Where the Rugs Went to

Arising from the circumstances of the last case was another which Selina Green, 53, of Wadworth Street, New Conisborough, was charged with having stolen two rugs which Day said he lost.

Mr Hickman appeared for the defence.

Days stated that on the evening of New Year’s day he was engaged at Sheffield by two gentlemen to drive them to Mexborough. At the end of the journey he lost two rugs, and he identified the rugs of his master, Joseph Tomlinson.

After he got to Rawmarsh Hill, as it stated in the previous case, he drank some rum of a bottle, and became unconscious.

In reply to Mr Hickman, Day said he believed he was drugged. Somebody then took his watch and chain, his muffler and 28 shillings.

Thomas Weston, landlord of the Reresby Arms, Denaby, stated that about 1:30 on the morning of the second inst., he heard a noise and also voices in the yard adjoining his house. He looked through the window. He saw a horse and Hansom cab in the yard and some men and women.

He heard a voice say: “He is dead,” and another say: “He is not, he is stunned, whilst another said, “He’ll do no more talking in this world. While the people in the yard were trying to get the man into the cab, PC Midgley came up. There were two women in the yard, one of whom was rather small, and the other a big stout well built woman. The latter put foot on the driver step and reached up into the “dicky.”

Mary Elizabeth Meakin, who resides near the Reresby Arms, stated that on hearing the noise of the cab being brought into the yard she opened the front door of the house, which is about 3 yards from the public house. Witness and her mother went out to see what was the matter, and they saw the witness Day lying on the ground with his head bleeding.

A woman drove the cab up, and prisoner was the woman. While the constable and others were trying to get the man into the cab, the woman went round the back and took something from the seat that looked like a rug or an overcoat. Witness did not know the prisoner, she had never seen her before, as she did not know where she lived.

Jane Law, married woman, said she resided at number 6, Wadsworth Street, New Conisborough, which was next door to where the prisoner lived. Witness found one of the rugs and the closet seat.

PC Midgley deposed that when he arrested the prisoner and charged her she replied: “I never stole anything.” When witness went to prisoner’s house to investigate the matter she told him she had a rug upstairs, and would bring it down. He went to prisoner’s house about our past four or five in the morning. She said that when the cab had been taken away to the Swinton police station, she saw the rug lying on the road, and she picked it up and took it home with her.

Addressing the Bench for the defence, Mr Hickmott said his client had, along with her husband and son, been to a party at a friends house, and were returning home about 1 o’clock.

When they got nearer to Denaby village on the nearest side of the canal to Mexborough, they came across the Day with his horse and cab. The woman thought the man was dead. She said “There is a man here; there must be something wrong with him.” They got hold of Day, shook him but could not wake him. The husband noticed that the man was still breathing, and they decided to take him to the Reresby Arms. It was clear that they did so. If they wanted to rob they would have robbed him where they found him. The son went for the police. There was no suggestion that the woman, or a, of the sun took the watch and chain or any of the other articles and as for the cabman, he was going altogether this. He was on the road to Doncaster instead of going back to Sheffield’s.

With regard to the rug been found in the prisoner’s house, she said it was found there; that as the cab will be taken away to the police station, she saw the rug on the road, and picked it up and took it home. She could not be expected to take it the policeman’s house at that time in the morning; and when the policeman came at 5 a.m. she had not had time to take it back. When the officer came she told him the same story that he (Mr Hickmott) had been instructed to put forward for the defence. As for the statement she took something from the box of the cab in the yard of the Reresby Arms, it was strenuously denied, and there was no recognition.

The prisoner was a woman of means, and properly, and was altogether above committing such an action that was imputed to her. He had evidence to her good character. The reverent R.P. Roseveare , of Denaby, had written a letter stating that he knew Mrs Green, and he believed her to be a honest person.

John Kilner Bateson, general manager of the Conisborough Glass Works gave evidence as to character. He had known her for two years, and during that time she had often been employed at his house to do housework. She practically had the run of the house, and he believed her to be a honest woman in every way. He had come to the court voluntary to give evidence.

The Chairman: The court is not agreed upon it; I think we shall give her the benefit of the doubts. The prisoner was accordingly discharged.