Over and Out by Steve Neal

Author:Steve Neal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

‘It’s a funny thing’

IN DECEMBER 1898, Albert appeared at Harlesden Magistrates’ Court, in front of Mr Bird, on a charge of disorderly conduct. The Illustrated Police News reporter didn’t mince words and described Albert as ‘the prisoner’, noting that, ‘The prisoner looked well-dressed but older than twenty-five.’ The reporter’s description is borne out by the photographs of Albert at this period and shortly after, where his face is fuller, the complexion coarser, but he’s better groomed and he liked his well-cut clothes.

Two years in London, leading a different life, had changed his appearance, and now the teetotaller, the wondrous skinny colt, the Prince of Jolimont had disappeared. Police Sergeant Billings had seen Albert and 25 or 30 other men walking along Walm Lane, Willesden at 12.30am after a Saturday night out. Walm Lane was a ten-minute walk away from Albert’s house at 45 Balmoral Road, but it was not known whether he was gradually making his way home from the pub or on his way to somewhere else in the company of others. The men were walking four or five abreast and making a great noise. When the policeman asked them to go quietly, they did for a few yards but then started to make a noise again. Sergeant Billings went after them and ‘the prisoner became sarcastic’, marched between the witness and another sergeant, and pushed them with his shoulders. He had been drinking but was not drunk.

‘“What have you to say?” said Mr Bird.

‘“I am very sorry,” said the prisoner.

‘“It’s a funny thing for a man in your station to find yourself in this position. You are bound over in the sum of 20s to be of good behaviour for six months.”’

In mitigation? There was no mitigation: this was London in 1898, where mitigation did not exist. To excuse, to give reasons, to blame others or to put your side of the story was to show a sign of weakness and run the risk of mockery. Albert had said the bare minimum: all he wanted was to get out of the court as quickly as possible, and doubtless Mr Bird also wanted the matter dealt with swiftly. As far as the magistrate was concerned, a man of Albert’s social position shouldn’t be doing things like that on the street.

As we know, people deal with difficulties in life in different ways, from confronting things head on, to denial, to sublimation. While Albert had been taking all of those wickets for Middlesex over the summer, his mother, Mary Ann, had been ill. Not just ill, but seriously ill, and her condition was of great concern to all of the family, including brother Harry. On 8 August, Harry visited Mary and Adolphus in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster with his wife, Violet. When Adolphus left the house to go to a meeting, Harry slumped in his chair for a while and held his head in his hands, not speaking a word. Violet asked him what was wrong, but he writhed out of his chair, collapsed on the floor and started to roll around.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.