"A ROGUE AND VAGABOND."

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16161, 15 March 1918, Page 9

"A ROGUE AND VAGABOND."

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TRESS." S'i\—Charged at the Magistrate's Court last Monday morning as a rogus and vagabond for "being found in a railway carriage last Sunday night (a report of -which appeared in your issue of yesterday), will von permit me briefly to give the plain facts? In the Grid fire I lost all my personal belongings. I got hurt- jumping from the verandah, and was six weeks in hospital. For another three weeks I could not walk far without pain. To-dav T am handicapped with a partly disabled hand. At the end of the threa ■weeks I went up country. All I had was the clothes I stood in and an old pair of boots. I had to sleep in my clothes. For a month I tramped the country in search of work, which I failed to find. I had. of course, to beg mv focd. 1 got wot through more 'than twice, f had at times to sleep out, and I liavo been choked and smothered bv dust clouds raised by the motor-cars of well-to-do joy-riders. Afr boots (old

when I cot theml gave out, and I came back to Tjhristchurch. , As tho Salvation Army captain pun lielv stated in Court that ho would - me xip. v I may mention that I reccn from him a pair of boots (much to large), an old torn overccat, and an oia cotton shirt. , . What can one do? I call t get worH here. I am not in a position to go up coujitrv. I had 110 sleep on baturdav night.' Exhausted nature demanded sleep on iSunduy night, and to escape tlic cold wind I got into a railwav carriage. Neither the general public nor the rolling stock was injured, lour?, Ct< M GEO. "VV. SPICIER. March 1-Tth.