"YOU'LL KILL HIM !" Aiken's Lane and Bruce's Pain When Charlie Held the Candle - 1926..

The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate Parramatta, NSW

Tuesday 23 November 1926

"YOU'LL KILL HIM!"

Aiken's Lane and Bruce's Pain

When Charlie Held the Candle 

 

This is the story of the man who held the candle.  

The story, of course, contained references to other things—vivid references to punched noses, scratched faces, and torn clothes. But the feature all the time was the man who held the candle.  

Standing out conspicuously in the recital of gory combat and female hysterics was the man who held the candle.  

He modestly disclaimed the feat of having laid a weighty woman low with one punch on the nose, and he refused to accept the credit for having done his best to throttle the fallen woman's husband. But nothing would induce him to relinquish his claim that he was the man who held the candle.  

The story was told at the Parramatta Police Court on Wednesday, and eventually the Magistrate fined the man who held the candle.  

The man who claims to have thus distinguished himself by holding the candle was Charles Aiken, a gentleman of dusky hue who wrests a living from the soil at West Pennant Hills. He lives in Aiken's Lane, which does not necessarily mean that the lane belongs to him. As a matter of fact, it doesn't. Aiken has a son named Charles. He also has a nephew named Bruce Evans. And Bruce has a wife. There are various other branches of the family tree, but the litigants in this case were confined to the persons already mentioned.  

Charles the elder was alleged to have assaulted Ivy Evans, and the two Charlies were proceeded against on a charge of having assaulted Bruce Evans. Bruce Evans, in turn, was alleged to have assaulted both Charlies, a charge of insulting words also being preferred against him.  

Mr. S. P. Kemp appeared for the Evanses, while Mr. Ronald Walker was there to watch the interests of the Aikens.  

All the punching and things in that category were supposed to have been done on the night of October 29. The insulting words were said to have assailed the Aiken ear on the following day. All the allegations were denied in toto.  

The preliminaries over, the battle began.  

The trouble really started at Roseville, where Evans and his cousin Charlie were boarding with a Mrs. Evanoff. Charlie was working for his cousin.  

A week before the night on which the elder Charlie held the candle, young Charlie left his cousin's employ and also the boarding house. The respective reasons advanced for this dual severance were slightly at variance.  

According to Evans, Mrs. Evanoff had suggested to him that Charlie had taken the liberty of rifling the children's money box. This revelation prompted him to sack Charlie on the spot. Charlie expressed his disapproval of this decision by picking up a beer bottle to throw at his late employer, from which act of doubtful devotion he was restrained by Mr. Evanoff. (Lest there be some who might think that Charlie was about to throw away good beer, it must be mentioned that the bottle contained only sand.) Anyhow, that's what happened, according to Evans.  

But Charlie told a different story altogether. He said that his cousin had paid him only £1 a week, in addition to his board. And when he ventured to ask for an increase in his wages, his cousin offered him a very unsatisfactory substitute in the form of a hiding. He actually swung a blow at his employee, but Charlie adroitly ducked, after which he "jobbed" the man from whom he wanted more wages. Then Mr. Evanoff came out and stopped the war. That's how it happened, according to Charlie, who emphatically denied that his cousin had paid him £4/13/6 a week, out of which he paid his own board.  

Anyhow, Charlie returned to his father. And a little later, Evans returned to his wife. The two families live in close proximity.  

Evans was homeward bound per horse and cart—two horses, to be precise—when the trouble occurred on the night that Aiken held the candle.  

According to his story, when Evans was passing the Aiken domicile, Charlie and his son rushed out to him. The son grabbed the reins, while the father made himself useful by pulling Evans out of the cart. The father then intimated to Evans that they had "got him" and would proceed forthwith to "do for him." The ground struck Evans on the head, but he still kept hold of the reins. The father grabbed Evans by the throat, while the son struck his late employer several times on the face. Meanwhile, the horse was "rearing up," as though to show his disapproval of this delay when home was in sight. This "rearing" process resulted in one of the shafts getting cracked.  

Then Mrs. Evans and her little girl came on the scene. Mrs. Evans insisted they let her husband get up, as they were killing him. But Charlie the elder quelled this interruption by knocking her down with a punch on the nose. But she rose again and pulled the older Charlie off her husband, while the little girl played her part by screaming at the top of her voice. The two Aikens ran off, and Mrs. Evans assisted her husband into the cart.  

Such was the story of Evans.  

He added that he had a fractured foot at the time and could hardly walk. "My flannel was saturated in blood," he said. "As a result of all this, I had to have leave off work for a week."  

In the course of a lengthy cross-examination, Evans denied practically everything Mr. Walker suggested. His Uncle Bill, he said, came along in his pyjamas when it was all over.  

Ivy Evans corroborated her husband's story. About 9:30 p.m., she said, she recognized the rattle of her husband's cart coming along the road. Then she heard other sounds, which told her that something was happening near Aiken's place. "I only had my slippers on," she said, "and I went down just as I was."  

A little side light was introduced while Rose Franklin, of Mount Street, Wentworthville, was in the box. This young lady had been keeping company with young Charlie. When she saw him on the Monday before the disturbance, she said, he was bad-tempered. "Wait till I get hold of that Bruce, the black ----," he said to her.  

Miss Franklin stated also that Mrs. Evans's face was swollen and bruised after the disturbance.  

Mr. Walker rose at once and suggested to this girl that she was on bad terms with young Aiken. She admitted the soft impeachment.  

Mr. Kemp: "Mr. Walker was anxious to show that you're on bad terms with young Aiken. Why are you on bad terms with him?"

"Because on the Thursday night he went and knocked me out." (Laughter.)  

Katherine Mary Evanoff corroborated the story of Evans as to what occurred between young Aiken and himself at the boarding house.  

Mr. Kemp tendered medical evidence of Evans's injuries.  

Then came the version of the Aikens. Young Charlie was the first among them to promise that he'd tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. His version of what occurred at the boarding house has already been recorded. Now for his story of what occurred on the eventful Friday night when his father held the candle.  

He was sitting in the front room. He had to go out that night and was cleaning his teeth by way of preparation. Then he heard his cousin coming along the road, singing at the top of his voice. When his cousin was opposite the house, he called out, "Come out here now, you black ----, and I'll fight you."  

Young Charlie told old Charlie, and old Charlie went out to the kitchen and got the candle. With this illumination, he ventured out onto the road. He told Bruce to go home, and Bruce stayed where he was. Then Bruce and young Charlie started to fight.  

Having started to fight, they continued to fight. And the only spectator at first was old Charlie with the candle, which illuminated the scene of combat.  

Then Evans picked up a stone to throw at his young opponent, but his aim was so bad that it struck old Charlie on the nose. And, of course, away went the candle.  

Next morning, when Evans and his wife were passing the Aiken domicile, Evans called young Charlie a bushranger and invited him to have a few more rounds.  

That afternoon, Evans drove up with his cousin Ernie. Young Charlie was at the window, putting on his tie. Ernie started to divest himself of his collar and tie. Bruce was so angry that he came to the fence, gritting his teeth. The upshot of it all was that Bruce picked up a stone to throw at old Charlie, who was saved from sudden death by his brother Bill.  

Such was the version of young Charlie.  

There seemed to be some little doubt as to whether Bruce had really gritted his teeth, for Mr. Kemp drew attention to the fact that the alleged "gritter" had no teeth at all on the upper jaw.  

Cross-examined by Mr. Kemp, young Charlie denied having taken the money out of the children's box.  

Mr. Kemp: "Will you deny knocking that young lady out?"

"I had to do it. I'd have got my brains stabbed out."

"Your brains? Where are they?"

"She had a knife."

"You knocked her out?"

"No; I knocked her down."  

"Is it not a fact that you, on the same day, blackened the eye of the little boy Evans?"

"No."  

Questioned as to what happened to his father when the stone hit him, young Charlie declared that his father's eye came out. He qualified this, however, by saying that the eye never came out at all.  

The elder Charlie then stepped into the witness box.  

The first intimation he had that anything was wrong, he said, was when he heard someone call out, "Come here, you ----." So out he went with the candle. The rays of the candle enabled him to discern that Bruce was "under the influence." Bruce said that young Charlie was a bushranger, and young Charlie said he wasn't a bushranger, after which they set about to settle the question with Nature's weapons. After they had had a "ding-dong go," old Charlie stopped the fight and told his son to go inside. Just at that moment, the stone hit him, and he lost the candle.  

The blow from the stone caused his face to bleed so much that the flow of blood didn't stop until one o'clock.  

The elder Charlie's version of what happened on the Saturday afternoon coincided with that of his son.  

He said that the stone that hit him and made him lose the candle was twice as big as his fist and was thrown from a distance of about two yards.  

Mr. Kemp walked up to the witness and wanted to see the marks this stone had caused. Old Charlie said they were there, but Mr. Kemp couldn't see them.  

Mr. Kemp: "How long do you say these two were fighting?"

"Oh, they had a few rounds."

"How long?"

"I don't know how long. I didn't have my watch; I had the candle." (Laughter.)  

"What kind of a night was it?"

"Well, it must have been a calm night because the candle never went out till I got hit with the stone." (Laughter.)  

"Who broke that shaft?"

"Look here, that shaft was cracked when I sold him the cart." (Laughter.)  

"Will you swear that you never attacked Evans?"

"I never touched him. I had the candle." (Laughter.)  

"And you say he picked up a stone again on the Saturday afternoon. What sort of stone was it?"

"Oh, a beaut." (Laughter.)

"I brought it in to show you."  

The elder Charlie's wife was next to offer testimony. She carried into the witness box a brown paper parcel, which she laid on the end of the bench.  

Her evidence supported that of her husband and her son. She went straight to the point by telling the magistrate how she had seen her husband get the candle. (Laughter.)  

"My husband held the candle," she said, "while the other two fought."  

She added that the stone hit her husband "right in the eye."  

Mr. Kemp: "Suppose it happened like this: You were all sitting there peacefully, you heard a voice outside, 'Come outside you ----,' and young Charlie said, 'Dad, I am called.'" (Laughter.)  

Then Mr. Kemp got his metaphors slightly mixed up and started to talk about Bruce Walker instead of Bruce Evans.  

Mr. Kemp: "What clothes did Evans have on?"

"He had working clothes."

"What were they?"

"He had his trousers on."

"We'll take that for granted. What else?" (The witness described his attire.)  

Mrs. Aiken said that the disturbances lasted from twenty to thirty minutes.  

Mr. Kemp: "What did your husband want the candle for?"

"He took the candle out to order Evans home." (Laughter.)

"My husband didn't know whether Evans was going to hit him or not, and he took the candle out so that he could see him." (Laughter.)  

Mr. Kemp then requested the witness to untie the parcel, which she had said contained the stone that Evans had attempted to throw on the Saturday afternoon. She did so and revealed a huge piece of rock.  

Mr. Kemp (in amazement): "Have you been prospecting, madam?" (Laughter.)  

The witness, however, declared that this was the stone her husband would have stopped had it not been for brother Bill. The stone that hit him the night before, she said, was slightly smaller.  

Then William Aiken spoke his piece. He was in bed, it seems, when the trouble started on the Friday night, which accounts for his appearance on the scene in pyjamas.  

"Evans and young Charlie were having a fight when I got there," he said.  

Mr. Walker: "Who else was there?"

"Old Charlie was there."

"What was he doing?"

"He was holding the candle." (Laughter.)  

"Evans," said William, "flung a big stone and hit old Charlie—and away went the candle." (Laughter.) "The stone hit him on the side of the face, and the blood teemed out of him."  

Mr. Walker: "When Mrs. Evans came on the scene, did old Charlie touch her?"

"No—he didn't want to touch anyone. He'd just been hit with the stone." (Laughter.)  

William also told how he had saved his brother from the huge stone on the Saturday afternoon.  

Mr. Kemp: "Will you swear this is the stone?"

"Yes."

"Who picked it up?"

"Your wife?"

"I haven't got a wife."  

"Did you say anything when this man got hit with the stone?"

"I said, 'Go home, Bruce.'" (Laughter.)  

"Did the man who got hit say anything?"

"All he said—well, what could he say?"  

"Did the stone knock him down?"

"No; but he lost the candle." (Laughter.)  

George Wilson and a witness named Gibson, who live in the vicinity, gave evidence of hearing Evans use threatening language on the Friday night.  

The magistrate, apparently, was not unduly impressed with the story about the big stone. Nor was he altogether convinced that old Charlie had held the candle.  

The elder Charlie was fined £2, with £1/9/- costs, on the charge of having assaulted Ivy Evans. And the two Charlies were each fined £2, with £1/7/- costs, on the charge of having assaulted Bruce Evans.  

The charges against Evans were dismissed.  

Thus it happened that the elder Charlie lost the case as well as the candle.