IRISH TIMES ODDITIES:WOMAN POSES AS A MAN FOR 60 YEARS: It has been revealed that "Charles Warner" (82), who had worked 60 years in Saratoga Springs as a painter and paperhanger, is a woman. The woman told officials that no one knew, or ever would know her real name, but that she liked to be called "Jane." She said that her mother took her to Canada as a small child, and left her there 13 years.
Her reason for assuming man's attire was given with frankness, and she appeared to see nothing unusual in her 60 years of posing. She said that she wanted to work to support her widowed mother, and that 60 years ago a woman's wage was insufficient for two persons. She wanted a man's work with a man's pay; so she donned man's clothing and got the job. Her employers here said that she displayed a man's efficiency and vigour.
January 2nd, 1929
DOG GUARDED MASTER
Guarded by his collie dog, the body of Mr John McKibbin, a 70-year-old farmer, of Moneydarghamore, Annalong, Co Down was found yesterday morning at the doorstep of his home, where he had lived alone. The deceased man had visited friends on Sunday night, and it appears that he died as he was entering the house on his return. The body was found by Mr Robert McBurney, a neighbour, but the dog would not allow anyone to approach, until Mr John Stevenson, a close friend of the deceased man, arrived.
March 14th, 1950
TEA IN BUCKET FOR JURY
The foreman of a jury in a criminal trial at Nenagh told Judge Fawcett that the jury were dissatisfied with the manner in which their lunch had been served. The foreman said: "The tea was supplied in a bucket, my lord, and the jurors had to dip their cups into the tea - not a very hygienic thing to have to do." The judge said he was very glad that the jury had mentioned the matter. They would be allowed out to town that day on undertaking not to speak - except among themselves - concerning the case at trial. The undertaking having been given, the jury left the court.
January 15th, 1962
IMPRISONED FOR OPENING LETTERS
The Vienna correspondent of the Standard says - An Austrian court has decided that a wife commits a misdemeanour if she opens her husband's letters. The case arose out of the action of a certain Fran Hermann, who suspected her husband of infidelity. She took his keys out of his pocket one night when he was asleep, unlocked his writing table, and opened a sealed letter she found in it, which Herr Hermann had addressed to another woman, but not yet posted. The contents were incriminating. The court imposed a sentence of only one week's imprisonment on the wife for violating the secrecy of private correspondence, her jealousy, justifiable as the event proved, being taken as extenuating circumstance.
April 15th, 1911
G.B.S. AS A BEE-KEEPER
Mr George Bernard Shaw, on forwarding a subscription to the County Wexford Bee-keeper's Association, was unanimously elected a life member. Dr Greene, Ferns, said that if they could get G.B.S. to write a discourse it would make things hum. (Laughter.)
April 16th, 1927
Culled from the archives of The Irish Times,available online at www.irishtimes.com/archive