SILLY FOOLS!

NZ Truth, Issue 87, 16 February 1907, Page 5

SILLY FOOLS!

BURNHAM BOYS CLEAR FROM CLEARY. Wearily Wander to Weedon's ; Then Back "Home" Again.

If those bad Burnham boys have a penchant for one thiag more than another it is French-leave. The papers rarely let a week go by without chronicling the fact that three or four of the young wretches have bunked from Burnham, and it is estimated that one-half the staft at that lovely institution do nothing else but search the country for 'missing lambs, belonging to them, but temporarily absent from the fold. It must, be easy enough to leave 'the place, judging .by the number who do so, but it s good practise and may come m handy later on m life when get into ' tighter holes, and that's probably why it's done so often. That practise does not make perfect m this sort of game as well as any other was proven last Week at Lyttelton. Two of the gentlemen resident there at the colony's 'expense having graduated ' at the junior, criminal department, Burnham, an.d named respectively Robert M'Carthy and Stephen Maxwell, were, with the aid of some of the other ■ boarders, engaged m the task, of . making. . jv road -- - from* "■Sandy/ Bay to the "dock, last Thursday! It has, to be regretfully recorded that Messrs M'Carthv and Maxwell had not their respective hearts m the roadmaking business ; m fact it is greatly to be feared they DIDN'T CARE A DAMN if that road never was made. And onj Thursday afternoon this brace of bright Burnhamti by-products showed their hand m _the l matter. Incidentally they each showed a pair of heels also. It was 4.30 when the two Mac's made their exit from the prison 1 push, darting like lightning straight up the hill and over the brow, before the startled warders

could so much as say "Dammit," let alone fire and wing the flying auarry. That night the ex-prisoners were busily engaged breaking into a store at Spreydon, . getting some tucker and also furnishing themselves with a new suit apiece, having decided to discard their old. clothes, the pattern of which was; possibly rather too loud for theirfastidious tastes. . ' v It was just here . that the • old: Burnham gaol-breaJking education showed a flaw, and a had one, too.* The, busy Bs apparently only break out just for a. little amusement, or for some such trivial reaspn, and go back again, happy m the thought that when they want to they can take another excursion. Seemingly these two Lyttelton looneys forgot that' they had brqken out of Lyttelton gaol and would catch it hot if they went back. They had a change of clothes and tucker, just the; >o essentials for an escape, but the -~ o fools didn't do a get right away from Cleary Cottage. What they actually did was ..." ■ TO FOOL ABOUT on the outskirts of Christchurch and their fate might easily be foretold. A cocky saw them, told the police, police told warders, .and . a small army, armed to the teeth, descended upon Messrs Maxwell and M' Car thy late Friday afternoon at Weedon's. It was all up then, and after an outing lasting some twenty-six hours, during which the surprising part is that the audacious couple did not succeed m doing; the Zibishun, where they would have done a roaring trade as a Wonderland sideshow, the front door of Lyttelton gaol closed on the tourists with a. dull clang which may have impressed them with the idea that a glorious opportunity had been absolutely thrown away.