The boy in the dock mumbled something indis
tinctly. He was still dazed.

"What does he say, constable ? " the magistrate
asked impatiently.

The stalwart man in blue bent his ear to the
prisoner s lips, and then replied loudly, " He says
he s very sorry, your Worship."

"Remanded," said his Worship; and the next
case was under way, the first witness already
engaged in taking the oath. The boy, dazed and
unheeding, passed out with the jailer. That was
all, five minutes from start to finish; and tvo
hulking brutes in the dock were trying strenuously
to shift the responsibility of the possession of a
stolen fishing-pole, worth probably ten cents.

The chief trouble with these poor folk is that
they do not know how to commit suicide, and
usually have to make two or three attempts before
they succeed. This, very naturally, is a horrid
nuisance to the constables and magistrates, and
gives them no end of trouble. Sometimes, how
ever, the magistrates are frankly outspoken about
the matter, and censure the prisoners for the slack
ness of their attempts. For instance, Mr. R. Sykes,
chairman of the Stalybridge magistrates, in the case
the other day of Ann Wood, who tried to make
away with herself in the canal: " If you wanted to
do it, why didn t you do it and get it done with?"

[[266]]

p265 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p266w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p267

v?