WALKED OUT OF THE DOCK.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 892, 11 April 1907, Page 21

WALKED OUT OF THE DOCK.

Mr W. W. Jacobs has said that it is only their surprises that makes the stories take. To illustrate what he means, he tells a story of a counsel defending a map accused of housebreaking, who spoke like this : “Your Lordship, I submit that my client did not break into the house at all. He found the parlour window open, and merely inserted his right arm and removed a few trifling articles. Now, gentlemen, my client’s arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can pun-

ish the whole individual for an offence committed only by one of his limbs.” “That argument” said the Judge, “is very well put. Following it logically, I sentence the prisoner’s arm to one year’s penal servitude. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses.” The prisoner smiled, and with his lawyer’s assistance unscrewed his cork arm, and, leaving it in the dock, walked out.