BOY'S MASQUERADE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 153, 7 October 1910, Page 3

BOY'S MASQUERADE

POSING AS AN AUSTRIAN COUNT. CHARWOMAN'S IMAGINATIVE SON. George TonkS a Birmingham .youth, aged 17 years, stood in the dock at Birmingham Police Court while an extraordinary story of his alleged escapades was narrated to the deputy stipendiary. The boy was charged with obtaining clothing to the value of £3O from a "tailor by false pretences, and also with attempting to obtain a motor cycle by false pretences. Mr. O'Connor, the prosecuting solicitor. said that the prisoner CALLED HIMSELF COUNT VON OiSBURG.

and also Vivian Osburg, but liis real name was the ordinary plebeian one of George Tonks. He had been going ajbout masquerading as an Austrian nobleman —a young count—who in time would develop into a man of considerable substance, an 1 would succeed to a valuable estate in Austria. He had represented that his mother was a lady of fortune, that she had a large estate Ln Ireland, but that owing to the operations of the Land League an income of ££ooo a year had been diminished to £SOO. The prisoner, continued 'Mr, O'Connor, had a private card on which he described himself as "V.B. Osburg, B:Sc., At the bottom were three addresses: "Students' Common Room, Birmingham University: King Edward's School, Xew St., and Deerwood Grange, Four Oaks." As a matter of fact he was neither a B.Sc. nor an M.B. Deer wood Estate was worth about £7OOO or £ SOOO, and belonged to a gentleman at Sutton Coldfield. The prisoner had been going about on the property as if it were his own. j He had told all kinds of fairy stories. BOGUS LETTER. The prisoner, said Mr. O'Connor, told the tailor that the Abbot of Erdingion was his guardian and would pay the bill. Anion" the prisoner's orders was one ior a black cas'hmere coat, a .college rap, and a black silk alpaca gown., to be made 'in the best style." He said he wanted the gown for the of j taking an honorary degree at Birmingham "University. The motor cycle transaction was with Messrs. Lloyd, "but, stated Mr. O'Connor, the firm said they would require a letter from the Abbot of Erding.-jn —whose name the accused had again given. The prisoner said he would get the letter, 'and produced the following document:— Bishop's House, Leeds. Feast of 'St. Bantak-on.. To ilr. Llova, Esq., Sir,—l hear from my ward, the Count von Osburg, that ''. here is a difficulty in the purchase of his cycle. I herewith pen these few linos to you to supply ■him with one on the following conditions, i.e., that the cycle cost not more than £75, that you do not let him have it until he 'knows how to ride it, and you guarantee it safe. If you could make the machine to .go not speedier than fifteen miles per hour, you would oblige, Dom Augar Hockiemann, 0.5.8., Lord Abbot of Erdington, Pax. P.S. —I hold no further communication with regard to this matter. Mr. O'Connor explained that tihe quaint turns of expression were supposed to be imitations of the Abbott's German-Eng-lish. The Abbot denied all knowledge of the youth, and the boy's mother was not an Irish lady with a large income, but a woman who went cut daily in Birmingham to earn her livelihood."