Some time ago one of the magistrates at Clerkenwell hit on a
new idea in dealing with a prisoner, who came before him on a
charge of being drunk and incapable. The man’s face was terribly
bruised, either from tumbling about while drunk, or fighting.
The case having been proved, the magistrate inquired of the
chief jailer for a looking-glass. One having been produced, the
jailer was ordered to take the prisoner and show him his face in
the glass, and then to liberate him; the magistrate remarking
that if that exhibition was not a warning to him, he did not
know what would be. The prisoner was accordingly shown the
reflection of his disfigured face, and discharged.
There was sound philosophy in the novel method of the magistrate, it
was good and true as far as it went; but it may well be doubted if
the generous device effected any very considerable reformation in the
prisoner.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”
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