(UPROAR AND CATCALLS. BLOOM IN A TORN FROCKCOAT STAINED WITH WHITEWASH,
DINGED SILK HAT SIDEWAYS ON HIS HEAD, A STRIP OF STICKINGPLASTER ACROSS
HIS NOSE, TALKS INAUDIBLY.)
J. J. O'MOLLOY: (IN BARRISTER'S GREY WIG AND STUFFGOWN, SPEAKING WITH A
VOICE OF PAINED PROTEST) This is no place for indecent levity at the
expense of an erring mortal disguised in liquor. We are not in a
beargarden nor at an Oxford rag nor is this a travesty of justice. My
client is an infant, a poor foreign immigrant who started scratch as a
stowaway and is now trying to turn an honest penny. The trumped up
misdemeanour was due to a momentary aberration of heredity, brought on by
hallucination, such familiarities as the alleged guilty occurrence being
quite permitted in my client's native place, the land of the Pharaoh.
PRIMA FACIE, I put it to you that there was no attempt at carnally
knowing. Intimacy did not occur and the offence complained of by
Driscoll, that her virtue was solicited, was not repeated. I would deal
in especial with atavism. There have been cases of shipwreck and
somnambulism in my client's family. If the accused could speak he could a
tale unfold--one of the strangest that have ever been narrated between
the covers of a book. He himself, my lord, is a physical wreck from
cobbler's weak chest. His submission is that he is of Mongolian
extraction and irresponsible for his actions. Not all there, in fact.
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