Fritz Fahambaker was the epitome of modesty. "I am not the most handsome man in the world and I was somewhat surprised when she introduced herself to me."

However, it was not done in an act of friendship. Moments later, she yanked his hat down his face and rifled his pockets.

He could not give chase, too many bevvies had seen to that. 

Southampton magistrates heard how he had hired a cab from the centre of town to Highfield where he had walked to the Common. There, overcome by the drink, he lay down on the frozen turf.

"I had not been lying there for long when this woman came up to me and said 'Helloa, my dear. I said 'helloa' back and then she pulled my hat over my eyes and put her hands in my pockets."

She ran off with the five shillings that had been nestling in his pockets. "That was virtually all I had for the week," he lamented.

But the thief's impudence had been witnessed by Lillie Gurd, a young girl from Crown Street, who had been playing with a friend, Alice Stone. Both girls corroborated the loser's testimony.

From their description, local bobby Pc Edward Seagar recognised the culprit as being Louisa Head who lived in Northcote Road, Portswood. "As soon as I spoke to her about the theft, she confessed, 'All right, I did it."

Strangely, she withdrew her confession when she appeared before the court a few days later on January 13, 1901. 

"I wasn't really thinking of what I was saying," she said by way of excuse.

"Oh, I think you were," countered the court chairman Mr Bernard. "You were being honest then as much as you are being dishonest now."

She was fined £1 with costs, and given 21 days in default of payment.

Drink was solely responsible for the appearance of Elizabeth Burnett who faced a charge of wilfully neglecting her four young sons in a manner likely to cause them suffering and injury to health.

She had evidently been on the bottle before the hearing, virtually stumbling into the dock, her face blotchy, her eyes darkened and her speech slurred.

Married to a shipwright, she lived on the top floor room of a house in the ironically named Brewhouse Street for which she paid 6s a week in rent.

"Her husband earned good money," prosecutor Alexander Hallett revealed. "Indeed, he took home 35s a week as a shipwright and gave 25s for housekeeping to his wife who regretfully is a drunken and lazy woman."

An RSPCC had found the children in a shocking condition - verminous and with clothing insufficient and dirty.

Hallett remarked of the squalor. "At the beginning of the 20th century, you would have thought she would have known better. It was one of the worst visits an inspector has had to make to any home in Southampton. The children have now been moved to the workhouse where they have a bath."

Burnett's husband grimly told the court how his wife had succumbed to drink.

"It has destroyed her life and will destroy mine if she does mend her ways." 

Magistrates jailed her six months and as she left court to be driven to jail, she passed her husband, and acknowledged her failure as wife and mother. "Goodbye, Good luck to you. I am sorry."