UNKNOWN

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 589, 3 December 1920, Page 3

UNKNOWN

»TEARSSHAT TRAP THE PUBLIC. JKoright little fourteen-year-old |Hpn recently discovered a method of -getting rich quickly. Every Saturday morning she walked about the boulevards of Paris shedding real tears and arousing the sympathy of passers-by. When questioned, she explained between her sobs that she had lost the purse containing her | week's salary and was afraid to go home for fear of the thrashing she j would get. , Unfortunately she tried the trick twicrX on the same person, and as a result found herself in the hands of:' the police, to *whom she confessed to j having made about £3O. The. knowledge that few people can | withstand the appeal of childhood in i distress has led to certain enterpris- j ing youngsters trading on the com-

passion of their elders. Some of these urchins are clever enough not to do I anything culpable in the eyes of the law, and go very delicately to work. THE TICKET WANGLERS. One young dodger would seat himself opposite a person of benevolent appearance in a tea shop, and clenching twopence in his grimy hand ask the waitress for a cup of tea. When the tea was brought he would gulp it eagerly, eyeing wistfully the plate of cakes laid in front of the customer I across the table. I

The youngster's hungry appearance generally elicited an invitation to "have one," and in the end the benevolent one paid both bills, the schemer escaping with bis twopence intact.

Another infant sponger delights in free 'bus and railway rides. A schoolmaster recently discovered that two of his pupils—boys of eleven—utilised days of truancy thus. Having entered a well-filled compartment of a seaside-bound train, 4 bey proceeded to ingratiate themselves with their fellow passengers with their happy smiles. When the inspector came with the usual request for tickets, however, the youthful tricksters made a show of having lost them, and ended by weeping bitterly. It was seldom that the other passengers were not moved to make a collection in their aid. But one da\ they fell foul of a suspicious official, who, having witnessed the pantomime twice, had the boys watched. Child grafters have even been known to act "hold-ups," in which a small urchin is robbed of a few coppers by a bigger, for the especial benefit of the kind-hearted passer-by, who has often as not makes good the "loss."