TWO NICE CHILDREN.

Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1384, 30 December 1884, Page 3

TWO NICE CHILDREN.

Some curious facts were elicited m the Dublin Police Court during the hearing of a charge against two children named "William and Mary Holmes, aged ten and six years respectively, of having concealed themselves m a public house and stolen the sum of £4 2s 9d. The manager of the establishment stated that when opening the premises m the morning he found the children behind a sugar cask asleep. He awakened them and questioned them, saying they could not leave until he searched them The boy's pockets were then examined, and amongst other-things found were a pipe, a small grappling hook with three prongs and a long piece of cord ats tached, and the sum of £4 2s "9d; The boy did not say anything, and witness believed him to foe deaf and dumb, fitness called m a policeman, and gave the children into custody. The boy, interrogated in\ the. dumb alphabet explained that they went into the. public-house only meaning to sleep there for the night, and if they were " let go home they would pray for the Magistrate and everybody m the Court." (Laughter.) Subsequently the father and mother of the prisoners w ere brought into " Court by the constable; The father appealed to the Magistrate to let the children off, saying he would keep them better for the future. Ha said the boy was neither deaf nor dumb, and tad learned to speak on his fingers from a companion. The father told the boy to speak to his Worship, and, after some hesitation, he replied, ♦' I will, daddy." The father : You see, your Worship, he can speak... well enough. The Magistrate j. Then all I can say is that he is a most accomplished joung rogue.' The father : He's not a rogue, your Worship; - he's only soft. (Laughter.) After some evidence, showing that the children were not well taken care of, the Magistrate Baid 'hat at present he did not know what he would do with the boy, but th« girl would be sent to the workhouse, »nd the father

would have to pay 2s 6d weekly for her support. He considered it a scandftlo'is thing that parents should allow their children to wander 'at nights about the streets.