(A look at some of the stories that made the news ‘back-in-the-day’ with CLIFFORD STANLEY) 

Inside the Law …
Kenneth deserted Pearl, and then wanted her back
KENNETH and Pearl had been living together for twenty months. But last November, with the approach of the Christmas season, Kenneth decided to pull out.
Maybe the prospect of having to foot the bills for a home at Christmas did not appeal to the chap, so he packed his traps and went to live with his sister.
Christmas came and passed, and the next time Kenneth met Pearl was in early January. It was now safe to return, he felt.
So Kenneth fixed up a date with Pearl.
He was to visit her at 7:30 one night, and true to his word,  he presented himself at Pearl’s home on the stroke of the clock.
He marched confidently into the house, and there, relaxed in an armchair, was Pearl.
The lady was more than relaxed. She was downright cozy, downright cozy — in the arms of another man.
Kenneth was enraged. He stormed after Pearl as she dashed into the bedroom and there belaboured her with his fists.
She made a dash for it out into the yard, and Kenneth was after her.
He grabbed her and pushed her, and Pearl fell into the drain.
Yesterday, Pearl and Kenneth appeared before Magistrate Ronald Jailal for the sequel of their romantic clash.
Pearl had summoned Kenneth with assaulting her, but the fellow was not admitting that he struck her.
So Pearl strolled into the witness box to tell her story.

He left her
She was living with Kenneth for about twenty months, she told Mr. Jailal.
“Yes! Quite a long time!” Mr. Jailal responded, with a touch of sarcasm.
“He come in the house and start to rough-cuff me,” she complained.
“You left him?” Pearl’s Counsel asked.
“Is he leave the house,” Pearl replied.
“And now he wants to win you back with cuffs,” commented Counsel, as he took his seat.
“Do you believe this will get him back?” asked Mr. Jailal.
“I don’t want him back,” Pearl swore.
“Are you sure? Suppose he goes out and begs you?” Mr. Jailal posed the question.
“I want him to know that I don’t want him back,” Pearl declared with determination.
“But why he left?” Mr. Jailal wanted to know.
“Maybe the ruling of the house didn’t please him,” Pearl suggested.
“Oh! You used to rule the house?”
“No,” Pearl answered.  “But maybe he didn’t like my way of life.”
“Alright, I don’t want to know how you’re living!” Mr. Jailall stopped her.

Cross-examination
And then Kenneth had the pleasure of cross-examination.
“You tell the Magistrate that I come in the house and start to rough-cuff you. Is that right?” Kenneth asked his former paramour.
“Yes,” the lady answered.
“I want you to tell the Magistrate why,” and there was no mistaking the daring of his tone.
Pearl hesitated, and decided to play dumb.
“I don’t know; you should know.”
Kenneth, it was plain, did know.
And he was about to let the cat out of the bag there and then, when Mr. Jailal advised him to hold his fire until he got into the witness box.
“Do you have any witnesses?” Pearl was asked.
Sure thing; she had a witness.
And he was no other than Percy, the chap in whose amorous company Kenneth had found her.
“I was sitting in a chair,” Percy explained.
“Yes! Relaxed and smoking the pipe of peace,” commented Mr. Jailal.
“Then Mr. Kenneth come in and fly pass me into the bedroom…
“Oh! He flew past you!” exclaimed Mr. Jailal.
“Yes, Sir!” Percy replied. “And he started to rough-cuff her in the bedroom.”

A ducking
“I tried to pacify them,” Percy testified, “but he tell me to stand clear; that he don’t want to hurt me…”
“And you stood clear,” suggested Mr. Jailal.
Percy shook his head in agreement.
He had stood clear.
“Yes, cowards keep whole bones,” agreed Mr. Jailal.
Percy went on to explain how he had stood clear while Kenneth had chased after Pearl into the yard, and had ended up pushing her into the gutter.
“You know she used to live with him,” enquired Mr. Jailal.
“Yes,” Percy replied, after a slight hesitation.
“And at the time they used to live with each other, you used to visit her?”
“No, Sir!” Percy replied.
“And you used to live with her?” was the first question which Kenneth tossed at Percy.
“I?” demanded Percy.
“Yes! You!”

Old fire-stick
“Well, he’s trying to make you out as the old fire-stick,” Mr. Jailal informed Percy.
“And you have a brother who does bake bread?” challenged Kenneth.
“Yes,” Percy agreed, looking a bit uncomfortable now.
“Yes,” agreed Kenneth. “And you‘re the cause of the breaking-up between she and she chile father,” he declared.
“I?” was all Percy could manage.
“You never been living with her?”
“Never!” Percy denied.
“That is not important,” Mr. Jailal at last came to Percy’s rescue.
“She is free…you were living with her,” he told Kenneth.
“She’s entitled to live with him or anyone else, just as how she lived with you.”
That took the wind out of Kenneth, and he decided to end his cross-examination.
He went across to the witness box and promised to speak the truth.
“Myself and her been living together,” Kenneth announced. “And in November, I move out and went to live with me sister. Then this day I meet her, and she tell me to come at 7:30,” Kenneth went on.
“And I went and see she and this gentleman sitting in a chair…”

Like doves
“Like a pair of turtle doves, I suppose,” observed Mr. Jailal.
“Yes, Sir,” agreed Kenneth.
“In an easy-chair?” Mr. Jailal wanted to know.
“In a rocking-chair,” Kenneth corrected.
“Oh yes… rocking and rolling,” declared Mr. Jailal, much to the amusement of Kenneth.
“I knock at the door, and she asked: ‘Is who?’ And I say: ‘Is me’.
“She recognized your voice, then?” asked Mr. Jailal.
“Yes, Sir. And believing that I would hit her, she run out the house and in the yard, and she fell in the drain.”
“And who took her out of the drain?” Mr. Jailal asked.
“She self walk out, Sir,” Kenneth disclosed.
“Then I see this gentleman, and I ask he if he living with her,” Kenneth went on to explain.
“And what he said?” enquired Mr. Jailal, full of interest.
“He say not yet,” Kenneth disclosed.
“He say he intend to,” Kenneth added, after a short pause. “And I tell he: ‘Alright; if you intend to live with her, I wouldn’t come back here.’ Then I go in the house and I see he shirt hanging up,” related Kenneth, as if that was evidence of Percy’s status in the home, “and I tear up the shirt.”

Jealousy
“Well, if you got so annoyed by seeing the shirt, I can understand how annoyed you were when you saw the man sitting in the rocking-chair with her,” observed Mr. Jailal.
“Maybe she was trying to get you jealous,” suggested Mr. Jailal, after Kenneth offered no reply.
“You see, she made a date with you, and then you go and find her in the arms of another man. She was just trying to get you jealous.”
“Well,” went on Mr. Jailal after Kenneth had stepped out of
the witness box.
“Maybe you deserve some sympathy… going there trying to make up, and then finding another man in possession.”
“But I don’t want him back,” declared Pearl.
“Very well then,” agreed Mr. Jailal.
“You’re found guilty,” he told Kenneth.
“And you’re fined $5,” he announced.
“Costs for the witness, Sir?”  Counsel asked.
“What costs for him (Percy)? No! Let him collect his costs the best way he can!” ruled Mr. Jailal, while Kenneth strolled out of Court, Pearl and Percy in the rear.
(Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss the foregoing article at cliffantony@gmail.com or by telephone: 657-2043)