IMPROMPTU JUSTICE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue I, 7 January 1899, Page 18

IMPROMPTU JUSTICE.

The ‘St. .Tames’ Budget' tells the following somewhat unbelievable story gleaned from the columns of the ‘Times’: —

‘Herr Wolff, special correspondent of the ‘Tageblatt,’ having an idle day somewhere between Kiao Chou and Tsing-tau, went out in quest of adventures with his dog, Schuster, and his clerk. Arriving at a courthouse he found a mandarin preparing to try thirteen Chinese, charged with murdering German missionaries. Waving a piece of paper, which he declared was his warrant, he promptly took the highest seat, ordered ‘Herr Von Schuster' to take the next in dignity to his right, placed his clerk on his left, waived aside the bewildered mandarin (who doubtless thought that this was the ‘mailed fist’ in person) and called for the prisoners, whom, without hearing evidence, he promptly acquitted. He then rode off. followed by Herr von Schuster and the clerk, declaring that the order of the day was at an end.