CHAPTER XIV. TERRY DRISCOLL'S FICTION—BRIDGET LAFFAN—SAILORS—FISHER.
I shall now revert to magisterial reminiscences, and notice an anecdote originally published in the Warder newspaper, as a portion of a letter signed "Terry Driscoll," which was the nom de plume of a well-known facetious and imaginative contributor named Jackson. It purports to be a report of observations addressed by me to a female who was repeatedly charged with being "drunk and disorderly." It states that Mr. Porter said to the delinquent that her frequent intoxication was always accompanied with indecent language and personal violence, so as to render her a public nuisance and a plague to the police. He then adjudged her, in default of solvent security for her good behaviour, to be committed for one calendar month, which time should be sufficient to bring her to a proper state of reflection on the past, and a disposition to reform her habits, and to curse Whiskey. To this she is represented to have replied, "That she had no fault to find with Whiskey, nor would she ever curse it, but from the bottom of her heart she could wish bad lack to Porter." To this anecdote several English periodicals have afforded extensive publicity, and I have merely to say that it is altogether a fiction.