"AUNTIL" DETECTED.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 November 1917, Page 3

"AUNTIL" DETECTED.

LONDON MAN jo MASQUERADE Ad A WOMAN. How a Loudon man evaSed military service from April (3 until he was discovered masquerading as a woman on August 15 was the subject of a story told at Exeter, when Charles Webb Stone, 2S, formerly a jeweller's manager in London, pleaded guilty to failing to produce his registration card, and also with being an absentee. The Chief Constable said , Detective Hoyle found ktone at the Globe Hotel, accompanied by his .wife and dressed as a woman. He gave the name of Florence Budd.—Stone, interrupting said "I cannot see the advantage of proceeding jwith the case. If I am any use for the Army I am willing to join immediately."— The Mayor: Yes, but you have been acting the fool pretty thoroughly. I fine you £5 for being an absentee.— The Chief Constable, his purpose being served, did not press the other charge, but the jßench imposed a fine of 10s, and handed Stone over to the military. Mrs. Stone, Avho was in court, walked with the escort as far as the barracks. It was a waitress at the Globe Hotel, Miss Gladys Byrne, who • pierced , Stone's disguise.: A party of three—a middle-aged man, a maiden aunt, and a young lady claiming to be her niece—arrived at the hotel, it is belfeved from Ilfracombe "It was when the 'aunt' walked across the room the room towards the window," said Miss Bryne, "that her peculiar walk aroused my suspicions." When the detectives arriv. ed the "aunt" had disappeared, but was discovered under the bed in man's clothes.