CLEVER ADVENTURESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 138, 10 June 1905, Page 13

CLEVER ADVENTURESS.

I STORT OP' A PARLOURMAID. A Rood-looking youns parlourmaid nnaifl Maud Oshorn was accused at Slouch on April litlrti with obtaining money by false ' pretences. One <lay while living ;ir the ' house c.r her father, an rxhri'lsre brick- ' layer, she disappeared, leving behind t'ac following note:— ■Dear Father and Mother,—l am going away to get marrii-d. (Inod bye for ever." The father at once informed the j ! police, aud exhaustive inquiries were set | lon toot, besides which lie devoted his j ! Saturday afternoons, in the company of ! bis wife, to hunting in all parts of Loii- ! dou for his vanished daughter. But his eftorts failed. Meanwhile, the girl managed to obtain plenty of adventure, passing under the \ name of Sybil MoCall. Her refined con- i versatiun. and modest manner, and strlisii i ature. combined to give an air of reality* to her masquerade. All classes were lin- • pressed by her tales of misfortune; she e\en wnu the sympathy of police iuspeci tors. J But an episode at Slouch at the end of March resulted in her discovery. Enteriiiu- the shop of Jlr Simeon Napper. baker . and confectioner. R he pretended to he *i I cripple. She limped a Rood deal, and hay- i ! iug seated herself, she had great difficulty j jin senilis up again. i The ? iri related that she had been walk- ! i ing about Slough in searrh of '-F'rofessor \ Srccombe," a professor of the violin. The | professor. >h" said, had pent her letters ' from Slough, enclosing her certificates from Dublin College. She added that she \ had lost, her purse while travelling to Slough, and that it must have fallen out i.i the carriage or as she was alighting . ' fiom the train. I All this made an impression upon Mr Napper. He told her that if "Prof. Seceombc" lived within four miles of Slough hi- would do his best lo f.nd him for her. Ale set out in his pony trap with the girl, and sought high and low for the tnysterions professor, who. as a matter of fact, was a creature of the girl's imagination. Weary with their exertions, they returned to the shop. Mr Napper and his wife agreed for her to remain with them that ] night, and she did not rise from her slum- ! bfrs until nearly threp o'clock the. next afternoon, explaining that the previous i dr.y's search had fatigued her. She then told Mr Napper that she liked i Slcugh so much that she wished him to get apartments for her hi that locality, and wrote out her name and address at Lough- ' ton, Essex, which was. subsequently as- \ certained to be false. Just before leaving, she asked Mrs Napper to lend her 4/ to assist her in return- ' ing to Loughton, and it was in reference to this that rhe present charge was pre- ' ferred. The baker's, wife suggested that i , she should have 10, and the girl replied,' that she would be extremely obliged if she ' would lend that amount. She ~also bor- i rowed a blouse. In explaining to the magistrates how sh° I came to part with her money, Mrs Xapper said the girl told her that her mother and ' father were dead, and that she had an In- } come of four guineas a week. She aUovr- ' ed her landlady a guinea a week, and to an old lady -in Ireland, who was paralysed, , she gave another guinea a week. She ' declared that she had "plenty of mouey j • at home." i On April 15th last she was brought up at' Clerkeaweil Police Court on a charge of ; ! false pretences, and she was then bound : over. But that case led to the police at j Slough being communicated with, and her ' 1 appearance in the dock there, a sentence' of a month's hard iabonr .was now. passed J upoa her.