FREAKS OF A FATHERLESS BOY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 86, 4 January 1908, Page 7

FREAKS OF A FATHERLESS BOY.

" : 'U 7!iz-hyj)?i ■ ■ DODGED COOK, -AN3':/ DISAPPEARED,'. ■ '-A COLD;GREY WORLD.■ ■ ■ Jimmy Hmton, .aged 14, has scon enough' of.-tho. world. i>H& has .-flitted like a, butterfly. from Newcastloto 'Wellington, from Wellington to Lyttoltbn,''from Lyttelton- back to the fat, green districts north of ; tho Government city, where thei.niilk flows unstripped of its native, cream,'!and 'where tho butter is not. stinted; and, again, ho has tried his fortunes among :the canny Scots of Duncdiri. Now, his ripe,oonviction is that the world is a Tast bitter hollow. Ho lias accordingly packed his swag for homeland uncle. Temporarily,.however; he is detained 1 under the firm but;gcntlo grasp of a Wellington policeman. ■ Jiinmy's has.b&en. a singular career —a mixture of bold'; strokes' and'retribution,' high aims, prompt execution, and a genius for m-' itiativo beyond his tender years. With it all ho has been a child of-circumstance,-cast upon a-friendless world by'a torriblo misfortune. He toddled-toward the police station: yesterday;- a 'moro .midget against tho stalwart policeman,' and as' ho dabbed tho hot tears into muddy ' rings round 'his "oyes with' a hand ; that trembled violently, ono pitied.him. It was several weeks ago that Jimmy Hinto'n left Newcastle: Hp was put' aboard the Maheno by liis uncle,- who said his passage was. to. bo paid at this end. At Wellington Jimmy expected to bo met by'his father, but no father appeared, and Jimmy, in some vague'way, believes him to be dead. His fare not being paid, ho was lodged at tho Lambton Quay police station, and possibly might ;have been sent to a Home. During tho wait, ho was passed on to tho " cookshop" attached to tho police station—in ideal place for a good, time —and whilo'he peeled potatoes with- a'large knifo in .the yard he whistled the tunes of Newcastle., Presently, the tunes were found to have ceascd, and the cook, with horrible misgivings, looked but. There were tho -potatoes. • There, stuck into ono of them, 1 was tho large knife. But thero was no Jimmy. Ho had scaled the wall and vanished. High search .and low ■ failed to bring back Jimmy, and his movements wero quito a scaled book till recently. But now tho book has.been opened. It seems that ono evening Jimmy obtained a passage aboard the Rotomahana to Lyttelton. Hero, by one Beans and another, ho made a livelihood, until lie secured, a billet on a Northern station, and returned to summer climes. His was a rostloss existence." It was not long liefore he swung, like a pendulum, south again, disembarking at Lyttelton, and proceeding by another steamer to Dunedin. 'Thero ho settled down as. an errand boy. But all tho while , the love of homo apparently burned within him, and v»hen at last he got a man to pay -his passage to Wellington, ho resolved to shako tho dust of God's Own Country from his feat, and return to.tho land of coal mines. By.; somo of their' devious processes, the police, as represented by Constablo M'Leod, got possession of him from the Manuka, at Wellington, and lie is booked for an interview with Justices of the Peaco to-dav. His charge is that he has insufficient means 'of wpport.