ADVENTURER OF 13

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 210, 24 May 1918, Page 4

ADVENTURER OF 13

.BOY'S MISDIRECTED GENIUS. What one of the magistrates described as "a ease of misdirected genius" was heard at Barnstaple (London) recently, when tho adventures of a boy' of l!i, whoso parents live in a London suburb, were described. The lad, Trask, or Buster, who was well spoken and of exceptional intelligence, was charged with obtaining two Eton suits, valued at ,M 155., from a Barnstaple firm of outfitters. The Court decided to send him to a reformatory school until ho attained the age of IS. It was stated that when he obtained the suits ho asked that he might take them to show his mother, who was staling at the Imperial Hotel, Barnstaple. It was found that the lad stayed there on February 14, incurred a bill of 15s. Gd., and left next morning. He was subsequently taken into custody by the Plymouth police. Ho admitted the facts in a warrant standing against him charging him with obtaining by falso pretences food and lodging to the value of 21s. Gd. at the Royal Hotel, Torquay. A police inspector said a letter, from tho lad's mother stated that he was in the habit of going to hotels am] telling them his mother was coming up to pay tho expenses,