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From the Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports Advertiser,
2 June, 1849.
A person named Moody, residing at Barham, attended to prefer a
complaint against John Stone, landlord of the "Dog and Gun," for
refusing to deliver up the clothes &c., of his sister, Elizabeth Moody,
who had been living for some time past at the said house.
From the statements made by complainant, it appeared that the girl,
about 18 years of age, had left her home some 4 or 5 months since, and
that her place of abode, and dissolute mode of living, had not been
discovered till recently. With a view of inducing the fallen one to
retrace her steps, and retrieve her character, the brother had arrived
at Dover, but, on applying for his sister and her clothes, was refused
an interview with the one, or the possession of the other; and the
present stop was taken to obtain the advice and assistance of the Bench
- The particulars of the complaint were corroborated by Elizabeth Moody
herself, who, with her father, appeared before the Magistrates, and
expressed her willingness to return home with her friends. During the
investigation, certain observations implicating Stone as the keeper of a
common brothel were elicited, and information against him thereupon
laid, upon which the police were ordered to bring him before the Court;
and on his appearance, the information being fully sustained by the girl
Moody, he was fined £5 6s. costs included, which was paid before the
defendant was permitted to retire.
Stone, in his defence, argued that he was ignorant of any improper
proceedings in his house, and thought it strange that he should be aimed
at by the Bench, when the "Three Tuns," at
which several females were kept, and other houses keeping a large
number, were left unmolested.
The Bench severely remonstrated with defendant on his attempting to
justify his conduct, which, as far as concerned his house, was
notorious, and his pretending ignorance of which was most atrocious.
With respect to the other places he had alluded to, the Magistrates only
awaited the necessary information, and the parties would then be
forthwith summoned.
[A somewhat similar case was last week presented before the Bench,
when a like fine was inflicted. "We cannot do otherwise than co-operate,
by our comment, with the proceedings of the magistracy - proceedings
that must prove a slight check at least, and we hope a powerful one,
upon a vice that rears its hydra head above the innumerable vices of our
fair land, and stalks forth with the unblushing effrontery of noon-day.
We at the same time incline to commiserate the degraded position of, we
had almost said the more automatons of the vile dealers in prostitution,
believing that no small number of the "unfortunates" are the victims of
deceptive seduction - wiled from the paternal roof by the sophistry of
the practiced villain, and, when forsaken by the base authors of their
miserable course, thrown with all their immoral habits upon the
community; and thus becoming the easy dupes of those who, for paltry
gain, despise alike the ultimate wretchedness of their victims, the
gross immoralities they are loosening amongst society, and the
disgraceful and disgusting system they, by means to disreputable and
unprincipled, are supporting and extending."]
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(Beer retailer)