Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police MagistratePorter, Frank Thorpe
History
Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate
Porter, Frank Thorpe
Crime -- Ireland; Criminals -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs; Porter, Frank Thorpe, 1801-1882
I advised the captain to discontinue the sport of jarvey-shooting. Cox
complimented him on his generosity, adding that he ought to have got a
large covey of such game for the price he paid. I regret to add that the
money did not improve its recipient. He relapsed into habits of idleness
and drunkenness, lost his licence through misconduct, and was reduced to
complete destitution.
A gentleman, who lived in Baggot Street, came to Exchange Court one
morning for the purpose of reporting that his coach-house had been
entered, as he believed, by means of false keys, and that a set of
cushions, adapted to an outside jaunting-car, had been abstracted. He
described them as white cord material with green borders and seams. A
detective mentioned that he had seen cushions of the description on a
car which had been brought for inspection, and the licence of which had
been suspended on account of its unseemly condition. The car was then in
Dame Street, and a further enquiry eventuated in the discovery on it of
the articles which had been supposed to have been abstracted. The owner
of the car was a brother of the gentleman's servant who had lent his
master's cushions to pass the inspection. The car licence was cancelled;
but I believe that similar tricks were frequently played on similar
occasions.
For upwards of ten years I have been estranged from the Dublin Police
Courts. I cannot speak as to the habits and characteristics of the
carmen of the present time. I have already stated that, according to my
experience and recollection, they were honest and sober. I can add that
I knew many instances in which members of their class manifested
generosity, kindness, and courage. A man belonging to New Street stand
went to the fair of St. Doulagh's, and expended his savings in the
purchase of a fine-looking horse that appeared in a sound condition, but
on whose leg there was a slight scar. In about a week after the fair,
the beast exhibited some very extraordinary symptoms, and at last became
most furious and unruly. He dashed into a shop window, and injured
himself so much as to make it necessary to kill him. It was the opinion
of a veterinary practitioner that he had been bitten by some rabid
animal, and had taken hydrophobia. The other carmen promptly subscribed
a sum sufficient to defray the damage done to the shop, and to procure
another horse for the man who vainly sought to ascertain the former
owner of the one that he bought at St. Doulagh's. I am aware that
previous to the establishment of the fire brigade in Dublin, the drivers
on a car-stand would leave two or three of their number to mind their
horses and vehicles, and apply themselves to work the engines and
extinguish fires in their vicinity. Many acts of heroism on the part of
carmen have occurred on our quays and at Kingstown, in saving, at their
own imminent risk, persons in danger of drowning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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