What's in a Name?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 24, 17 June 1905, Page 42

What's in a Name?

is _• • Trtus <»„ the very first day of Th Home Office's inquiry into the Beck case the prisoners in the first two charge* at j: >v% --street Couri were named respectively Smit i. Alice Beck, and Mary Double. The po • and county courts are I _ „ - ' in nomenclature, but net often provide a s,*quencv such a* that noted at the Westminster < oun:y Court at the beginning of the cricket *eason of I’o2. when, in the course of owe dav. the case* concerned a Pin ver. a Bowler, a Goodhall. a Lilley, a Jackson, a T«wn s.-n i. a Ri hardacHL and a Steele— the nucleus of a writable England Eleven. Al»>ut three years ago Judge Kenny had t»» adjudicate upon a rase in which a -John Ijmi' was indie rd for sherpatralittg. of all offence*—the mutton being the property of Mrs Fields. while the principal witness cal led-to prove the ease rejoiced in the rogn<>men of Pnt-“ ri> k M olfe. The Wolf an 1 the Limb in this in*T.iT r had their Usual pxiti >ns rawrs»ed. Mr IT t Lewis, K.V., on one

occasion, had to try the cake of "Ala barter v. White.’’ a little time later he wa> called upon to adjudicate in the suit ’ High v. l.i w.” and very sht rtly ifter in that of “Halfpenny v. Penny." in which he *”.ui at s -akc was j in e-\cvs* of that which at first sight would appear likely to l>e the case. •’Pluck \. t anawhiski" was the title of a ca*e that had iw» bearing whats*»ever upon Dutch courage that was iried at Bow >tred a *hort time after Judge Iku m bad disposal of the suit of ”Jo».ns>»n v. Bosworth" at White chapel, white alnnit the same inie the cause list at the High I ourts rejoiced in actions between “’Walker v. London.” ’’Hand v. R <w.” and ’Law v. lutw." the latter ace Kekewich. who on-e. when gravely listening to the action ’’Heaps v. Pickles." remarked apr- p-«* of the par ies, that they were a very mixed lot. Mention of Judge* Bacon recalls the fact that * >nie years ago a ease tried by him in which three witnesses in succvs*:on could neither rea I nor write, was followed by an ac ion in which t iree w:tnes*es were named respectively Speller. Reader, and Weigh:. As the ju ige> remarked. ’“A coincidence—the natural progress of education.” A few years ago at Hastings two prisoners named West were charged bv T » :« e sergrant West with being drunk an! dis rderly in West-s’ reel: while at Stockton. * une li tie time after, a boy name Scrape was sentenced by a magistrate appropriately named Birch, the ?videnee of a woman named Sneak having an important bearing upon the case. Inques * are never very lively huutil :s at the l>est of time*, bu: early in P-’**? t?ie proceedings at Shoreditch were t » a modest extent enlivened by the appearance in the box of a man named <!a." who followed a witness called “’Beer : while something approaching a sonsa iun was created in 1900 when it transj>ired tha> a platelayer named Hunt was killed while evading one train ar Bethnal Green Junction by an express driven by Charles Death, a name that rcia’ds a tennis match played at Feignmou h some years ago between Mr Pine-t oflin. Mr Tombs. Mr Sexton, and Mr Pars »n. At an inqsiesdteld at Step- \\ orkhouse in bv the way. the name of the deceased was Dust, the firs* wirness called was named >and. ami the third wTile on June 3. P-*o:>. th-* jury em»»anellt’d for an impiest at <->L : ! »n Hospital had as its foreman a Mr Peacock: three j-.nymen each ansueri :g to the name of Bini, while ranks led a Mr (a ge a:;.I Mr Perch—a veritable aviary! Fhis in id nt recalls the fact that at M est minster County C‘ourt in the summer : I9o± there appeared in one dav’s list «f < .i*: a ( row, a Swan, a Pigeon, a Bat. a Fox. and three Fowlers. A Midian l train, it was stated a few y-:ir< ago. was driven by a man named Sharpe, and had as its guards officials 1 ' " is -t recalled that the combination Lr<»ke any railway records; while in PAH a Great Eastern train was driven by man named Drake, the first guard wa* < a ed G«><>se. the second guard Gander. an! on one occasion an official traveling in rue van rejoiced in Mie c-gno-men f Duck. The train proceeded swimmingly. Of wedding coincidences there is no end. but th-'y are not firwavs quite so complicated as the recent example quot'* i in the parochial magazine ci St. Peter s, Dorchester, where it was announce,! tha: a Charles R-»se had esp*m*ed a Rose ( harles. with the result that the lady. losing h>r surname Charles, became Rose Rose, and Mrs (harles Ruse instead of Miss Rose < harle:—an exchange that she prolwbly LMikel u|»on as a rise. It is related that a Bloomsbury parson many years ago started the /ley bv imiting in holy matrimony a Prior and a Nun. which lie followed up by linking together a Ductmf and a Patient, and finished by turning Mi*s Beans into Mr* Bacon.