Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-15
SOMEBODY'S MOTHER.IN.LAW.
A tragedy in the Streets of Paris. and
How il Affected u HumOrOus Hack

Paris cabman was recently brought before
the correctional tribunal charged with assault
and battery. His account of the affair, given
In all seriousness, is worth reproducing.
" You see, this is how 1t came about. Ihad
nad an old lady in my carriage, driving her
about for some four hours and said to myself,
i IN in for good tip for she wore jewelry and
diamonds and all that. Wen, and so at the cor
ner of the rue AbOukir the old lady was getting
out when-vlan! up comes an omnibus, knocks
her down and kills my fare dead as a herring. 1
tell you, it'll make you laugh"
The COurt-It is rather ludicrous, perhaps.
Jarvey-NOt yet but it will be by-and-by.
Well. and so jumped down; a crowd gathered
and l gathered with it, and says / to myself,
me for my four hours?" At that minute gen.
tleman comes running up-Qt1l make you
laugh)- and looks at the corpse and cries;
Great heavens, It's my mother-in-law!" and
says to myself, THAT makes my four hours all
safe" and so l told the gentleman that it was
l who had been driving the old lady. All
right: We put her INTO the carriage and took
her home. and l helped him to carry her ND
stairs, and then hung round the room, for says
to myself. 1.-The sOn-in-law1l settle with me,
be apt to beat me down. well. and SO he be-
gan to say, SLOW on earth am l going to break
this to my wife when she comes imp and then
| withdrew into the ante-rOOm, not wishing to
intrude the subject of the fare On him at
that moment. Just then in comes the servant
gill screaming. ''Shes cOming!"-ft'il make
you laugh and said to myself: ''This is all
very well, but ii they'd pay me I'd just as soon
go" Still thought the time waited would be
charged for. And so then she comes in, his wife
does, and when she sees the long faces she
screams out, ''What's the matter? What's the
matter? Oh, it's ma! Where is she?" Her hus-
band says. ''She's on the sofa in the sitting
rOom!" and she runs in, and he follows her.
and | follow him, and she-itTl make you
laugh!-she fiops right down along side of the
dead woman, and shrieks, 'Why, it isn't ma at
ALL" If you had only seen her husbands face
he didn't come into the prOperty-and mine-I
was out my four hours Naturally, because, as
1t wasn't his mOther-in-law, he didn't owe me
anything.
The Court-WeI, if he didn't owe you any
thing, why did you Insist that he should pay
you.
Jarvey-wen, you see, wanted him to pay
me for the time after he put his false mother-in-
law in my carriage, and for the time had been
waiting at his house. Thereupon he gets mad
and asks me who had told me to wait? There
upon tell him that had been unwilling to ask
him for my fare in his hour of bereavement.
IhereupOn he abuses me, and offers me 80 sous.
ThereupOn ask him what he is giving me-be-
sides, we charge more for a corpse than for a
living passenger. Thereupon he says, ''What
do want of that body here? Take it to the po-
lice station and I'll give you 40 SOUS" There
upon | wouldn't and So
The court instructed the prisoner that he
should have cited the complainant before the
Juge de PAIR, and not have struck him, and sent
him tn ial for fhrno dave