The magistrates at Moor Street, {on} Saturday, exercised {a} wise discretion when they remanded Mr. Alfred Napier Blanchard in custody for a couple of days. Mr. Blanchard had been drinking for three days; as he put it frankly he was not compos mentis when he was locked up on Friday, on a confession of being the Whitechapel murderer. Those people who are so weak-headed as to take delight in such morbid silliness when under the influence of drink, should let drink alone, and if they will not then they must be prepared to take the consequence. They put the police to the trouble of arresting them and of making inquiries into their antecedents, and if the police should refuse to let them go immediately the cold {abodes} of the lock-up cell {have} driven the alcoholic fever from their brain, {the} unanimous verdict will be that it serves them right. Mr. Blanchard, we have no doubt, will have to be very much non compos mentis, {when} next he indulges in a confession of murder.
At Brierley Hill Police Court to-day, Alfred Pearson, moulder, was charged with threatening Thames Plant. Complainant was walking with a young lady on Saturday night, and in a dark place, Defendant suddenly appeared brandishing a large weapon, and cry "Jack the Ripper." He threatened both. The lady had hysterics from fright. The defendant was bound over for six months. The weapon was a trowel.
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