SINFUL SAND-BAGGERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 79, 22 December 1906, Page 6

SINFUL SAND-BAGGERS.

Hit Hooker and Hooked Hooker's Slang. Sandbagging isn't quite a Maoriland institution ; it comes firom elsewhere, but it has turned up m Christchurch m all its pristine glory, and as quite j ud to date as the day that it first saw the light aeons ago, invented by some coot who wanted to take his neighbor down for his Ichthosaurusskin girdle iand hit him on the back of the neck with an eelskin filled with ironsand. The true sandbagger who knows his business takes precious fine ca»re to only procure the finest sand, and not to have any stones mixed with it, as the latter give, one a rash on the neck (as well as something else) leaving an indelible sign that he has been killed, and hasn't dropped dead from heart failure, or fallen m his tracks from apoplexy, or passed out through senile decay. It's a lovely pastime, which two play at, and the victim hasn't extra much chance. Tlie Christchurch qp.se the other night 'didn't end very seriously. It was exhibition rep. (for Taranaki) L. 0. Hooker, who was attacked, and it was . accomplished m the good old wav— by a short little bloke asking him the time, snatching at his ticker when it was pulled out, another sandbagging from the rear, and then a pocket expedition and gold, if, there's any. there. - «.'' All this happened to Hooker as he was hooking it home by wav uf Rol-leston-avenue t'other night, and he was a somewhat dazed and staggered man. He only lost a fluid and a bit of jewellery, but still the attack might have ended more seriously, because VILE, VICIOUS BLACKGUARDS of this class stop at nothing when they find that their own . liberty is endangered. These jokers were interrupted by some people coming along towards the museum, and they did a hook themselves. Of course there are more criminals than there are policemen in -Christchurch just now and there have been any quantity of minor cases reported as happening round town, and the sleuths have been on the track. And they are still on it, and mayhap are likely to . be on it. You can't run a man In on sight because you think him a likely criminal, but there are any number o£ jossers m the city of saints and sooners just now whose faces you could chop wood on and they could swallow the splinters without the slightest inconvenience. But the sandbag is the latest freak, and it is a most effective one, too. Rolleston-avenue will have to be better lighted, and so wiU other avenues ; m fact the whole of the city could be better lighted, but an awful City Council refuses to take ovei? the gas plant and work it as a paving municipal concern and citizens have to find theii way home with the aid of matches, and the truculent villain abounds, and the sandbap-ger has entered business, and his residence is lat the old address. The only way t 0 Ido when a cove the liain common j cove— v ho asks you for the aim*-, or la match, or the best w.'-y Uj. t*im

your whiskers, is to hit him on tbe snuff-box. and t 0 hit him so hard that he won't have much snuff-box left. There are any number of criminals of every variety parading Christchurch as respectable people— the scum of the earth— and there is plenty of accommodation for them, too, at Cleary's hotel, if the police would only place their big paws on them and bid them v/elcome : but until they sandbag some of the police by mistake they may be regarded as merely. visitors who are only fooling round on general nrinciples.