After Dinner Gossip.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XXV, 20 December 1902, Page 1547

After Dinner Gossip.

Wran«ly-Brau<l Judg«. Mr. Justice Hood, of New South Wales, told the Law Institute at its annual dinner in Sydney that during his holiday in England he had been brought before a i>olice court. He quickly reassured his astounded audience, however, by relating how his bicycle was stolen, and that upon its recovery and the arrest of the thief he was required to attend the police court in support of the police prosecution. “1 entered the court,” remarked Mr. Justice Hood, “not titrough the private entrance that 1 had been accustomed to out here, but by way of the public entrance, and dropped into the first vacant seat 1 cculd find, feeling very strange. Presently a constable touched me on the shoulder, and very politely suggested that it would be well if I sat somewhere else. ‘Why?’ I asked him. ‘Because that is the chair the prisoner sits in,’ he replied.” ♦ + * Crimes Confessed During Sleet . Criminologists say that the greatest terror that afflicts that fraction of humanity suffering from an uneasy conscience is not dread of the police, by any means, nor awe of any other acknowledged enemy of law defiers. What the criminal dreads is sleep, which is, it appears, the friend of the righteous only. To men with the knowledge of dark deeds stored within them, sleep is the most treacherous of foes. The countless poems that have been written in praise of it very naturally appear as so much coldblooded mockery to such as are in hourly dread of betraying themselves under its influence. An untold number of crimes have been confessed by their perpetrators during sleep. Is it any wonder, enquires a writer in ‘‘Science Siftings,” that those conscious .of irregularities of conduct prefer to remain awake? it was not long ago that a wellknown detective happened to be travelling in a sleeping car. The detective, who chanced to be occupying a lower berth, heard the sleeper above him burst forth into a longwinded confession regarding several daring jewel robberies wherein he had taken part. Much impressed, the official kept an eye on him. Further enquiries proved that the confession had been an exact record of what had taken place. Many years ago a common lodginghouse was the scene of a sleeping criminal’s confession. The room was occupied by himself and one other—a young sailor. While the sailor was lying awake he suddenly heard a curious and ghastly laugh issue from hi- room-companion's lips. This laugh was followed by a long and rambling description of a murder he had committed, horrible in its details. The sailor crept downstairs and informed the landlord of what had occurred. The latter at once summoned a policeman, who recognised the sleeper as the man “wanted” for the crime in question. + + * A Plea, of Not Guilty. Suppose one of several prisoners, jointly accused, to plead guilty to one of a list of charges laid and not guilty as to the rest, whilst his fellowyprisopers plead not guilty as to all of the charges. Then let the jury find the fellow-prisoners not guilty as to the whole of the charges. What is the position of the prisoner who harf pleaded guilty to the one count? That is the point which a full bench of English judges was called upon to consider a short time ago. The particular charge in question was one of conspiring to defraud the conservator of the River Thames of the traditional “divers large sums of money to the evil example of nil others in the like manner offending, and against the peace of our Lord the King, his crown, and dignity.” The jury having favoured the alleged co-eonspirafors, counsel

for the prisoner who had somewhat hastily pleaded guilty, applied Tor leave to withdraw his confession. The Quarter Sessions Bench held that it eould not allow this to be done. Their lordships, however, decided that such a course was admissible. The alleged co-conspirators having been found not guilty, It was impossible that any one of their number could be guilty, and the only way out of the embarrassment was to permit the substitution of the amended plea. (Rex v. Plummer.)

A Memorable Reply. The Duke of Cleveland, who was about as wide-awake a man as ever had to do with racing, always had a horror of handicaps, and when the clerk of the course at Doncaster solicited his grace's patronage to a proposed race of this description the duke made the following memorable reply: “No! 1 have as good a lot of horses as any nobleman or gentieman in the land, and will run them against any competitors, weight-for-age. for any reasonable distance for any sum: but I have too much respect for the reputation of my horses to see them over-weighted and beaten by platers.” + + + Tem-.u-e Sleep TalM. Perhaps the entire history of crime contains no more dramatic episode than that which occurred some years ago in a Prussian town. The husband of a certain attractive young woman had vanished in a mysterious manner from his home, and all attempts to trace his whereabouts failed completely. Meantime, a neighbour called Schmidt, who had been devoted to the yonng wife before her marriage, reappeared on the scene and paid her assiduous attentions. So successfully did he press his suit, that within a year of his rival’s disappearance the fair lady consented to marry him. and they were united at the parish church, On the second night following the wedding the newly-made bride Jay awake, unable to slumber. Presently there came a gurgling cry from the sleeping form beside her, and a moment later the man in a loud voice proclaimed that he had killed the missing husband and had buried his body in a neighbouring wood. This statement the sleeper reiterated several times, naming the exact spot where the corpse lay interred. The affrighted wife heard the whole confession, and next morning carried the remarkable story to the police bureau. The place named by the sleeper was searched, and sure enough the body cf the vanished man discovered there. Somewhat similar in several details was the case of an Austrian peasant who murdered his “friend” in order that he might woo the latter’s sweetheart, a girl of unusual beauty. All attempts to trace the missing man had failed, and doubtless the affair would have remained a mystery to the end of time had not the criminal signed bis own death warrant by confessing the erime while dozing by the fire in a neighbour's cottage. Bit by bit he described the incidents of the terrible affair, stating that he had destroyed his victim's body by fire. The man was ' then arrested and his cottage searched. Some garments and a watch belonging to the deceased being found there, his guilt was considered half proved, and when placed in the dock he made a full confession, repeating, in fact, what he had said during his unlucky slumber. + + + A Missing Husband Found in London. A romantic story is told of how an American lady found her missing husband in Dondon. It appears that Dr. William Bates, who had a large and flourishing practice at Newport, in the United States, disappeared suddenly about six weeks ago. He is about thirty years of age, and has

gained some reputation as an eye anti ear apevialist. One day he was engrossed in his usual work, and next day he disappeared. His books and papers were untouched, and he was known to have lees than £2O in his pockets. Failure of memory was suspected, and greatly distressed, his young wife made enquiries iu various quarters. She at last discovered that someone resembling her husband had sailed from New York for England (says the “Mail”). She immediately! took passage for herself and her boy of nine, and arrived in England last week. With the help of friends she set to work to prosecute the search. On Thursday week it was that a Dr. Bates was known at an address in Gower-street. and enquiries there sent the searchers to University College Hospital, where it wns found ‘that the missing man was taking a course of medical study. It was learned that he was attending lectures, one of which took place next day at three o’clock. Accordingly, short It after three on the Friday, Mrs Bates, with her little boy, was at the hospital. Here it was that she found him. at the conclusion of the lecture. It appeared that the doctor’s memory had partly gone. There were a few hurried explanations. and then husband, wife and son pa-sed out into the street together.

You must not think that turkeys first came from Turkey, for they are natives of America. Nor that Irish potatoes came from Ireland, for they are American. And the Turkish hath originated in Russia. Nor must you think camel’s hair brushes are made from the hair of the hump-backed quadruped. They are mostly made from the bushy hair from the tails of animals. German silver not only is not silver at all. but it was invented in Ghina centuries ago, and it is an alloy of some of the inferior metals. Porpoise hide is not made from porpoises at all. Cork legs are not made of cork, and they did not come from Cork. The willow tree usually furnishes material for them. Cleopatra's Needle, that wonderful obelisk of Egypt, was made a thousand years before Cleopatra was born: and really had nothing to do with her. Irish stew is an English dish. Prussian blue, the beautiful colour, is not a special product of Prussia, but of England. And so, you see, we frequently find that our language has names* for things that are misfits. Lions Fseape : A Ludicrous Scans. A j»anic was created in the centre of Plymouth on the Saturday before last ‘Frisco mail left when it became known that a lion had escaped from

Hancock** Menagerie and Winter Gardena, which adjoin the Market place, and are in the centre of the town. The wildest rumours gained currency and the public flocked into the shops in the main streets for safety, while the market gates were closed, enclosing' hundreds of people, until it became known that the lion had never really left the gardens, and, in fact, was only at large for a very short period. It transpired that the lion, which escaped from the cage as the trainer entered it, was more frightened than the crowd, and as soon as it bolted from the cage slunk away into the darkest corner of the Winter Gardens, where it was speedily recaptured. In the general stampede several persons sustained slight injuries, but no one was seriously hurt. Saturday night was the opening night of the winter season. A Police Court Incident. It is not often that a man gives himself up to the police for an offence which he has never committed. Such instances have, however, been known, and one of rather an amusing character came to light at the London Law Courts recently. A soldier of the South Staffordshire Regiment, wearing the South African ribbon, appeared in the dock to answer a charge of being an absentee. The police-officer from Kenyon-st. Station stated that the man had voluntarily given himself in custody the previous evening, and he was consequently charged with the offence. In court, however, the soldier handed to the Bench a blue paper, which was his furlough till October 30th, and he had still another ten days of his holiday to run. In reply to the Bench’s query as to why he had gone to the police the fighting man explained that he must have been a little drunk. He was at once discharged and left the Court, according to the old saying, "Without a stain on his character.” The incident created considerable amusement in Court. ♦ ♦ * Mother of Sixty-two. A petition signed by 3000 persons has been presented to the Italian Government asking for a pension of £72 per annum to be conferred on a woman named Maddalena Granetta, who has given birth to 62 children—--59 boys and three girls—during her married life. In nine years she presented her husband with eleven sets of triplets, three groups of quadruplets, one group of six, and the other eleven children came singly. She is now 57 years old, and is capable of work.