TRUE LOVE IN LOWLY PLACES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 52, 27 December 1890, Page 8

TRUE LOVE IN LOWLY PLACES.

At London, William Stork, aged twenty-two, labourer, wacharged with attempting to murder Mary Ann Capper, and with attempting to commit suicide. Prisoner and the girl had been acquainted for the last seven or eight years, and some months ago, when she, her stater, a brother, and the father were compelled to go to the workhouse on account of their destitute condition, prisoner, who was only earning £1 per week, anil was allowing his mother 10s of that sum, took them out of the union, and supported them out of the remaining 10s per week. They all lived together with his mother, but on the 21st of May the girl left to go to her married brother’s. Prisoner met her, her sister, and brother in the Green-lanes, and begged her to return, stating that he would put up the banns on the following day. She refused, stating that they had better look about for a little while. Prisoner upon that drew a razor from his pocket, and having cut the girl’s throat, cut his own. The girl, in cross-examination, said she would marry the prisoner if he was released. The jury very strongly recommended the prisoner to mercy in finding him guilty of unlawfully wounding. Mr Justice Grantham said such a case as this had very rarely been brought into court, and he hail hardly ever heard of such devotion as he (prisoner) had shown. It was his duty to pass a sentence upon him for the offence he had committed, but he should only sentence him to one week's imprisonment. As a result, he would be at once discharged. The chaplain of the prison had asked him to state that he should be glad if he (prisoner) would allow him to perform the marriage celebration, and he trusted that, reinstated in his employment, the prisoner would make a happy home for his wife, as he was quite sure she would be as devoted to him as the prisoner evidently was to her. The learned judge was much affected in sentencing the prisoner, and at the conclusion of his remarks one of the jurors sent the prisoner half a sovereign, for which the prisoner warmly thanked him from the dock.

The parties afterwards left the court together and retired to the sheriff’s room, where Mr Sheriff Harris handed the girl £lO to assist in providing a home for them both, and the preliminaries for the marriage were settled.