es 'as good as
any in the books,' so says Francesca. Have we not with our own eyes seen
the settlement of an assault and battery case between two of the most
notorious brawlers in that alley of the town which we have dubbed 'The
Pass of the Plumes.' [*] Each barrister in the case had a handful of hair
which he introduced on behalf of his client, both ladies apparently
having pulled with equal energy. These most unattractive exhibits
were shown to the women themselves, each recognising her own hair,
but denying the validity of the other exhibit firmly and vehemently.
Prisoner number one kneeled at the rail and insisted on exposing the
place in her head from which the hair had been plucked; upon which
prisoner number two promptly tore off her hat, scattered hairpins to
the four winds, and exposed her own wounds to the judicial eye.
Both prisoners 'had a dhrop taken' just before the affair; that soft
impeachment they could not deny. One of them explained, however, that
she had taken it to help her over a hard job of work, and through a
little miscalculation of quantity it had 'overaided her.' The other
termagant was asked flatly by the magistrate if she had ever seen
the inside of a jail before, but evaded the point with much grace and
ingenuity by telling his Honour that he couldn't expect to meet a woman
anywhere who had not suffered a misforchin somewhere betwixt the cradle
and the grave.

*The original Pass of the Plumes is near Maryborough, and
was so called from the number of English helmet plumes that
were strewn about after O'Moore's fight with five hundred of
the Earl of Essex's men.

Even the all too common drunk-and-disorderly cases had a flavour
of their own, for one man, being dismissed with a small fine under
condition that he would sign the pledge, assented willingly; but on
being asked for how long he would take it, replied, 'I mostly take it
for life, your worship.'

We also heard the testimony of a girl who had run away from her employer
before the completion of her six months' contract, her plea being that
the fairies pulled her great toe at night so that she could not sleep,
whereupon she finally became so lame that she was unable to work. She
left her employer's house one evening, therefore, and went home, and
curiously enough the fairies 'shtopped pulling the toe on her as soon as
iver she got there!'

Not the least enlivening of the prisoners was a decently educated person
w