Mornings at Bow Street: A Selection of the Most Humorous and Entertaining Reports which Have Appeared in the 'Morning Herald'Wight, J. (John)
General
Mornings at Bow Street: A Selection of the Most Humorous and Entertaining Reports which Have Appeared in the 'Morning Herald'
Wight, J. (John)
Crime -- England -- London
A jocund little Irishman, with dark sparkling eyes and black glossy
well-curled poll, dressed in a carter's frock, and heavy travel-stained
shoes, was brought in by some of the patrol, who had found him strolling
about Long-acre, in the dusk of the evening, apparently without either aim
or object, and laden with a large bundle tied up in a very handsome shawl.
This bundle contained seven gowns, sundry shawls, handkerchiefs, hose,
&c., and a smartly-trimmed straw-bonnet nearly new; and the patrol
declared, that from the very unsatisfactory manner in which he accounted
for his possession of these articles, they verily believed he had stolen
them. They also pointed out to the magistrate a round hole, about the size
of a shilling, in the side of his hat crown, which they strongly suspected
had been made by a pistol-ball.
"What is your name, friend?" said his worship, to the brilliant-eyed,
smiling prisoner.
"Jemmy Sullivan! your honour," was the instantaneous reply, in a rich
Tipperary brogue, and a tone so loud, that all the office echoed, "Jemmy
Sullivan!"
"And pray, where did you bring these clothes from, and to whom do they
belong?"
"From Portsmouth, your honour--and they belongs to the wife o' me."
The magistrate doubted the correctness of this statement--it was not
likely that the wife of such a man could have such a wardrobe.
"Sure enough it's the truth, every bit of it, your honour," replied Jemmy
Sullivan.
"How came this hole in your hat?" asked his worship.
"Is it the hole your honour's axing about?--'Faith, then, the mice made
it, to get at the bread and the cheese, your honour--bad luck to 'em!"
"What! do you carry your bread and cheese in your hat?"
"No, 'faith, your honour, not a bit of it any time, barrin that time the
mice stole it all; and then, your honour, it was not in it, that's the
hat, at that same time, but on the shelf, your honour, and I'd none of it
left for me breakfast at all. Gad's blood, says I to meself, but ye shan't
do that to me again, says I, for I'll put it under me hat all the night;
and so I did, your honour; but bad luck to them, the craturs, they bored
the hole clane through the side of it, which your honour's axing about."
"Are you sure it was not on _your head_ when the ball was fired at it?"
asked his worship, without seeming to have listened to his bread and
cheese adventure.
"Was it on me head, your honour! Faith if it was, meself wouldn't be here
spaking to you about the mice," replied Jemmy Sullivan.
The officers, in searching his pockets, had found a number of English and
Irish pawnbrokers' duplicates; and the magistrate, selecting one of them,
asked,--
"Where did you get this ticket for a pelisse?"
"Bought it, your honour, of Myke Dermot, in Donaghadee--_He's a bagpipes_,
your honour."
"And pray what are you?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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