at the last moment of the local lunatic.

PHOEBE [To ANNYS.] This is where we come in.

ST. HERBERT There is always a local lunatic, who, if harmless, is
generally a popular character. James Washington McCaw appears to
have been a particularly cheerful specimen. One of his
eccentricities was to always have a skipping-rope in his pocket;
wherever the traffic allowed it, he would go through the streets
skipping. He said it kept him warm. Another of his tricks was to
let off fireworks from the roof of his house whenever he heard of
the death of anybody of importance. The Returning Officer refused
his nomination--which, so far as his nominators were concerned, was
intended only as a joke--on the grounds of his being by common
report a person of unsound mind. And there, so far as South-west
Belfast was concerned, the matter ended.

PHOEBE Pity.

ST. HERBERT But not so far as the Returning Officer was concerned.
McCaw appears to have been a lunatic possessed of means, imbued
with all an Irishman's love of litigation. He at once brought an
action against the Returning Officer, his contention being that his
mental state was a private matter, of which the Returning Officer
was not the person to judge.

PHOEBE He wasn't a lunatic all over.

ST. HERBERT We none of us are. The case went from court to court.
In every instance the decision was in favour of the Returning