Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 1Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 1
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
The _Evening Moon_ was an enterprising little paper, which gave all
the news of the day in a fashion so entertaining that it was a success
from its first appearance. Between noon and night a dozen editions were
published, and were hawked about the streets by regiments of ragged boys
and girls (irregular infantry), whose vivacity and impudence added to
the circulation, if they did not to the dignity, of the journal. Beneath
the heading of the paper was a representation of the moon with the man
in it looking at a spade--to which was tacked the legend: "What do
you call this?" "A spade." "Then I shall call it a spade." Despite
this declaration it delighted in word-painting, and its reports of
police-court proceedings, highly coloured in many instances and
unwarrantably but agreeably spiced with romance, were read with avidity.
The _Evening Moon_ of the 19th of August contained the following report
of the police-court proceedings in
THE GREAT PORTER SQUARE MYSTERY.
"The inquiry into the awful and mysterious murder in Great Porter Square
was resumed this morning at the Martin Street Police Court, before the
resident magistrate, Mr. Reardon. The accused person, Antony Cowlrick,
who presented a woe-begone appearance, was brought up in charge of the
warders. The case has been adjourned four times, and this was the fifth
appearance of Antony Cowlrick in the dock. The police preserve a strict
silence with regard to him--a silence against which we protest. Arrested
upon suspicion, without warrant, and without, so far we can learn, a
shadow of evidence against him, nothing but injustice and wrong can
accrue from the course pursued by the Scotland Yard officials. Antony
Cowlrick is unmistakably a poor and miserable man. All that was found
upon him when he was arrested were a stale crust of bread and a piece of
hard cheese, which he had thrust into his pocket as he was flying from
the pursuit of an enterprising constable. His very name--the name he
gave at the lock-up on the night of his arrest--may be false, and, if
our information is correct, the police have been unable to discover
a single person who is acquainted with, or can give any information
concerning him. The rumour that Antony Cowlrick is not quite right in
his mind certainly receives some confirmation from his haggard and
wandering looks; a more wretched and forlorn man has seldom been seen
in a magistrate's court, suggestive as such a place is of misery and
degradation. He was carefully guarded, and a strict watch was kept upon
his movements, the theory of the police being that he is a dangerous and
cunning character, whose sullen demeanour is assumed to defeat the ends
of justice. Mr. White Lush, on the part of the Treasury, conducted
the inquiry. The interest taken by the public in the case is still
unabated, and the court--if a close, abominably-ventilated room fourteen
feet square can be so denominated--was crowded to excess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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