SHE IS 88 BUT OH SUCH LANGUAGE;

Martha is 88 and feeble.

She limped her way into Court, picked her way through the crowd and then took her stand before Magistrate Dan Debidin.

“What is this old woman doing in Court?” demanded Mr Debidin as he lifted his graying head and caught sight of the tiny bent back figure before him.

But before anyone could have answered a little girl just stepped forward and stood a couple of feet away.

Mr Debidin looked at the couple before him, picked up the case jacket read the charge and looked up again.

It was the day of private cases and Martha and little Theresa were the litigants in this particular case.

“What really has happened here?” demanded Mr Debidin,”This old woman has brought this little girl to Court?” he asked.

But it was the other way around as Theresa’s Lawyer quickly pointed out.

It was the little girl who had taken Martha to Court and for insulting language.

“But she should be paying homage to this old woman,” Mr Debidin told the Lawyer.

SUCH LANGUAGE:
“Sir you will be surprised at the language this old woman used on this little girl,” the Lawyer replied.

And then he went on to relate what happened while Mr Debidin listened with a surprised air.

According to the Lawyer, little Theresa had been in the communal bath that day. And old Martha wanted to have her bath.

But for some reason she was impatient and when little Theresa delayed, she let loose a torrent of abuse at the child… abuse which never should have left the mouth of any woman let alone one so old and to one so young.

“Would you believe that a woman so old would have used such language?” he asked. “Look at her Sir?” he asked Mr Debdin,”She can hardly walk in her infirmity.

:She can certainly speak though,” he added.

“How old are you,” he asked the old woman.

“Eighty-eight,” Martha answered, her lips trembling from a nervous affliction.

TOO OLD:
“Eighty,” exclaimed Mr Debidin, missing the last eight.

“Eighty-eight,” Martha’s Lawyer put him right.

“Eighty-eight,” repeated Mr Debidin as he took a second look at the old lady.

“This is the time that you should start making up your book,” he told Martha.

“Yes you are at the age when you should be making up your book,” Mr Debidin repeated.

“Make your peace with God and to do that you have to make peace with your neighbors.”

This time Martha shook her grey head in solemn agreement as if to say, ”Yes that’s what I am doing my son.”

“You should no longer be coming to Court; your days for litigation are over,” Mr Debidin said.

And then Mr Debidin turned to the little school girl :”I don’t like to see little children come to Court,” he started and then caught sight of Theresa’s mother standing protectively beside her.

“And I don’t countenance parents encouraging their children to come to Court.”

“ Your daughter is just twelve ,” he told the parent “ and here it is you’re starting her out in Court. She has a lot of time for that.”

“You little girl,” Mr Debidin held forth,”You should have respect for age.

BE DEAF:
“Age should have respect for itself,” the Lawyer interjected.

“You should put your fingers in your ears whenever you hear dirty language in the yard,” Mr Debidin continued undeterred.

“But instead of doing that you lap it all up and then run to your mother.”

“And your mother, just like a majority of these mothers, you take your daughter and run to your Lawyer. Do you really intend to go on with this case? he asked the little girl’s Lawyer.

“Well Sir, we think if a warning is given to this old woman….

“Yes that is what I had in mind,” Mr Debidin agreed promptly.

The case was then withdrawn and once again Martha limped out the way she had come while Theresa was taken out of the Court by her mother.(Guiana Graphic April 3. 1959).

MORE NEWS in 1959……………….

TOO MUCH MERRY- MAKING.
Judging from the heavy list of new cases before Magistrate Arthur Chung yesterday morning it would seem that Georgetown really had a bumper Easter holiday weekend.

There were 62 new Police prosecutions before Magistrate Chung and the vast majority were against persons who over-imbibed and misbehaved.

Sternly punished were those who cursed on the streets and at places of public entertainment, Mr Chung imposing fines ranging between $20 and $35.

UNLUCKIEST:
Fines imposed for the morning totaled over $700 , one man paying $75 on a wounding charge.

“Don’t you read the newspapers?” he asked two men who cursed at the cinema in Lombard Street.

These , Philbert Lewis and John Persaud, both of the City, paid the top fines of $35 each for using indecent language.

“Go home and consider whether it is worth it,” they were told.

Trinidadian seaman Charles Maynard was probably the unluckiest. For now he is faced with the prospect of spending a month in BG prison.

Maynard was celebrating his first Easter in Guyana and he overdid things to the extent of missing his ship.

He could not say whether he cursed or not when called to plead to the indecent language charge.

For according to him, the only thing he recalled was being taken back to his ship. Then he awoke in the Police Station cell.

“I believe I am guilty,” he declared.

However his problem was to raise the $20 fine imposed on him .”I have no friends in Guiana he lamented.

“Then how are you going to pay the fine?” Mr Chung enquired.

“When I go back to Trinidad,” Maynard answered.

“Then you’d better spend a month in prison,” rejoined the Magistrate as he instructed the Police to hold the seaman until the fine is paid.(Guiana Graphic April 1, 1959.)

MILK CONSUMPTION UP
Milk consumption in BG is rising steadily but is still a far way from what it should be.

Mr Riley, Manager of the Milk Pasteurization Plant said this recently. He wants Guianese to drink more milk. (Guiana Graphic April 3, 1959).

SHE WRITES 160 WORDS PER MINUTE:
Fourteen year old Lorraine Persaud is believed to have set a new record when she successfully took 160 words per minute in shorthand.

She started commercial studies under Mr Reggie Blackman when 11 years and 10 months old.

Lorraine is now employed with a Water Street Firm.

She will celebrate her fifteenth birthday this month.(Guiana Graphic April 1, 1959). END.

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