A WOMAN TAKES A CLERGYMAN FOR A PICKPOCKET.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 35, 29 August 1891, Page 315

A WOMAN TAKES A CLERGYMAN FOR A PICKPOCKET.

A wealthy lady was going down town in a tram car, with a considerable sum of money in her purse. At one of the stations there came into the tram a man by whose face she was struck, and she instantly said to herself that he must be a pickpocket. When he sat down beside her she thought of her well filled purse, and resolved to watch him. Suddenly her suspicious neighbour put bis hand down at his side. She felt it slide down until it touched her purse, and instantly she put out her own hand and seized the stranger by the wrist. He did not struggle, and she was in some perplexity as to what she should do next, but she thought that if he should attempt to get aw ay she could at least, show that she had him by the wrist with his hand in her pocket. She said aftei ward that she could not tell why she did not give an alarm at once, but she sat quiet, waiting for her neighbour to make the first move. They rode in this way for seme distance, when to her amazement the stranger at one of the downtown stations p-repared to rise. ‘lf you will let go of my arm, madam,’ he said, with the utmost coolness, ‘ I will get out here.' He half rose as he spoke, and to her utter confusion the lady discovered that his hand, instead of being in her procket, was thrust into the pocket of his own ulster. The garment hung down so that his band had pressed against her purse without being in contact with it, and she had been holding him by the wrist with no apparent excuse whatever. She was overcome with confusion, but managed to say that she had thought his hand to be in her pocket. The stranger smiled and went out, while a gentleman near by leaned forward to say: * Don't you know who that is, madam ? That is Rev. Dr. Blank.’ The name was that of of the best-known clergymen in the city.