DANGERS SLEEP TO SAVE MEALS.

Shannon News, 17 October 1924, Page 2

DANGERS SLEEP TO SAVE MEALS.

SWINDLING THEATRICAL AGENT. Convicted at the Liverpool Police Court of carrying on a theatrical employment agency without having registered it, James Cameron was fined £lO and £3 costs, or in the default two months' imprisonment. "I regard you as nothing but a vu|lg,.«|r iand common swindler," remarked the Stipendiary, Mr Stewart Deacon in passing sentence. ' "Cameron is known to hav e sent inexperienced artists deliberately to known bogus companies," said Mr A. Crosbie, secretary of the Liverpool branch of th e Actors' Association, who was asked by the Stipendiary if he had any comments to make. "He has been interested in sending girls to a company, the members of whom he knew, from another venture, were starved and fed on dry bread. They were forced to stay in bed until two o'clock to escape having a breakfast or dinner. v _

"There are cases of extracting money] He is not capable of giving tuition in singing or dancing, and is a fraud and a menace to the citizens of Liverpool." 5/- For Five Weeks. Eileen Margaret Braithwaite, whose age is 145, said she was a singer and dancer. When she went to Cameron's office she sang a song at his request, and he told she she had a nice little voice. Cameron asked her to kick, and she kicked first with one leg, then with the other. As she could not pay his fee of ten guineas for teaching dancing and singing and everything for the stage, he said he would reduce it to three guineas. . Amy Hall, 16, another dancer, said she joined a troupe called "The Seven Rosebuds." They went to Flint, and she worked fiv e weeks and got one week's wages—namely* 5/-. She also got her keep. evidence showed that Cameron paid 12/6 rent for the office, on the door of which was written "The Star Academy" and "The Universal Training Academy." Giving evidence on his own behalf, Cameron said that at one time he was a bookmaker. He had produced revues all over the country, and had recently written two revues entitled "Sunray," and "Wild Poppies." The Stipendiary: You put in a trap advertisement, and when th e &irla come for an engagement it is heads I win and tail s you lose. Your business in an absolute sham.

Forty-two years ago an Irish colleen wrote a love-letter, ■ which she placed in a sealed bottle with her name and address, and committed it to the sea at Kingstown. "I hope some nice boy will find this and return it to me»" she wrote. It was recently washed ashore on the coast of-North America, safe and sound after its long voyage, and Mrs Elizabeth Byrne, who had it sent on its way as a girl, has now received eight letters telling her that it has been found. Mrs Byrne was married forty years ago, a"ad has been a widow since the war.