant it was my last chance if I didn’t work,” said fih®. There was not a sound to disturb the silence of the Court. “ I have kept etraight,” she pleaded onee more, afraid that the Magistrate might condemn her to years of exile unless she poured forth yet more impassioned pleadings. “ I really truly ask you for the last tim|e. I am tired. . . My nerves are nearly done. ... I have suffered. Haven’t I, Mr Barnes?” (A major in the .Salvation Army.) Reclining up against the mantelpiece Major Barnes looked up, but he offered no opinion. “You do know!” she cried. “As you have been three months “No, no, no, sir, your Worship,” saidj Mary/ with hasty concern, as though the additional three months were everything in the world to her. “I try—try. Oh! It’s enough to make people commit suicide,” she said, wringing her Lands in anguish, and setting her hat at a new angle. “ L have had a life of misery, and I will be glad when it ends in the grave.” “ Ordered to come up for sentence if called on w*thin twelve months,” said the Magistrate, cutting the desponding oration short. Someone mentioned Paka-toe. Mary started again. “ Fair is fair all over the world. 1 will do my best if I ” 11 You are g'"ven the chance,” interrupted the Magistrate. Mary went. “Oh, thanks so much,” was her parting remark. And then Bella was ushered in. Bella had a superior air about her, somehow. She was dressed neatly in black and affected a stylish fur over her .shoulders. “Are you guilty?” asked the Clerk of the Court. Bella (demurely): “Yes.” “I understand,” said the Magistrate, “that it is the fault of Mary, who has come down from the country?’ Bella M’Kegney broke in with “ No* It was. not! It was my own fault. 1 have been working all the time. 1 was down a week in the Essex home.” Why did you come out and get druVik ? Bella : I have had a bad leg. 1 , reaSOn W -D’ y°u should get 1 will go back to the home.” said Bella languidly, feeling somehow that the props were being knocked from under all her carefully-prepared arguments. “Ten shillings, in default twentyfour hours’ imprisonment,” said the Magistrate, and Bella left the dock a little shakily, with the assistance of a Salvation Army officer.