ROBERT THE OUTCAST.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 6

ROBERT THE OUTCAST.

A Superior Person Whom HdKidy Watits. ; ■■•/■ .

Ttiere are people who can dispense .with work m this world 1 ; how t&cy 'do it is an absolute mystery.' When !they are sunk into ■ the dull slouch of -despond "an chokey they have peri'orcs to do menial toil unless tiiey are soft caoug'h to get on to the right Ifide of the gaoler, or have influence and other matters that go to make for the comfortable" life. But , when /I hey emerge , from obscuri-fcy or Whatever is the toff word for qoiod,^liey ■revert to idleness with deploraTJie results. Perhaps they do try to £et .work, end" are unable to succeed. ,I%atwas the y.ara told by a taJI,

named f James Henry Roberts £6 Bishop, S.M., at the Christchurch Police Court the other day. ' He went into the A'did-imgiton police statiiion> when it was raining everything but money, and told Constable ■McKedfry that he was hard up, stony broke, up a blue-gum— everything that denoted poverty and kindred articles of merchandise. He said that he had been all over the town, and round it,, and across the diameter of it a number of times and that he couldn't strike work nohow ;■ also that he had almost fainted m the park, and was wet through, and hungry, and that if he wasn't run m on some vague, shadowy charge or other he wouldn't be responsible for his actions, or language to that effect. It appeared to McKeefry that if he didn't give him tucker, and a shakedown, arid champagne to send him to' sleep, that the bilious looking buster would make himself much wetter BY THROWING HIMSELF. IN THE RIVER,and providing work for the- undertaker.- So the constable took him under his wing and kept him until Monday, wlieri he stated that the man had been m -gaol, and that he had been m -the Samaritan Home as an .involuntary guest ; also m the Prison Gate show. The latter, it appears is run-by the Salvarmy, and Roberts, while there, was so superior to all ' established procedure that he per-fectly-appalled the common louts with his commandiing aspect and •what they called insolent demands. jNolbady could agree with him m consequence, and he was bundled out- to look for w,ork, and tucker, and respectability, which they wouldn't continue to; give him. As the Samaritan "Home people aver that he treated their show with the same want of consideration and didn't want to take him back nohow, the Magistrate was m a quandary. He didn't desire to send -him to gaol, so he remanded him to see 1 what speck m the universe had any use for 'him. Apparently ■nobody has, and as he doesn't seem to have much use lor himself, the problem takes some solving.. Gaol would certainly take him as an idle and disorderly person, but any old ass can get m -gaol , and as it doesn't offer the refinements of a cultured, home; it isn't a particularly bright spot to spend a 'holiday m